Don Blankenship releases the following statement:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) informed my attorneys on Friday that they have now changed their mind and have decided that my legal filings, to reverse and invalidate my misdemeanor conviction, will be handled by the Southern District of Ohio DOJ office and not by the Eastern District of Kentucky ie by McConnell prosecutors. We can only guess that DOJ realized that having McConnell prosecutors handle my case was a little too “Transparently Dishonest”, even for them.
However, to be clear, my case will still be controlled by the same Judge that oversaw my trial in Southern West Virginia ie by Judge Irene Berger and her court’s Magistrate Judge.
As to the DOJ Office of Responsibility’s (OPR) internal investigation report, there is no further update except that it still has not been released. Hopefully, unlike Mine Safety and Health Administration documents and emails it has not been shredded or altered so as to make it unreadable.
The DOJ and the Federal Judiciary’s flagrant examples of “Transparent Dishonesty” should frighten all Americans. The DOJ has been investigating their own misconduct for more than two years and has known that prosecution misconduct warrants invalidation of my misdemeanor conviction for more than a year. Yet their own investigation report remains hidden while the DOJ selects and then re-selects where it wants to defend itself after it “completes investigating itself”. Obviously, their motive at a minimum is delay but it is likely more than that.
The Judges are also clearly conflicted. Judge Berger has already proven herself to be incapable, or corrupt or both, but she will remain positioned to protect her colleague Judge Goodwin’s son. Yes, Judge Berger’s court Magistrate Judge will be deciding which of the investigation documents Judge Goodwin’s son ie former US Attorney Booth Goodwin improperly withheld. In other words, which improperly withheld documents will be made available to the public and which will not. These are documents no one outside of government has seen but which highly likely evidence even more Prosecutor Goodwin and Prosecutor Steve Ruby misconduct.
The DOJ should be called the DOP. The “Department of Politics”. My pamphlet made clear that I was, in fact, an “American Political Prisoner”. The DOJ should turn over the OPR report immediately because if the report is complete and truthful, it will be an admission that I was in fact an “American Political Prisoner”. But instead it seems that the DOJ focus remains on how to keep the truth covered up for as long as possible. They have already requested that the court delay their filing deadlines and a delay has, of course, been granted.
In summary, the Mine Safety and Health Administration caused the Upper Big Branch mine to explode and it’s time for the truth about that to be told by the government. Ironically, the government’s own witnesses have already effectively said under oath, at trial, that the government blew the mine up by making the miners cut the mine’s airflow in half. Now the DOJ is delaying resolution of this case and the Judiciary is granting that delay in the interest of politics, the DOJ prosecutors and the Judges.
The current DOJ officials should bring this entire matter to a conclusion prior to their becoming partners in the corruption that has surrounded this entire matter for more than eight years. Moving my case from district to district in order to delay or deny Justice is not what the founders of our country intended and not what the citizens of this country deserve. The DOJ should file a motion to invalidate the case themselves and quit playing the same politics that the Obama administration played.
We must all keep in mind that my case is highly likely only one of many that have been falsely prosecuted.
Our government is corrupt.
– Don