The Justice Department opposes an appeal from former Alabama Democratic Gov.Don Siegelman for the Supreme Court to reconsider his 2006 conviction on corruption charges, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Don Siegelman

Siegelman, who is out on bond pending his appeal, is asking the Supreme Court to review an earlier decision by a federal court in Alabama that let most of his conviction stand. Siegelman, who served as governor from 1999-2003, was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in a federal prison on bribery and mail fraud charges brought by Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary. Canary still serves in that post, as a holdover from the Bush administration, while the Obama administration works on getting its own nominee in place. Her then-counterpart in the Northern District of Alabama, Bush U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, also pursued charges against Siegelman, but was unsuccessful.

Members of Congress and 44 former state attorneys general have questioned the conviction, which many critics have claimed was the politically motivated work of then-Bush aide Karl Rove and other Republican officials. We reported last month that the Justice Department Office of Special Counsel found no evidence to support a whistleblower’s claims that the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Alabama acted inappropriately in the prosecution of the former governor and his co-defendant, former HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard Scrushy, who is serving a sentence of almost seven years arising from the 2006 conviction.

Siegelman and Scrushy have maintained their innocence. Their attorneys have argued that donations the health care business executive made to the then-governor’s lottery fund and Scrushy’s later appointment to the Alabama health board wasn’t criminal, just ordinary politics.

DOJ recommended that the Supreme Court not hear the appeal, court papers filed Friday night said, according to the AP.

“Under a standard that requires not just a quid pro quo, but one that is verbally spelled out with all ‘i’s dotted and ‘t’s crossed, all but the most careless public officials will be able to avoid criminal liability for exchanging official action for campaign contributions,” the DOJ argued, according to the AP.

Eric Holder at U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's investiture in Manhattan on Oct. 13 (DOJ)

Attorneys General rarely venture out of Washington to attend swearing-in ceremonies for new U.S. Attorneys, according to former Justice Department officials. But Eric Holder has done so three times — deploying the power of his office to anoint rising stars or draw subtle contrasts with the Bush administration.

So far this year, Holder has attended the ceremonial investitures for U.S. Attorneys Joyce Vance in the Northern District of Alabama, B. Todd Jones in Minnesota and Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York. Both Vance and Jones run offices that were in turmoil during the Bush administration, and Holder — who has said he wants to restore professionalism to the Justice Department — emphasized the department’s new direction by attending the ceremonies.

At the same time, Jones is also an old friend of Holder, while Vance is a respected veteran who is considered an up-and-comer in the department.

And in Manhattan, Bharara heads the largest and most prestigious U.S. Attorney office outside Washington, which prosecutes high-profile financial fraud and national security cases. Bharara is also close to an important Democratic ally on the Hill, Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Bharara was Schumer’s chief counsel before he was confirmed as U.S. Attorney.

Holder’s visits show his willingness to deploy the authority of his office for public relations purposes and to build internal morale. But it remains fairly unusual for an Attorney General to attend swearing-in ceremonies, according to ex-U.S. Attorneys.

The Justice Department doesn’t keep formal count, according to a DOJ spokesperson. It’s unclear how many — if any — ceremonies President George W. Bush’s first AG John Ashcroft attended. Ashcroft told Main Justice in that he couldn’t recall. Also, many of the federal prosecutors who were sworn in under Ashcroft arrived not long after the 9/11 terrorist attacks — not a time for pomp and circumstance. Still, Bush’s first AG commended Holder for attending investitures.

“The more you attend, the better,” Ashcroft said, adding that during his four years of service, he eventually visited about half of the U.S. Attorneys offices.

"The more you attend, the better," former AG John Ashcroft said of investitures. (doj)

Ron Woods, National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys executive director, told Main Justice that Attorneys General have attended investitures for the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney in the past. But he said their appearances at swearing-in ceremonies outside of Washington are “fairly rare.”

“Our members recall the Attorney General making office visits during their term, but not individual investitures,” said Woods, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas from 1990 to 1993. “Keep in mind that there are 93 U. S. Attorneys and most of the investitures will occur within a few months of each other. That would be a significant commitment of time and travel by the Attorney General.”

Holder developed close relationships with the federal prosecutorial community while serving President Bill Clinton as District of Columbia U.S. Attorney and later as Deputy Attorney General, former prosecutors interviewed by Main Justice said. Only three of the last 10 Attorneys General worked as federal prosecutors before becoming the nation’s top cop.

