Sealed Documents Show Southern Company’s Law Enforcement Stooges Silenced Critics and Media
During the height of the criminal trial, Jay Town’s office filed a sealed subpoena demanding to know who was making counter arguments and critical comments about the prosecution and trial on the AL.com website.
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we expose the appalling lengths to which Southern Company stooges went to go after and destroy an African American leader and his supporters.
Southern Company’s criminal enterprise not only greased and corrupted the judicial branch in Alabama to protect their wholly owned subsidiaries, but also corrupted the executive branch and law enforcement to silence critics and the media.
From the Newsome Conspiracy Case to the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, obstruction of justice not only occurred in the court system, but some acts were sadly done by law enforcement officials.
The CDLU has anonymously received a bombshell: a sealed court document from the crimimal case against African American businessman and attorney Donald V. Watkins.
And the document is utterly devastating and demonstrates that the office of disgraced and now ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was indeed in Southern Company/Alabama Power’s pocket.
Town was confirmed as U.S. Attorney in August of 2017.
In October 2017, Town’s office opened a new federal criminal investigation into the same business transactions between Watkins and a handful of investors in his waste-to-energy business that had been probed by federal prosecutors in New Jersey from July 2015 to February 2016. These prosecutors cleared Watkins on all allegations of wrongdoing.
The move came at the same month as Southern Company’s $2 million-a-year consultant “Sloppy Joe” Perkins hand-wrote a detailed outline of an orchestrated smear campaign against Watkins.
[Sloppy Joe’s secret, hand-written notes from October of 2017 were published four years later in September of 2021 causing a firestorm.]
Perkins’ notes, at page 3, specifically referenced his knowledge of “federal subpoenas” involving Watkins. At the time, the only federal subpoenas involving Watkins were those issued by Town’s newly empaneled grand jury.
Watkins did not become aware of any federal grand jury proceedings or subpoenas issued by Town until February of 2018.
Why would Sloppy Joe know about subpoenas coming out of the secret proceedings of a federal grand jury?
Why, one would ask, was Sloppy Joe in the know?
We believe Southern Company’s criminal enterprise took immediate action against Watkins after he published critical stories about Perkins and his firm Matrix in September of 2017.
Watkins accused Perkins of allegedly targeting the family of a rape victim, Meagan Rondini, who committed suicide after law enforcement and others allegedly dismissed or ignored her accusations against the son of a prominent family in Alabama.
Eventually, Watkins was indicted and the criminal case went to trial in early 2019.
But the sealed documents from the Watkins case that we received are alarming to First Amendment rights and privacy.
During the height of the criminal trial, Jay Town’s office filed a sealed subpoena demanding to know who was making counter arguments and critical comments about the prosecution and trial on the AL.com website comments area.
TheTruthHurts48 burned up Town and his team. ?
Ripping up First Amendment rights and like mobsters wanting to break one’s legs, Town’s office filed the subpoena on February 25, 2019. Three days later, Alabama Media Group, owners of AL.com, filed a motion to quash. The issue, according to court records, was resolved shortly thereafter but details are unknown.
Because of guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press rights, U.S. Department of Justice guidelines are clear that there are mandatory consultation requirements and Jay Town and his office should have obtained authorization at least 30 days before issuing a subpoena to a media outlet like Alabama Media Group.
We doubt Town’s office did. Town was too busy sipping cocktails?with Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, who resigned in disgrace this past November.
We received the anonymously sent, sealed court documents last spring. As whistleblowers, we have forwarded the documents to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Recently we learned who TheTruthHurts48 is, and the person told us that they attended the Watkins trial everyday and believe the trial was an absolute miscarriage of justice.
TheTruthHurts48, who works remotely, used an IP address and VPN associated with their employer. After the trial, the person was unexpectedly fired by their employer for no reason. They believe Jay Town caused the abrupt termination.
Exactly one year after Jay Town’s office filed that subpoena, on February 25, 2020, Alabama Media Group published an “End of an Era” story and announced, “Beginning Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 at 5 a.m. CST, we’ll eliminate website comments…”
