Sessions, Balch, and the Silent Treatment

Balch & Bingham has lost most of their lobbying clients in Washington, D.C. and at least a dozen money-making attorneys or partners have left the firm.

President Donald J. Trump has recently again shown anger and frustration towards U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for having recused himself from the Russian collusion probe on March 2, 2017.

Now Politico.com reports that “once-loyal Alabama delegation gives Sessions the cold shoulder.”

How could this be?

The conviction of Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert who reviewed and edited then-U.S. Senator Sessions’ official letter to the EPA could be a top reason.

Gilbert, now an ex-Balch partner and convicted felon, spearheaded an effort to suppress African-Americans from testing their toxic property.

Balch political stooges like Sessions and then-State Attorney General Luther Strange let Gilbert, a ghost-writer extraordinaire, write or review their letters discouraging the EPA from helping poor blacks in North Birmingham.

At the beginning of the criminal trial, the defendants had the audacity to list Jeff Sessions as a witness.

He never showed up.

Back in 2017, Politico.com observes, “When Trump tapped Sessions — one of the first lawmakers to endorse him for president — Alabamans went wild. Some thought it meant more Alabamans in top positions at Justice; others that the state would secure more grant money.”

More money, more clients, a bigger piece of the pie, Balch & Bingham and others appear to have thought as well.

But it didn’t happen.

Instead, Balch & Bingham has lost most of their lobbying clients in Washington, D.C. and at least a dozen money-making attorneys or partners have left the firm.

Politico.com writes that “Sessions is getting the silent treatment from his hometown allies” and we see Balch in the same predicament.

So what “coincidentally” happened that same day Sessions recused himself on March 2, 2017?

Balch & Bingham scrubbed their website of having successfully changed Russian sanctions for a Russian-linked aerospace company called Black Hall Aerospace a/k/a AAL USA, Inc. at one time owned by Oleg Sirbu, a Soviet immigrant now living in Dubai.

Balch was Sessions number two lifetime donor when Sessions was a U.S. Senator. Sessions was to have endorsed Trump at Black Hall Aerospace in 2016 until the venue was changed at the last minute.

Trump needs to know more about Sessions’ links to the disgraced law firm Balch & Bingham, and we are making sure his Administration does.