WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the waning days of his presidency, Barack Obama has officially refused to pardon forward Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D). The President informed Siegelman’s legal team of his decision on Thursday.
The disgraced one-term Alabama governor has spent most of the past nine years in a federal prison after facing conviction on charges of bribery and obstruction in 2006. Prosecutors argued he “sold” a state regulatory position to former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in exchange for a $500,000 campaign contribution to his failed lottery campaign. He and his family have since waged an aggressive pushback campaign, aiming at a presidential pardon.
That long journey has now come to an unsuccessful end.
Siegelman, to this day, consistently maintains his innocence. Now 70 years old, Alabama’s last Democratic governor is serving the remainder of a 6 1/2 year sentence in a federal prison in Louisiana. He is scheduled for release on August 8, but could get out on house arrest as early as February 8.
