Last week, I posted an ad in this publication detailing prosecution misconduct used by the United States government to falsely convict me of a crime. At the same time the ad appeared, Republican United States Senators were expressing grave concern that potentially false claims were being made against Judge Kavanaugh. Claims that could “ruin a good man’s life.”
United States Senators have also expressed great concern the past few months about Russian use of social media to improperly influence American elections. The fear is that Russian propaganda and Russian money might improperly influence American voters’ choices and change the outcome of elections for federal offices.
Both of these concerns—false charges that might ruin a man’s life and corrupted American elections—are clearly legitimate concerns. As well, the Democrat Senators claimed desire to protect women’s rights and safety, by making sure a man who abuses women, is not put on the Supreme Court of the United States is clearly virtuous. Both Democrat and Republican Senators convinced their individual supporters that their concerns are real and their individual actions and words were on behalf of a good cause.
These three underlying principles that formed the supposed basis of our U.S. Senators recent news making actions are consistent with most all Americans fundamental beliefs. First, America must have fair elections which are free of propaganda and collusion that is designed to misinform the voters. Second, every American’s rights must be protected. Third, slander is unacceptable and if accusations are falsely made they should be exposed as false accusations.
Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that despite what our Senators say underlies their actions and words that in reality they are being hypocritical. If the Senators want fair and honest elections, why do they themselves collude to spread lies about candidates for the United States Senate. If the Senators want to prevent false claims from ruining good peoples lives, why do they themselves make false claims. If the Senators want to protect individual rights, why do they privately and secretively settle sexual harassment and discrimination claims against members of Congress using taxpayer money.
Slander by US Senators is all too common. Senator Joe Manchin said before my trial that he believed “Don has blood on his hands.” Former Senator Jay Rockefeller, who had championed the nomination confirmation of my federal trial Judge, said publicly that a “fair trial is more than Don deserves.” The United States Senators said nothing when then President Obama said before any investigation of the Upper Big Branch Mine’s 2010 explosion in West Virginia, “the explosion was first and foremost the responsibility of management.” All these statements were not only slander they were designed to deny me my Constitutional right to a fair trial. The slander was successful and I did not get a fair trial.
The Senators were silent when the head of coal mine regulation at the Mine Safety and Health Administration said before any investigation “the operator blew up the mine MSHA didn’t.” The Senators said nothing when the government oversaw what were clearly politically-based false investigation reports which ignored science and which slandered the miners by saying the miners failure to do their jobs caused their own deaths. The Senators were unconcerned when one of the MSHA lead accident investigators quit prior to the false reports being issued and when asked why said “they (MSHA) didn’t like what they were hearing.” The Senators have remained silent as evidence has poured out of MSHA and DOJ for eight years evidencing a cover-up of the UBB truth. Accusations and evidence of document destruction, altered charts, forged signatures, and even a document “shredding party” have never been mentioned by a single U.S. Senator.
How can the Senators claim to have empathy, for those whose lives are ruined by false claims, when they turn a deaf ear to their own colleagues words and a blind eye to a government agencies criminal actions? How can they read the ad I posted in this publication last week and say they are concerned about peoples American rights and yet remain silent. I faced life in prison based on three false felony charges which is far worse that what Judge Kavanaugh was facing—a denial of a promotion to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unlike most Americans who are falsely accused by federal prosecutors, I did not plea bargain. Even though the odds of winning against the federal government is near zero and although I was facing life in prison. Unfortunately, most Americans do not have the choice of fighting false federal claims because they cannot afford to fight.
My being falsely accused of having blood on my hands by their now colleague Joe Manchin, before any investigation, was not enough to motivate a single Senator to say a single word. Being falsely prosecuted as a result of what DOJ itself has determined was “gross prosecution misconduct and recklessness” and as a result of a hundred “Brady violations” has not been enough to concern a single Senator. Being found “not guilty” of all three felonies charges against me, following proclamations by U.S. Senators that I had “blood on my hands” and “did not deserve a fair trial”, was not enough to concern a single Senator nor to garner a single apology.
