Drummond Company in Meltdown Like Wicked Witch; Judge Issues Order Protecting CDLU

Drummond Company and their attorneys are looking for fish in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Since the explosive and manipulated Balch & Bingham invoice became the talk of Alabama, Drummond Company has had an utter meltdown and court records show that an avalanche of 99 different items have been filed in the case since March 1st.

We were stunned to see the blatant and sheer foolishness of Drummond attorneys who are racking up thousands of dollars in attorney fees by crying over posts on BanBalch.com, the CDLU, and our reporting of public documents.

Drummond is so steamed, bent out of shape, they even provided the court with some of our finest writing as a string of exhibits.

Using our posts, Drummond is falsely claiming that the Court’s Protective Orders were violated.

Now, today, on Saint Patrick’s Day, the presiding judge signed an order rebuking Drummond’s attempt to intimidate the CDLU, our First Amendment rights, and our reporting, writing:

It is ORDERED that Defendant Drummond Company, Inc. is PROHIBITED from inquiring about matters subject to an attorney-client relationship/privilege between Burt Newsome in his capacity as principal of Newsome Law, LLC with K.B. Forbes and/or CDLU EXCEPT to the extent that any alleged communications were made in VIOLATION of this Court’s Protective Orders.

The noise, the theater, the avalanche of filings are acts of desperation to simply obscure the truth: Drummond Company appears to have lied in their pleadings and to the judge.

Worse now, Balch & Bingham allegedly may have provided a manipulated invoice as the original invoice to federal authorities.

Drummond now claims, “Balch’s first draft of the invoice was incorrectly addressed to Blake Andrews, was corrected internally at Balch in thirteen minutes, and was never sent to Mr. Andrews or anyone else at Drummond.”

Drummond’s lawyers are so furious that the original invoice is being used in the $75 million civil lawsuit, Drummond has now even subpoenaed the former secretary of convicted felon and ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert. She handwrote “It should be David Roberson” on the invoice.

Who really cares who actually scribbled down the change?

The undisputed fact is the original invoice was changed.

Among the 99 actions on the docket, Drummond, wants to seal the entire case as “confidential” and lies to the judge claiming falsely that we, the CDLU, “accused Drummond of being involved in an assassination attempt” and that we “will use any information concerning this case to publicly smear Drummond.”

As we wrote recently, “Some of the initial reactions to the attempted assassination was to imply without a shred of evidence that Drummond Company was allegedly behind the alleged hit.”

Why?

Because, rightly or wrongly, Drummond’s reputation was bruised and damaged two decades ago when two union leaders were murdered at Drummond’s coal operations in Colombia in 2001, way before the North Birmingham Bribery Trial or Roberson’s civil lawsuit.

We have said repeatedly that we have no bones to pick with Drummond. We believe Drummond should not have marched goose-step with Balch & Bingham, and should have kept their promise with Roberson.

Our writing can be critical and sobering at times but the Constitution does not allow a powerful person or wealthy entity to try to crush our First Amendment rights by lying or making false claims.

Drummond and their attorneys are looking for fish in the middle of the Mojave Desert. And it is time for them to reel in their lines.