After four years of blogging on the alleged corruption in Alabama, we believe the egregious misconduct by the “Trump machine” in Alabama will become a national embarrassment.

Media and investigators can easily probe disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jay E. Town, who appears to have acted as a political agent for the Three Stooges of Alabama (Drummond Coal, Alabama Power, and embattled law firm Balch & Bingham).

All Three Stooges were closely tied to ex-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Alabama Power and Balch & Bingham being his number 1 and number 2 lifetime donors respectively when Sessions was a U.S. Senator).

Insiders in D.C. tell us the Congressional and internal DOJ probes will take a hard look at Sessions and his goons.

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr has already distanced himself from the alleged surveillance of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staff members.

Two-years ago, The Washington Post revealed new details about the corrupt North Birmingham Bribery Scandal and that how allegedly up to 20 more people at Balch were involved in the conspiracy to suppress African-Americans from testing their toxic property by the EPA. 

After the criminal conviction of a Drummond executive David Roberson and Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert in 2018,  U.S. Attorney Town stunned the public and law enforcement representatives when he declared the two were in essence the only ones involved—a “lone wolf” theory.

During the trial Alabama Power was allegedly unmentionable and never called to the stand.

Then in 2020 we obtained the jaw-dropping photos of Town chugging cocktails with Mark A. Crosswhite, CEO of Alabama Power and an ex-Balch partner allegedly at the height of the criminal trial. That lead to our formal complaint with the Office of Professional Responsibility and Town’s resignation last July.

This year, the Three Stooges have shown uncontrolled panic as ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit proceeds.

Even the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously sided against Drummond.

Like the Trump DOJ that gagged media outlets, Drummond tried to gag us, the CDLU, and silence our blog, but the judge prohibited their tactics of fear, suppression and intimidation.

And as a cherry on the top, Alabama Power’s biggest federal employee PAC donation in 2020 was to the Rule of Law Defense Fund, the entity behind the robocalls that spurred the insurrection on January 6^th.

Among many others, Sessions, Town, Crosswhite, Andrews, and Tracy should all be subpoenaed, interrogated, and skewered for the sake of blind justice, the affirmation of the Rule of Law, and to preserve an independent and non-political U.S. Department of Justice.

Alabama is ground zero.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the criminal convictions of ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert and ex-Drummond executive David Roberson in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.

The court issued a 37-page opinion in the unanimous 3-0 decision.

The court skewered  Balch & Bingham, writing:

Although Appellants attempt to paint the agreement between Balch and the Oliver Robinson Foundation as some sort of permissible advocacy campaign, as indicated Gilbert testified that the Foundation was the only entity asked to submit a proposal and that Gilbert and the Balch firm did not do any due diligence on the Foundation’s ability to do the work.

No due diligence! The only entity!

Investigators need to now probe how many others at Balch were involved in this criminal racket and who on Balch’s executive management board knew about it.

Alabama Power which was regularly briefed on the North Birmingham matter also needs to be probed.

The lone-wolf theory that Gilbert was the sole decision maker and mastermind appears to be unequivocally false.

Even more troubling is footnote number 28.

The court writes:

In particular, [Mike] Tracy, the CEO of Drummond Company, stated that Gilbert told him that the arrangement with Representative Robinson was legal, during a meeting in which Roberson was present…. Additionally, Gilbert stated during cross-examination that he assured both Tracy and Roberson that everything was legal and ethical.

The Court of Appeals affirms that Balch & Bingham’s top partner did indeed mislead Drummond Company, Mike Tracy, and Roberson.

No doubt now that Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Balch and Drummond is more than justified.

Listening to Balch’s alleged lies and falsehoods, Roberson has seen his life utterly collapse in shambles. From selling the family home to an estate sale, the humiliation has been overwhelming.

Instead of backing him, Drummond Company and ex-CEO Mike Tracy foolishly threw Roberson under the bus and marched goose-step with Balch six months after Roberson’s conviction.

The question now is, why? Was Roberson a “fall guy” and set-up by others?

Drummomd Company and Tracy should face federal scrutiny.

