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What will Southern Company do in December?
A year ago today, Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, personally called us and spoke about their commitment to “listening to the community” and wanting to hear our concerns about Balch & Bingham, the Newsome Conspiracy Case, and the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal. A year later, the entanglement of Southern Company in the Newsome Conspiracy Case has been solidly linked, and the civil RICO action and possible U.S. Congressional hearings to come in 2019 could only spell for further headaches and embarrassments for Fanning and friends. Tom Fanning, who we believe is an inherently good man, could pick up the…
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Southern Company and Balch & Bingham’s Mockery
Southern Company and Balch & Bingham appear to not give a damn and are thumbing their noses at (or giving the bird to) you, us, and the justice system. Beyond yesterday’s news that Balch caved and finally admitted re-hiring Irving Jones, Jr., the Spy vs. Spy former counter-intelligence agent who so valiantly infiltrated GASP meetings and ghost-wrote letters for a ghost-writer extraordinaire, another headline shook Alabama yesterday afternoon. Criminal felon Dave Roberson, the Drummond Coal executive who along with ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert were convicted on all six criminal counts including money laundering and bribery, was honored for his…
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Balch & Bingham Caves; Finally Admits Re-hiring Irving Jones, Jr.
Over three weeks of silence after we broke the story, Balch & Bingham has caved and finally admitted to re-hiring Irving Jones, Jr. with a news release posted yesterday evening. Jones will forever be known as the junior ghost-writer of the ghost-writer extraordinaire, convicted felon and ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert. Of course, Balch’s fluff has no mention of Jones’ testimony during the criminal trial or how Gilbert told Jones to “dumb down” the ghost-written letters that Jones had written for African-American residents of North Birmingham. Jones, who boasts of having served as a counter-intelligence agent for the NSA, had…
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Southern Company, Balch and an Alleged $50 Hate Crime
The “free coat drives” were not warm jackets or comfortable winter coats. Yesterday, U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler announced a probe is coming in 2019 looking at hate crimes. The Washington Post reports, “The expected incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to top Trump administration officials Tuesday warning that when Democrats take over the chamber, they will investigate the rise in hate crimes.” The CDLU has spoken to and briefed Nadler’s office while we were in New York City and Washington, D.C. two weeks ago. Will ex-Balch partner and former Southern Company lobbyist Jeffrey H. Wood or…
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Obstruction of Justice and Southern Company
18 U.S.C. § 1503 defines “obstruction of justice” as an act that “corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice.” Robert M. Ronnlund, the attorney that sent the alleged “criminal obstruction of justice” letter in January of 2016 telling AT&T not to release any information about the telephone numbers linked to the Newsome Conspiracy Case falsely claiming there was a court order prohibiting such release, is in the center of the eye of the storm. His wife, Millicent Ronnlund, had…
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Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, Secret Star Chamber, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Corrupt State of Affairs in Alabama
We returned late Friday from a very insightful and productive trip to New York City and Washington, D.C. Our high-level sources tell us that with the local Jefferson County indictment of Balch & Bingham stooges Scott Phillips and Trey Glenn, pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice to take a deeper look at the corrupt state of affairs in Alabama has escalated—especially now that Jeff Sessions was ousted. The reporting to prison of bought-and-paid-for politician and former Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson is scheduled for next week and shows how a Balch & Bingham partner corrupted the legislative branch in…
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Next: U.S. Congressional Hearings
Having allegedly manipulated the legislative and executive branches of Alabama’s state government in the North Birmingham Bribery Case, Balch & Bingham’s alleged manipulation of the Alabama judicial branch in the Newsome Conspiracy Case is now also in the cross-hairs. The mugshots of Balch stooges Scott Phillips and Trey Glenn posted by AL.com are more symbolic than that of two paid consultants. They symbolize that the fight for justice and inherent goodness are not over. Actually, this is the start of the next, new beginning. As the Associated Press reported yesterday: “Trey Glenn should have never made it through any serious vetting process,” said…
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Keystone Cops and Alabama Power
The profound (if not stupidly obvious) link between Alabama Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company, and the Newsome Conspiracy Case was confirmed last night by investigators. What has Balch & Bingham brought upon Southern Company? Abuse under the color of authority? Trampling of Civil Rights and civil liberties? Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning knows what we are talking about. We gave him the details on October 25. Our Balch & Bingham sources told us that Balch, allegedly briefed about the link, was so flustered by the revelation last week they were searching for any public mention of the individuals…
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Balch Stooges Indicted
And Balch & Bingham thought it was all behind them. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist John Archibald writes: Trey Glenn, the head of the EPA for the Southeast region and a shill for polluters from way back, was just charged with crimes for his role in the toxic north Birmingham bribery scandal. And Scott Phillips, a former member of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission who took a contract from Balch & Bingham to help discourage cleanup of north Birmingham and prevent EPA expansion into Tarrant, was charged on the same day for related crimes. Phillips and Glenn were charged last week —…
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Balch Boasts of New Hires, Except Irving Jones, Jr.