One of the prosecutors Holder got to know was Jones, who was the Minnesota U.S. Attorney during the Clinton administration. Shortly after Jones returned as U.S. Attorney in August, Holder named him chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, an influential policy-making and advisory body that serves as the voice of the U.S. Attorneys in Washington.

But an Attorney General does not show up to an investiture just to say hello to an old friend, according to former DOJ officials. The nation’s top federal prosecutor also attends swearing-in ceremonies for political and public relations reasons.

B. Todd Jones (left) takes the oath of office last month. Eric Holder (right) gave remarks. (doj)

An official trip to a U.S. Attorney’s office by an Attorney General for an investiture or another event will often attract the media, which will draw attention to the office. It is also an opportunity to energize prosecutors in the field. ”When the Attorney General shows up, it shows the importance of the work being done,” Ashcroft told Main Justice.

A Justice Department spokesperson told Main Justice in August that Holder’s first trip to a U.S. Attorney investiture was part of ongoing effort by the Attorney General to reach out to the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.

“The Attorney General is making it a priority to visit U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country to personally meet with prosecutors and other staff to hear firsthand about the cases they’re working on, the issues they face, and ways in which he can help them do their jobs,� spokesperson Hannah August said this summer. “The visit to the Northern District of Alabama was made to coincide with U.S. Attorney Vance’s swearing-in.�

Regardless of the Attorney’s General reasons behind a trip to a U.S. Attorney’s office, former prosecutors told Main Justice that a visit by the nation’s top federal prosecutor has a major impact on the office. ”It is very meaningful when the Attorney General visits,” said John Richter, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma from 2005 to 2009.

Former Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Alice Martin.

Former Northern Alabama U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, whose tenure was mired in controversy over allegations that she singled out Democrats for prosecution, has joined an executive search firm in Birmingham.

She began work as a senior partner at Wheless Associates Executive Search on Sept. 14, according to a statement issued by the firm on Wednesday.

“After eight years of recruiting talent into the public sector it is clear the significant impact attracting and retaining the right talent has on an organization,” Martin said in the statement. “I chose to join the outstanding professionals at Wheless to bring that experience to serve private sector leaders in a search process focused on yielding a competitive advantage for our clients.”

Martin, reached by phone, declined to comment further.

President George W. Bush appointed Martin to head the Northern District’s office in 2001.  She stepped down in June, after the second of two “courtesy calls” she said she received from officials at Justice Department headquarters in Washington informing her of the progress of her successor’s nomination.

Joyce Vance took over as interim U.S. Attorney on June 19 and was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 7. Attorney General Eric Holder attended her swearing-in ceremony.

Martin came under scrutiny during the Bush administration for what critics called a pattern of politicized prosecutions of Democratic state legislators. Supporters say she aggressively pursued crooked politicians of all stripes. In 2002, Martin created the North Alabama Public Corruption Task Force, which tallied more than 125 corruption-related convictions during her tenure.

She also came under criticism for her role in the prosecution of military contractor Axion Corp., whose CEO was acquitted in October 2007 of violating the Arms Export Control Act. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the matter. (You can read Scott Horton’s piece in The American Lawyer about the Axion case here.)

Martin has denied wrongdoing in that and other cases.

Mike Wheless, CEO of Wheless Associates, expressed confidence in the former prosecutor, who has practiced law for 28 years. In her new position, Martin is ferreting out top talent for executive, senior and mid-level management roles. The Birmingham-based firm has operations in New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Naples.

“Alice Martin has the contemporary knowledge to understand how boards, senior officers and selection committees can best contend with the challenges facing today’s executive leadership,� Wheless said in the statement.

Martin (Vanderbilt, University of Mississippi Law) served on the Attorney General Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2005. Before her appointment as U.S. Attorney, she served as a state judge and a federal prosecutor in Memphis. In private practice, she specialized in medical malpractice and product liability defense.

Eric Holder (DOJ)

Attorney General Eric Holder’s trip to Birmingham, Ala., last month for the swearing-in of Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance was freighted with symbolism.

Vance was taking over an office that had been in some turmoil during the tenure of her predecessor, Alice Martin, who’d been accused by Democrats of pursuing politically motivated prosecutions. (Martin has denied the allegations). Holder’s presence at Vance’s investiture was seen as a quiet rebuke of the Martin era.