The lead prosecutor being the son of a federal Judge in the same district did not concern a single US Senator. The prosecutors federal Judge’s father saying to his friends that convicting Don Blankenship would be worth a million dollars to his son’s campaign for West Virginia Governor did not concern a single Senator. My being sent to a prison housing only felons for a first time misdemeanor conviction did not concern a single Senator.
In fact, the government’s use of propaganda to slander, falsely convict, imprison me for a false misdemeanor, and significantly damage my life did not cause any Senators to express any concern. Instead, it provided the establishment Senators, including Joe Manchin, Mitch McConnell and others an opportunity to prevent me from becoming a United States Senator.
Despite claiming they are determined to prevent propaganda from impacting American elections, United States Senators used propaganda that they themselves helped fabricate to undermine an election for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate. Operatives of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, pundit friends of Mitch McConnell like Karl Rove, media Republican pundits like Judge Napolitano, and media Democrat pundits like Chris Hayes repeated dozens of times on television, during the final week before the West Virginia primary, that I was a felon. The NRSC even convinced Trump, Jr. to say I am a felon. Judge Napolitano (a friend of my opponent Patrick Morrisey), showed up on what is rumored to be the President’s favorite show “Fox and Friends” to say I was convicted of “manslaughter” not that I was sent to prison for a false misdemeanor.
Despite all of the above, the polls going into the final weekend still showed me to have a 10-plus point lead in the election. It is said that Mitch McConnell was so concerned that I was going to win the primary that he personally convinced the President over the final weekend to tweet that Republicans should not vote for Blankenship. Senator lies and Senator-orchestrated lies, which were all based on propaganda they fabricated and sold to the public, no doubt changed the outcome of an American election. It is clear hypocrisy for United States Senators to do what they claim to be trying to stop.
As to my conviction, let me be totally clear. Not only am I “not guilty” of what I was sent to prison for, I am more than innocent. In fact, for years MSHA encouraged miners to do what I was convicted of conspiring to have them do—inform each other that inspectors had arrived at the mine. The reason MSHA inspectors, for decades, wanted miners to know that they had arrived at the mine was to reduce the risk of them being run over or blown-up because the miners were not aware they were in the mine. An additional truth is that conspiring to have miners to do this never crossed my mind because human beings naturally tell others when government officials or company executives show up at the mine. No conspiracy encouraging them to do so has ever been needed. And so no civil violation for doing so has ever been written, let alone someone having been sent to prison for it.
Additionally, I was the most prolific innovator of coal mine safety for nearly three decades. Even as I was being tried for “putting profits over safety,” MSHA was featuring my latest innovation on their website as the greatest mine safety device improvement in decades. The person pictured on the website, with the device, will tell you I did more to improve mine safety than anyone he knows. MSHA persons pictured on their website are wearing safety clothing I innovated. Some of my innovations have even been placed into law by MSHA and some are used all over the world. Safety innovations are what good people do, not what criminals do.
My understanding is that despite all the prosecution misconduct DOJ is still considering fighting to maintain my misdemeanor conviction. If they do, they will be fighting to invalidate Brady and the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution. They will be fighting to uphold prosecutors lying to Judges. They will also be fighting to validate that it is okay for federal prosecutors to ask the Judge to treat Americans whose free speech “troubles the United States” more harshly. Yes, that was the basis upon which the prosecutors asked the Judge to issue a gag order to silence me, to require a five-million-dollar bond, and to place me under house arrest for crimes the prosecutors knew that I had not committed pending trial.
If U.S. Senators care about Americans’ rights, and about fair elections, and about chilling false accusations versus chilling free speech, then they must change their own behavior. If the Senators are not hypocrites and really care about all Americans and not just Americans that they want to be on the Supreme Court, they must change their behavior. They must quit hiding harassment and discrimination settlements, proclaiming Americans guilty before any investigation and before a trial, and quit spreading lies and using millions of dollars to corrupt American elections.
If my effort to invalidate my “misdemeanor” is successful, I am hopeful it will play a role in reducing the number of false “felony” prosecutions in America. Hopefully we can agree, whether we are Republican or Democrat or Constitution Party member or Independent, that America should not be falsely convicting and imprisoning Americans. Surely we can all agree that Senators should not be proclaiming that Americans “do not deserve a fair trial” or that they should be treated differently because they exercise their First Amendment Rights.