Paul Minor’s ordeal just drags on, and on, and on…. (What’s Eric Holder doing??)

The prosecution of Paul Minor was flawed from the beginning and reeked of political motivations as evidenced by this case being flagged by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives in 2007 as one of the most glaring examples of prosecutorial misconduct by the Department of Justice.

Off and on throughout this case the U.S. Attorney’s office has maintained it has recused itself from the case when it clearly has not.  Recusal is a seminal issue in this case simply because – as we have seen from some charges being overturned and the fifth circuit repeatedly questioning key points in the case by requesting re-briefings on the matters – that an objective US Attorney’s office without agenda, would not have proceeded with such an obviously flawed case.

So, the case progresses, the US Attorney’s Office continues to flip-flop on the recusal issue, the appellate court has overturned the main charge that served as the underpinning of the entire prosecution, and yet Paul Minor begins his fourth year in prison.

When the Fifth Circuit decision reversing Paul Minor’s federal bribery convictions was handed down the U.S. Attorney’s office refused to comment, maintaining that it had recused itself from the case. The office’s professed recusal was not surprising because it is our understanding that it is being investigated by the Justice Department itself to determine if Paul Minor’s prosecution was politically motivated.

This is just another incident in a long line of disturbing issues associated with the prosecution of Paul Minor.

As egregious as all this recusal doublespeak is, it pales in comparison to the other double-talk and lengths to which the U.S. Attorney’s office and Justice Department have gone to wrongfully convict and imprison Paul Minor and state judges Teel and Wingate.

The Government misstated the law required to convict Paul Minor by representing to the district court that no this-for-that quid pro quo was required to convict Minor of the federal bribery, honest services bribery and RICO bribery charges brought against him.