Moreover, Birmingham was the scene of important civil rights battles in the 1960s. And Holder, the first African-American to lead the Justice Department, has made enforcement of anti-discrimination laws against minorities a priority, after it was downplayed during the Bush administration. Vance is the daughter-in-law of an appellate judge who was killed by a nail bomb mailed to his home by a man who’d also targeted the NAACP.

So, maybe it’s a little snarky to ask … you know …  how much it all cost. Fortunately, The Birmingham News did the deed for us. In a blog item posted earlier today, The News revealed the taxpayer’s tab for Holder’s Aug. 27 trip was $17,038.

Holder was in Birmingham from 10:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., The News reported. He flew on a government airplane and was accompanied by his counselor, Monty Wilkinson, and a press aide, Hannah August. An advance man, Vin Fazio, flew commercial.

The office of Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance rejected allegations that some of its prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory information about a government contractor, according to a motion filed today.

Alice Martin (DOJ)

The U.S. Attorney’s office urged the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to deny a motion for criminal sanctions against former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and government employees involved with the investigation and prosecution of Defense Department contractor Alex Latifi.

Lawyers for Latifi said Martin and two Assistant U.S. Attorneys  should be held in contempt of court for allegedly violating their Brady obligations by withholding information from the defense. Read our previous report about the defense team’s motion here.

“[The defense team's] accusations are serious because the penalties for criminal contempt— fines, imprisonment, or both — are serious,” Vance wrote in a court filing today. “But those penalties are not warranted just because [they] have requested them.”

Latifi, CEO of military parts manufacturer Axion Corp., was acquitted in October 2007 of charges he violated the Arms Export Control Act. Prosecutors alleged that Latifi falsified a report to the Defense Department and sent a drawing of a Black Hawk helicopter part to China.

The Latifi legal team of Henry Frohsin, James Barger Jr. and J. Elliott Walthall from Frohsin & Barger said they have “explicit, unequivocal evidence� that Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Estes and Angela Debro and Army investigators David Balwinski and Marcus Mills allegedly conspired with trial witness James Oglesby to conceal evidence and defraud the court.

Latifi’s lawyers said a series of e-mails between the prosecution and a lawyer for Oglesby’s employer, metal manufacturer Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, purportedly contradict Oglesby’s testimony and allegedly show a conspiracy by the government. Oglesby was a plant manager for the Tungsten Products unit of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, which did business with Latifi.

Oglesby’s testimony was central to the false report charge, the defense team said. The e-mails — which include Tungsten Products records previously unknown to the defense — were obtained last month through a related lawsuit.

“The … e-mails demonstrate that the government was well aware of the import of these documents and was desperate to have them explained before the trial,� the defense motion said. “Yet, upon receiving whatever explanation was forthcoming, the Government elected to bury this evidence. Instead, the government called Oglesby not once, but twice, to offer misleading half-truths as well as outright lies.�

Vance wrote in her court filing today that the defense team’s claims were “little more than speculation.” Martin told Main Justice earlier this month that the motion from Latifi’s lawyers was “baseless.â€�

DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility is already investigating a complaint from Latifi that prosecutors mishandled the case. Vance wrote in the filing that OPR was “an appropriate forum” for reviewing allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Some Alabama lawyers have raised questions about whether politics motivated the prosecution against the Iranian-born Latifi, who has donated money to Democrats.

Martin’s critics have accused her of targeting Democrats, including ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D) in a bid-rigging case. Her office dropped the  case after a judge barred crucial evidence. Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, however, later successfully prosecuted Siegelman on corruption charges. The former governor is attempting to appeal his conviction, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

Martin, who served as Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney from 2001 to June 2009, has denied the allegations.

Northern District of Alabama prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory information about a government contractor who stood trial in 2007 on arms control charges, defense lawyers said in a court filing last week, citing newly disclosed emails.

Alice Martin (DOJ)

Lawyers for Alex Latifi wrote in a motion filed Sept. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama that former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and two Assistant U.S. Attorneys violated their Brady obligations by withholding information from the defense. Latifi was acquitted in October 2007 of charges that he violated the Arms Export Control Act.

Prosecutors alleged that Latifi falsified a report to the Defense Department and sent a drawing of a Black Hawk helicopter part to China. He is CEO of Axion Corp., which manufactured military equipment, including Humvee machine-gun mounts. Axion has struggled to secure contracts since the case was brought.

