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Ex-U.S. Attorney Representing Ala. Bingo Case Defendant

By Andrew Ramonas

A former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama is the lawyer for a bingo casino owner who is a defendant in a major public corruption case in the state, The Birmingham News reported Tuesday.

Former U.S. Attorney G. Douglas Jones (Getty)

G. Douglas Jones, a Bill Clinton U.S. Attorney and partner at Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker LLC, is representing Ronnie Gilley, who allegedly attempted to bribe state lawmakers to vote yes for a bill that would have let bingo casinos like his stay open. He also was a lawyer for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) in his public corruption case.

Jones said Gilley’s  indictment and the charges brought against 10 other individuals — including four state lawmakers — in connection with the case are the result of politics.

“The Department of Justice killed the bill back when it was in the legislature,” Jones told the newspaper. “Now 30 days before an election they hustle this indictment up.”

Ronnie Gilley (Facebook)

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division, who announced the indictments on Monday in D.C., said the upcoming election did not factor into the DOJ’s decisions on the case.

“In a case like this we had to go with where the facts and the law were and we had to make the decision at the appropriate time and that’s 100 percent what dictated the timing on this case irrespective of whether [an] election may or may not occur,” Breuer said, according to The Birmingham News.

Full post as published by Main Justice on October 05, 2010 (boomark / email).