We now expect an en banc appeal to be filed in hopes that the entire 11th Circuit hears the case, while lawyers frantically try to stall or delay Gilbert and Roberson from having to report to federal prison.

Kristen Clark, the first African-American woman to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate yesterday.

We, the CDLU, were awaiting her confirmation as we begin the process to debrief the U.S. Department of Justice, the EPA, and others on the alleged corrupt if not criminal conduct in Alabama.

First up is Drummond Company and their outrageous act of trying to cross-dress as a law firm while justifying and rationalizing the abrupt firing of “Fall Guy” David Roberson.

The fundamental question for federal investigators is:

Was ex-Drummond executive David Roberson framed?

Clark not only needs to look at the horrific Civil Rights violations of poor African-Americans in North Birmingham who were targeted in Balch & Bingham’s criminal scheme, but violations of the civil liberties of David Roberson.

Clark should expand the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal and look at the 20 or so Balch & Bingham lawyers, numerous Alabama Power executives, and an unknown number of paid consultants affiliated with the criminal scheme to suppress African-Americans from having their contaminated and toxic property tested by the EPA.

The Office of Professional Responsibility at the U.S. Department of Justice needs to look deeply into the accusations of prosecutorial misconduct by disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town who was seen chugging cocktails with Mark A. Crosswhite, CEO of Alabama Power.

Clark and EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan need to dive into Drummond’s alleged toxic site known as Ketona Lakes near North Birmingham.

Who at Drummond knew about it and why was the alleged site of “environmental racism” kept quiet for over 35 years?

As we wrote in January:

For over 35 years, the site of two former quarries has been hidden from public view. Located in Jefferson County, not far from North Birmingham and smack in the middle of the City of Tarrant, the Ketona Lakes are quarries now filled with water.

The water is allegedly extremely contaminated and toxic. Sources tell us that Drummond acquired the property when they purchased ABC Coke, and the site had extensive underground pipes that used to go directly underground to ABC Coke.

Drummond allegedly sealed off the pipes, tore down all physical structures, and then secured, fenced, and fully abandoned the site in 1985, thinking no one would know or care. Ketona Lakes was the site of a former chemical company and decades of harmful chemicals and toxins have allegedly stayed in the soil and water.

Clark and the U.S. Department of Justice need to also look at blatant corruption. As we wrote in December:

We have now learned from sources that the $25,000 was allegedly hand delivered in 2014 to Attorney General [Luther] Strange when  [Mike] Thompson allegedly brought him over to Drummond Company’s executive offices, circumventing government affairs and meeting with members of the Drummond family directly. All that was missing was a brown paper bag.

Beyond the alleged bribes to Strange, federal authorities should look at the alleged “just-cut-a-check-and-don’t-ask-questions” bribery ring involving some of the most powerful corporations in Alabama.

Each and every executive at Drummond, including ex-CEO Mike Tracy, and every member of Drummond’s Board of Directors needs to be interrogated by federal investigators. Drummond family members should also come under the spotlight.

The sheer panic, and unbelievable if not outrageous court filings by Drummond shows something is not right, completely off. Even the conservative Alabama Supreme Court unanimously denied Drummond’s Writ of Mandamus earlier this month.

We have always and repeatedly said that we have no bones to pick with Drummond Company.

Like the fools at Balch & Bingham, Drummond has attacked us, the CDLU, a non-party, falsely in court filings and went to the extreme measure of sealing the case in its entirety because of our reporting and scrutiny.

We now believe that Drummond’s Secret Star Chamber (like the first Star Chamber in the Newsome Conspiracy Case) could be possibly hiding or obscuring alleged criminal and unsavory conduct under the guise of a sealed “protective order.”

Clark and others now need to intrude and intervene as real Civil Rights justice, environmental justice is sought.

Drummond family members may now begin biting their fingernails while Drummond’s “Confused” General Counsel Blake Andrews may need an emergency manicure.

The photo above of disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town chugging cocktails with the Chairman and CEO of Alabama Power Mark A. Crosswhite at the Moon Shine Lounge at the Elyton Hotel is the epitome of the unethical if not corrupt environment in Alabama.

