Day 12: Gilbert Whacked; Prosecution Rests

Week 3 ends;  the prosecution rested a little bit before 4:00 p.m. The case resumes on Monday.

As we posted earlier, the morning session was dominated by the lead FBI agent who connected with the jury.

The afternoon session heard testimony from Irving W. Jones, Jr., a former attorney at Balch & Bingham, who worked closely with Joel Gilbert (click here to learn more about Jones).

John Archibald of AL.com tweeted:

Jones, on instructions for Def. Gilbert, apparently drafted the initial letter that purported to be from Oliver Robinson, asking that Robinson be allowed to comment before the Alabama Emergency Management Commission.

Emails show Gilbert then responded, asking for revision to the letter. He wanted “as a state legislator and representative of a district adjacent to the north Birmingham Superfund site” added. Had previously just called him a representative of the people.

Irving Jones was asked to monitor the GASP online site and social media. Also instructed to attend GASP-involved meetings.

Jones communicated with Oliver Robinson and referred to him as “the consultant.” Gilbert told Jones to provide multiple letters opposing the EPA (there were three) to have signed by people in the community.

Jones was asked to make more revisions in that letter to “dumb them down.” Or as Gilbert said to Jones: “Irving Jones, how many degrees do you have? The people who are signing these letters may not have three degrees.”

The testimony shows that the prolific ghost-writer extraordinaire Joel Gilbert had another ghost-writer helping him.

But the closing bombshell was this, reported by Archibald:

Gilbert also asked Jones to draft a confidentiality agreement relating to Oliver Robinson. Four days before Oliver Robinson was to speak to the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, Gilbert got Robinson to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Gilbert was whacked by Jones’ testimony.

We have always asked, “What was Balch hiding?” On this one, we now know.