Alabama: A Case of Selective Justice?

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Yet Canary was in charge when Young spoke about his payments to the Sessions and Pryor campaigns and to other Alabama Republicans. At the same time, her husband's consulting firm, Capitol Group LLC, was being paid close to $40,000 to advise Pryor. A source who held a senior post in Canary's office during the long-running investigation into Siegelman says it's almost inconceivable that Canary would not have been informed of Young's charges against prominent Republican officeholders and candidates. Canary denied that to TIME. The fact that those charges were never looked at will only heighten suspicions that the Siegelman prosecution was a case of selective justice and that in the Bush Administration, enforcing the law has been a partisan pursuit. [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy or pdf.]

FBI Report: What the Witness Said Young was a cooperating witness in a federal-state probe of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. During the investigation, he volunteered surprising details about his donations and gifts to some of the state's top politicians

Lanny Young

The lobbyist and landfill developer says he gave cash, checks and thousands of dollars' worth of T shirts to Siegelman, Pryor and Sessions

Now Serving two years in prison

A senior official in Sessions' campaign

Alabama reel A federal judge, a Senator and a former Governor all received campaign contributions from lobbyist and landfill developer Lanny Young

A senior official in Pryor's campaign

William Pryor Jr.

During Pryor's tenure as attorney general, his office heard allegations from lobbyist Young, including some about Pryor's own campaign

Now A federal appeals-court judge for the 11th Circuit

Jeff Sessions

Young described laundering contributions via a top Sessions campaign aide when the then attorney general ran for the U.S. Senate

Now Re-elected Senator in 2002

Don Siegelman

Indicted in part because of Young's statements, the Democratic former Governor was convicted on seven counts of corruption in 2006

Now Serving an 88-month sentence in federal prison