After the criminal conviction of Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert, one of the most interesting and insightful comments made to us was from a seasoned federal official who stated that the alleged corruption in Jefferson County and North Birmingham was not caused by Balch & Bingham but appeared to have been caused by the embattled law firm’s sister-wife, Alabama Power.

The mother’s milk of all corruption and bribery is money, cash money.

Alabama Power is a money horse, the most profitable wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company.

Alabama Power appears to spread millions of dollars directly or through “pay-through” entities to political allies, political action committees, AstroTurf campaigns, yellow journalists, and of course, law firms like Balch & Bingham or White, Arnold & Dowd.

In the 1940s and early 1950s, Phenix City, Alabama was a hub of corruption and criminal misconduct. As the Associated Press reported:

“Criminals infiltrated local government, rigging elections and paying off officials. The crime figures were meticulous about paying their taxes, which kept taxes for others in Phenix City low. And they made regular donations to churches and civic causes — money that made them part of the fabric of the community.”

But all that changed on June 18, 1954 when the nominee and shoe-in for Alabama Attorney General Albert Patterson, who vowed to clean up corruption in Phenix City, was assassinated.

As Wikipedia describes:

Reaction from the state was swift. Within weeks, Governor Gordon Persons declared martial law in the city, effectively giving the Alabama National Guard the law enforcement duties in the city and the county. The state sent special prosecutors from Montgomery to replace the local judiciary.

Within six months, the Phenix City machine was dismantled.

A special grand jury in Birmingham handed down 734 indictments against local law enforcement officers, elected officials, and local business owners connected to organized crime. 

Three officials were specifically indicted for Patterson’s murder: Chief Deputy Sheriff Albert Fuller, Circuit Solicitor Arch Ferrell, and Attorney General Si Garrett. Of the three, only Fuller was convicted; he was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released after 10 years. Fuller died within the same year as his parole and claimed his innocence until his dying day. Ferrell was acquitted and Garrett was never brought to trial, as he was convalescing in a mental institution for most of the year after Patterson’s murder.

Now, today, 67 years later, we see sheer and uncontrolled panic from the Three Stooges (Alabama Power, Balch, and Drummond Company) in the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal.

Every political asset, every judicial trick, every tactic of fear and intimidation have been used as crushing weights against David Roberson, but they have backfired. Roberson’s $75 million sealed lawsuit still stands.

These four years of reporting have proven undeniably that Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power and their stooges are utter fools. Their foolish conduct has spiraled out of control.

Like a replication from long-ago Phenix City, we have reported about the manipulation of the judicial branch, an assassination attempt, alleged bribes, staged arrests, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, a mysterious head-on car wreck, judicial fraud, a counterfeit court order, and even when the wrong family was terrorized by Balch boosters.

But now the feds need to zero in on where Alabama Power is most vulnerable.

Alabama Power, like Phenix City elements of 1954, may give regular donations to civic causes, but the ugly underbelly, the vile raw sewage from Alabama Power linked to environmental racism and possible corruption needs to be investigated and cleaned up.

Mark A. Crosswhite may be forced to resign or retire.

Unlike the long-ago politico, we don’t believe Crosswhite will be “convalescing in a mental institution” anytime soon.

Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously rejected Drummond Company’s Writ of Mandamus against ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit with one word, “Denied.”

In their 46-page Writ filed last December, Drummond summarized their grave concern claiming, “A man—convicted by a jury of his peers for bribery, money laundering, and fraud—has now sued his employer and a law firm claiming they caused him to be wrongfully convicted.“

So will we find out if Drummond, their “confused” General Counsel Blake Andrews, and other co-conspirators indeed caused Roberson to be wrongfully convicted?

The court proceedings and filings in Jefferson County against Drummond Company have been placed under seal in another top-secret Star Chamber.

Regardless, multiple outside factors now come into play:

• The alleged high-level and unethical cocktail meeting between then-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite,
• The alleged set-up of “Fall Guy” Roberson with manipulated invoices,
• The attempted assassination of Roberson on Highway 280,
• The mysterious head-on crash against Roberson’s attorney Burt Newsome last year,
• The extreme and uncontrolled panic by the Three Stooges (Drummond, Balch, and Alabama Power) last December.

