Even though many in the legal community in Alabama are currently focused on the Donald Watkins trial, the conviction and five-year sentence of ex-Balch & Bingham partner and ghost-writer extraordinaire Joel I. Gilbert have not gone away.

In an extraordinary news post last week on the FBI website, the FBI wrote about the North Birmingham public corruption trial.

In the lede, the FBI bluntly wrote:

An Alabama legislator who was bribed by a corporation to represent the company’s interests—instead of his constituents’—is now serving prison time, and the two men who paid him will be serving time as well.

Why would the FBI post an article four months after the sentencing of Gilbert and Drummond Company executive Dave Roberson?

The FBI news post came a day after the Alabama Political Reporter reported about possible prosecutorial misconduct in the ethics criminal trial of Balch stooges Trey Glenn and Scott Phillips.

The in-between-the-lines message is clear: even though the state ethics case could be tossed out, the criminal conviction of Joel I. Gilbert is solid and he will be serving time regardless of any pending appeals in federal court.

No more wishful thinking. Courtesy of the FBI.