As an insider told us: you can measure when you are beating Balch & Bingham not by their correcting a wrong but how much money and resources Balch and their unknown allies waste to allegedly avoid or attempt to derail the truth. AstroTurf efforts. A paid digital campaign. Public relations fluff. Orchestrated sabotages. Paid-in-full stooges and actors. Yesterday, Balch launched another salvo on the heels of their Chicken Legs Palooza public relations fluff. Trying to counter the reality that a dozen (known publicly) money-making partners have left the firm, the firm dispatched a news release that six new associates have…
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Was Southern Company Duped, Too?
[This post was originally published on April 20, 2018. As the link between Alabama Power and the Newsome Conspiracy Case solidifies with additional evidence, Balch & Bingham appears to have abused their close relationship with Southern Company’s subsidiary Alabama Power. Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning (pictured left) and Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite (pictured right) must hold Balch accountable including partner Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr. (pictured center).] When a Drummond Coal company’s executive was indicted along with two Balch & Bingham partners for suppressing poor African-Americans from having their toxic property tested by the EPA in a $360,000 bribery scheme,…
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UPDATE: Gilbert May or May Not Go to Prison while Awaiting Appeal
[UPDATE: This post originally appeared yesterday. AL.com found that court records were wrong writing, “An entry in the federal court docket…indicates Gilbert had been granted the bond, but that was entered in error, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Gilbert’s attorneys.” Changes to our original post are in purple.] With election night coverage obscuring so much of the news, no one picked up that Balch-made millionaire and ex-partner Joel I. Gilbert was in federal court Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. Gilbert and Drummond Coal Company executive David Roberson have asked to remain free on bond while they await a ruling…
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Balch’s Mess at the U.S. Department of Justice
From protests across the country demanding that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III not be fired to revelations from The Wall Street Journal that Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker was “a paid advisory-board member of an invention-promotion company shut down by federal regulators last year as an alleged scam,” controversy has engulfed the U.S. Department of Justice after Jeff Sessions was fired on Wednesday. But an even bigger mess has rattled the U.S. Department of Justice. Jeffrey H. Wood, the former Balch & Bingham lobbyist, who we victoriously blocked as a nominee for the Assistant Attorney General of the…
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How the Newsome Conspiracy Case Helped Bring Down Jeff Sessions
Even though he had spoken with the ambassador from Russia twice, Jeff Sessions never, ever has disclosed or discussed his relationship with Black Hall Aerospace or Balch & Bingham. We met Alabama attorney Burt Newsome for the first time almost two-years ago at a charity event. When we heard the incredible conspiracy tale of a wrongful arrest and the alleged attempt to steal his business, we were in disbelief. We reached out to Balch & Bingham in January of 2017 with emails and phone calls in an attempt to resolve the situation quietly and behind closed doors. Like Newsome, we…
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Sessions Ousted by Trump; Balch’s Investment Goes Belly-Up
When President Donald J. Trump was elected, media reports suggested Balch & Bingham was a big winner, going to make a windfall, and have the inside track to multi-million dollars in legal fees and lobbying efforts because of their close ties to then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions who was the first major elected official to endorse candidate Trump in 2016. Instead of growing with power and influence these past two-years, Balch appears to have plummeted in shame and disgrace. Sessions’ Department of Justice successfully prosecuted and convicted Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert on six criminal counts including bribery and money laundering.…