These factors alone may be just enough to spur federal investigations of possible criminal and prosecutorial misconduct regardless of what happens inside the Second Star Chamber.

Roberson has opened the floodgates against the Three Stooges and stripped naked the drag queens at Drummond who tried to cross-dress themselves as a law firm.

Even the conservative Alabama Supreme Court did not buy the cross-dressing act.

Unanimously.

Speaking to ABC News yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland discussed the “same kind of hatred” that was behind the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995: racism and white supremacy.

Garland was one of the prosecutors in Oklahoma City in 1995.

In the post-Balch era, the environmental racism and “same kind of hatred” behind the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal and alleged secret Ketona Lakes site will bring even more federal scrutiny in the coming months.

The Three Stooges (Balch, Alabama Power and Drummond Company) played their cards in December showing the sheer nervousness and uncontrolled panic they were suffering from by attacking us, the CDLU and this website.

Kicking the dog and sending out buffoons to terrorize the innocent, Balch boosters and defenders truly dropped the ball and foolishly exposed themselves for what they are: idiotic bullies.

Mark A. Crosswhite, whose boxer shorts appear to have been twisted so tightly by his most trusted advisers, appears to have lost basic, common sense.

The most powerful man in Alabama may become the poster child of evil, environmental racism, alleged corruption, and arrogance if his handlers continue dragging him down the path of self-destruction.

No public relations fluff can reverse the reality.

Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power, and Drummond must address the issues head on instead of prolonging them with legal maneuvers, fluff, and counter-productive “kill the messenger” efforts that sadly exploded in their own faces.

If not, Garland and his team need to dive deep into Ketona Lakes, the ash ponds of Miller Steam Plant, the Tammany Hall of Birmingham, and the alleged “don’t-ask-just-cut-a check” bribery ring.

And then the EPA and later Congress can also come knocking on the door.

As we predicted last year, the sheer and uncontrolled panic of Alabama Power, Balch & Bingham and Drummond Company with the possible rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal would provoke an avalanche of investigations and probes under a new administration and congressional leadership.

The Three Stooges were utter fools.

Round one: the national media are investigating and putting pressure against Drummond Company.

In an extensive piece in E&E News on environmental justice, Drummond’s deal for its polluting ABC Coke Plant in North Birmingham is now under scrutiny. E&E writes:

But what happened — and didn’t happen — next tells a disquieting tale of a status quo that has long left people of color and low-income communities disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution….

[F]ederal regulators dithered. Local officials obfuscated. And the coke plant, located less than a mile from an elementary school, has continued to spew tons of cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous pollutants each year. Almost a full decade passed before a court-enforced cleanup agreement was locked in — and that happened earlier this year only after EPA fought residents’ efforts to amend the final deal.

In a ruling last summer, U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon rejected any restrictions. That was followed this January with a final consent decree that — unusually — differed modestly from the 2019 draft.

But unfinished business remains. 

After [Jefferson] county health officials again renewed the plant’s operating air permit two years ago, [environmental group] GASP in June 2019 filed a protest with EPA. Among other objections, the group said that the permit lacked requirements related to total annual benzene in the byproduct recovery plant’s waste streams. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is supposed to respond definitively within 60 days. More than 21 months later, GASP has yet to get an answer. EPA’s review is “ongoing,” the agency spokesperson said.

And what does this mean?

That environmental racism and injustice will be dealt with and not be hidden by political friends, connections or cohorts in Alabama or Washington, D.C .

Drummond, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coal products to Alabama Power, is the first of the three stooges to be in the spotlight.

As the heirs of Garry Drummond attempt to sell their global coal operations to China or Central Asian interests, the baggage from North Birmingham, the $75 million lawsuit from David Roberson, and the federal probes percolating on the sidelines may hinder any future hopes of “closing the deal.”

Shemp: “Does marshmallows got pits?”

Moe: “No, they’re empty like your skull.”