Don Blankenship released the following statement today regarding the release of the report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility concerning his case:
“Some are saying that OPR found no Brady violations. But the truth is that they did. They just aren’t saying that they found any. That’s no big surprise, as they cannot even find the MSHA inspector emails. And no one will ever find the UBB documents that the investigators shredded in Beckley.
How could OPR possibly know what is in any of the shredded documents, let alone whether they contain Brady material?
As our previous release said, DOJ is claiming that reports and documents which were not provided to the defense would have not made a difference in the outcome of the trial. According to them, none of the documents not provided would have helped me prove I was not guilty, so they are not what lawyers call “Brady.” It is no surprise that the government would take this position. They are defending their compadres.
But the truth is that any jury would be impacted if they knew the following: the government destroyed documents; investigators believed MSHA regulators were responsible for a “faulty ventilation plan”; and MSHA had disciplined their own managers for their failure to follow their own guidelines. Can you imagine that not a single juror would have thought it odd that MSHA was sharing emails among themselves that said “stick a dagger in Massey” and “we wish Don would get gored by a rhino.” My defense were not provided any of these documents and hundreds more.
MSHA caused the UBB explosion, and Ruby, Goodwin, and many others helped cover it up.