By Samuel Mattison
Alabama Political Reporter
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D) asked President Donald Trump to pardon him on the Fox Business Network’s show Cavuto Coast to Coast.
Siegelman was convicted in 2006 of bribery charges. His conviction rests upon a $500,000 donation from HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy to the non profit Alabama Education Foundation, which was an entity created to fund and support a statewide referendum on an Alabama Education Lottery.
Prosecutors argued that Scrushy’s donation constituted a bribe for a spot on a State Health Board. Siegelman has maintained that the money did not constitute a bribe and said it was just a donation to the non-profit foundation with no favors attached.
“The President needs to clarify by saying, ‘this is not something we’re going to prosecute,’” Siegelman told Cavuto. “If a campaign contribution to President Trump or to a super PAC from someone who ends up as the Secretary of Education, doesn’t mean that the president has agreed to a bribe.”
Siegelman was released from prison earlier this year after six years in Federal prison.
He appealed the decision twice to the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2009, the court knocked his charges down to five from seven reducing his sentence by months.
He had previously asked President Barack Obama, a member of his own party, to pardon him last year.
“The important thing here is that it could happen to any Governor or any president,” Siegelman said. “It could’ve happened to President Obama, or it could happen to President Trump. This is why I asked President Obama to pardon me and this is why President Trump should pardon me.”
