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CDLU calls on Trump to Fire Former Balch Lobbyist
Individuals tied to environmental racism should have no sanctuary in the U.S. Department of Justice or the Executive Branch. With the federal indictment yesterday of two partners of Balch & Bingham over the Robinson Bribery Scheme, we called on the Trump Administration today to fire Jeffrey H. Wood, Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, for his role in the alleged conspiracy to suppress African-Americans in Alabama from testing their toxic and contaminated properties under the CERCLA/Super Fund Act. Before joining the Trump Administration, Woods was a lobbyist at Balch & Bingham, working for the…
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Will Balch & Bingham Partner Turn Federal Witness?
After the federal indictments were handed down, Balch & Bingham partners Joel Gilbert and Steven McKinney were put on an indefinite leave of absence and their Balch.com web pages were taken down. Balch released this statement to al.com: “Today we learned of the federal grand jury action regarding Joel Gilbert and Steve McKinney. While we note that Mr. Gilbert has denied the charges and vowed to vigorously defend himself, and expect Mr. McKinney to do the same, the charges allege actions that, if proven to be true, are contrary to the ethical values that guide our firm’s attorneys and staff.…
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Do Balch’s “Routine Legal Services” include Bribes and Economic Racism?
To defend the indefensible by calling the overt suppression of African-Americans “routine legal services” is economic racism. More indictments are expected today from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham in the Robinson Bribery Case and a partner (or more according to our sources) at Balch & Bingham will be indicted. [Update: As our sources correctly told us, two Balch partners were indicted: Joel Gilbert and Steven McKinney. Full coverage here.] Calling his client’s actions “routine legal services,” Jack Sharman, a partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC and attorney for Balch partner Joel Gilbert tried to get in front of…
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Star Chamber Blues
Is Balch & Bingham singing the blues? Are the Smithermans, too? Did they all make an enormous mistake? Since the end of August, bowing to Balch’s wishes, Judge Carole Smitherman created a Star Chamber without a hearing, without notice to hold secret proceedings in the Burt Newsome Conspiracy Case. She sealed the public court documents going back to the very inception of the case (2015) and at the same time, created an enormous black-eye on the judicial branch in Alabama. Smitherman, who received over $15,000 from BIZPAC, a PAC funded in part by Balch partners, appears to have shown the…
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Strange Fundraising Chair Served as Director of $360,000 Corrupt Bribery Entity
Mike Thompson, the fundraising chairman of Strange’s U.S. Senate campaign was listed as a director of the Alliance for Jobs and the Economy, a tax-exempt entity created in 2015 whose purpose was to funnel $360,000 in bribes to a corrupt politician, former Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson, according to court filings of the U.S. Department of Justice. The corrupt bribery entity was created, incorporated with the assistance of Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm currently under investigation in two federal probes. The CDLU, which has been investigating Balch & Bingham since last year in regards to the Newsome Conspiracy…
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Balch & Bingham’s Biggest Stooge: U.S. Senator Luther Strange
The Newsome case exemplifies a despicable act of injustice, an abuse of the judiciary branch for financial and political gain. We have reached out to federal authorities and have asked them to investigate U.S. Senator Luther Strange’s involvement in alleged corruption and the trampling of the Civil Rights of Burt Newsome, a father of four young children who was wrongly targeted, falsely arrested, and defamed by one of Strange’s most ardent financial and political supporters, the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham. Strange has received tens of thousands of dollars from Balch & Bingham or political action committees funded by…
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Balch in Meltdown; New Sheriff in Town
Kudos to the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Jay E. Town (pictured) who made it unequivocally clear to Balch & Bingham that their participation in a $360,000 bribery scheme to suppress poor African-Americans from testing their toxic and contaminated property (involving corrupt politician Oliver Robinson) won’t be sidelined and the culprits at even the highest levels of power will be brought to justice. In a statement yesterday after Robinson officially pled guilty, Town articulated: “This lamentable pursuit of self-interest masquerading as beneficial for the little guy is more than a violation of our laws. This was…
