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…

Although we will have our daily update later today, the CDLU was at the court hearing this morning listening to testimony from the FBI agent who connected with the jury. A female agent who looks to be in her forties, wearing reading glasses, she appeared to be cut from the same cloth as the women on the jury: middle-aged, motherly, and Alabamian. Defense attorneys have been objecting since yesterday about her presentations of excerpts of Balch & Bingham billing records. Her presentations are fabulous. Broken down in a rainbow of colors, she shows when billings were referring to specific government…

Although there was lots of excitement and drama today over a possible mistrial, the real bomb that dropped today was that of Chad Pilcher,  a Balch & Bingham government affairs attorney who testified that he warned Joel Gilbert about using State Representative Oliver Robinson’s position or letterhead. Pilcher regularly consults with the Alabama Ethics Commission, he testified. John Archibald of AL.com tweets: Pilcher said he warned Gilbert that Robinson could not use his official position or letterhead to help. Gilbert, documents show, edited Robinson’s position into letters sent In Robinson’s name. Pilcher is the first Balch lawyer on the stand…

While reading redacted grand jury testimony given by Joel Gilbert into the record today,  prosecutors screwed up by reading the name of co-defendant David Roberson. Defense lawyers for Roberson immediately called for a mistrial. Prosecutors argued that the transcript of the grand jury testimony had been redacted by another judge and that defense lawyers had had the document in their possession for 2 weeks and were “lying in wait” for the mistake to happen, according to tweets by AL.com reporters. Roberson’s defense attorney struck back by saying prosecutors had the burden to fix the mistake. Ivana  Hrynkiw of AL.com tweeted:…

Today, the testimonies from a former and current attorney at Balch & Bingham were insightful and could mean trouble for the defendants. Ex-Balch & Bingham attorney Talmadge Simpson (pictured left) who was, to some observers,  a superb example of junior attorneys that appear to have no idea when they are being used (or abused) in an alleged criminal scheme by Balch bosses. Simpson’s testimony this morning seemed in a way to be a long-held, sigh of relief after being in the dark about the alleged criminal conduct. He was both confident and relieved, according to our sources in the courthouse. Kyle Whitmire…

Today, besides the removal of two jurors with alternates, the criminal trial focused on the mundane but detailed review of how the letters of ghost-writer extraordinaire and Balch defendant Joel Gilbert made it to the top echelon of power: then-Governor Robert Bentley, who later resigned in disgrace, and then-Attorney General Luther Strange, one of Balch’s biggest stooges. A stooge? Yes, absolutely. As Kyle Whitmire of AL.com tweeted: Documents show numerous conference calls between Gilbert and [Strange’s Assistant Attorney General for the Environment Robert] Tambling before Strange’s office submitted comments to the EPA. Gilbert suggested edits. Strange’s office seems to have…

Winners: Burt Newsome: The incredible testimony about the handing-off of a confidential GASP presentation and the web of agents through the halls of political power show to what lengths Balch will go to adhere to its mindset of “ruining a rival,” be it GASP, the EPA, or Newsome. Steven McKinney: His defense attorney brilliantly separated him from Robinson and all the testimony by witnesses appear to have almost exclusively discussed Gilbert’s actions. GASP: Again a winner! The small public charity shook the political power structure to their knees, and agents and stooges spit out cookie-cut letters from ghost-writer extraordinaire Joel Gilbert.…

Lance LeFleur, the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) became le fleur fanée on the witness stand today. As AL.com John Archibald tweeted about testimony from the witness stand from the courthouse today: Lance LeFleur, who Glenn described as “timid” when confronted with what big business wanted from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, is timidly answering questions on the stand. LeFleur timidly says he didn’t know Scott Phillips, on the board that appoints him, was working for Balch & Bingham. LeFleur said he did not know Def. Joel Gilbert wrote the letter Gov. Bentley sent to…

With this afternoon headlines about the resignation of embattled EPA Director Scott Pruitt, the focus in the federal courtroom in Birmingham at about the same time was on the Regional EPA Administrator Trey Glenn (pictured) who used to be head of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission (AEMC) between 2005-2009. Glenn admitted under oath that he (as a third-party consultant to Balch & Bingham) took a confidential presentation submitted to the AEMC by GASP, the health and environmental public charity, and handed it over to indicted Balch partner Joel Gilbert. Gilbert, knowing in advance what GASP was going to present, allegedly drafted up…

When we were working with the African-American communities in South Dallas, a Civil Rights activist told us to be wary of the bogus leaders that greet you “hand out, palm up.” In a July 4th column, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist John Archibald writes: [Two Balch & Bingham partners and a Drummond executive] are charged with paying a black lawmaker to convince black people in poor and unhealthy north Birmingham areas to resist federal efforts to clean the damn place up. It was an effort, testimony has confirmed, in which Drummond coal company, and other companies that could have been forced to…

[Update below.] We learned this morning that documents of evidence in the Balch Bribery Criminal Trial were sealed, according to Kyle Whitmire of AL.com. This comes hours after our post about the possible missing billing records for the drafting of a letter of intimidation from indicted Balch partner Joel Gilbert who sent it to GASP, the health and environmental public charity. Today, Oliver Robinson, the bought-and-paid-for politician who faces up to a 100 years in prison, is testifying and is singing like a sad canary. Robinson testified that Joel Gilbert demanded 100 letters signed from the neighborhood, and Robinson was…

We can’t find it. We just can’t find it! Kyle Whitmire of AL.com challenged us all to review the billing statements of Balch & Bingham that he posted on Scribd. Starting on page 29 of the first batch, we looked at billing statements from November and December 2014. Why? On December 1, 2014, indicted Balch & Bingham partner Joel Gilbert dispatched a letter of intimidation to GASP, the health and environmental public charity that they tried to undercut by allegedly buying a politician for $360,000. It appears that Gilbert may have been on vacation the week of Thanksgiving, because his…

Casper does look a little bit like Joel Gilbert, but at least Casper is smiling. Casper didn’t earn $365 an hour to suppress African-Americans from testing their toxic property in North Birmingham. Today in the criminal trial it was a tough day for defendant Gilbert as it was revealed according to courthouse reports that Balch had ghost written numerous letters against the North Birmingham EPA clean-up site. Politicians lining up to sign the ghost letters included then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, U.S. Congressman Gary Palmer, and numerous other local politicians and board…

A Sunday must read for all Balch & Bingham partners and those following the Oliver Robinson Bribery Trial. Even though this deals with financial fraud, buying a politician covertly is a similar white-collar crime. Thanks to Politico.com for sharing. “How to get away with financial fraud,” by Dan Davies in The Guardian: “Most white-collar crime works by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. One point that comes up again and again, when looking at famous and large-scale frauds, is that…

Winners: Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr.: He hasn’t done anything stupid yet to continue the injustice of the Star Chamber that only hurts Balch and Bingham partners. David Roberson: He is secondary in the testimony and Roberson’s former assistant testified she would gladly work for him again. Kyle Whitmire: His real-time reporting and tweets confirm what we hear. Kudos to AL.com reporters. GASP: The tiny health and environmental public charity irritated the powerful,  and Robinson was used to ask GASP carefully drafted questions and record his meeting with them. Losers: Joel I. Gilbert: The testimony from co-workers and clients, and invoice manipulation…