The defense team of Henry Frohsin, James Barger Jr. and J. Elliott Walthall from Frohsin & Barger said they have “explicit, unequivocal evidence” that Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Estes and Angela Debro and Army investigators David Balwinski and Marcus Mills allegedly conspired with trial witness James Oglesby to conceal evidence and defraud the court.

“All of these individuals sought to present false evidence to the court with the hope of convicting defendants of a crime they knew defendants had not committed,” the defense filing says.

The testimony of Oglesby, a plant manager for the Tungsten Products unit of metal manufacturer Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, was central to the false report charge, the defense team said. Oglesby told the Army investigators that Axion did not receive parts from Tungsten Products until January 2004, and that if Latifi said otherwise he was “lying,” according to court documents.

The defense lawyers said a series of e-mails about the purportedly false report contradict Oglesby’s testimony and allegedly show of a conspiracy by the government. The e-mails were obtained last month through a related lawsuit.

The government did not disclose to the defense that there were Tungsten Products records endorsed by Oglesby that contradicted his testimony, the motion said. The defense said it was not made aware of alleged conversations between Debro and Oglesby about the records before the trial began, according to the motion, which cited emails between the prosecution and a lawyer for Allegheny Technologies Incorporated.

“The … e-mails demonstrate that the government was well aware of the import of these documents and was desperate to have them explained before the trial,” the motion said. “Yet, upon receiving whatever explanation was forthcoming, the Government elected to bury this evidence. Instead, the government called Oglesby not once, but twice, to offer misleading half-truths as well as outright lies.”

You can read the e-mails h e r e and here.

Frohsin told Main Justice that the actions allegedly perpetrated by the government in his client’s case “cannot be condoned in our society.”

“We think that the pending charges are extremely serious,” Frohsin said.

Joyce Vance (DOJ)

Martin’s successor, Joyce Vance, has been ordered by the court to respond to the motion by Sept. 28.

Vance’s office emailed the following statement to Main Justice:

This office recently learned that defense counsel for former defense contractor Alexander Latifi and his company, Axion Corporation, intended to file accusations against former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and two current assistant U.S. attorneys, as well as two U.S. Army criminal investigators and a prosecution witness, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said.

Latifi and Axion were indicted and subsequently acquitted in a 2007 trial.

This filing by defense counsel is, of course, an advocate’s point of view, Vance said.  The United States will file its response, as ordered by the court, within 14 days, explaining why we disagree with defense counsel’s interpretation of events, she said.

Martin told Main Justice the motion is “baseless” and that she will file a written response with the court. The former U.S. Attorney added in a brief interview that she has no regrets about the case.

The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility is currently reviewing an earlier complaint from defense lawyers regarding a meeting Martin attended in which AUSA Estes allegedly said: ”We don’t care if Latifi is innocent. Our goal is to put him out of business,” according to an ABA Journal report.

Some Alabama lawyers have raised questions about whether politics motivated the prosecution against Latifi.

The Internal Revenue Service investigated Latifi for a donation he made in 2005 to an an Iranian charity for medical evacuation helicopters. Latifi, a naturalized American citizen who was born in Iran, pledged the money because he had a nephew who was unable to make it to a hospital in time, the ABA Journal reported.

Jerome Gabig, Latifi’s business lawyer, told the ABA Journal in an October 2008 interview that the “check rang warn­ing bells with Dave Estes at exactly the wrong moment.” There were heightened concerns about national security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Barger also told the ABA Journal last year that the first entry in the lead investigator’s official notebook identified Latifi’s political affiliation and said that he “gave $30,000 to a Demo­cratic politician’s charity for abused children.”

Martin’s critics have accused her of targeting Democrats. Matin, who served as Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney from 2001 to June 2009, has denied the allegations.

One controversy involved her attempt to prosecute ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D) in a bid-rigging case, which her office dropped after a judge barred crucial evidence. Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, however, later successfully prosecuted Siegelman on corruption charges. The former governor is attempting to appeal his conviction, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

Vance became the interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama in June, two months before she was confirmed by the Senate. Martin told Main Justice in June that the Obama administration did not force her out early, and that she recommended Vance to be her successor. Vance was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and head of the appellate section in the Birmingham office.

Attorney General Eric Holder made a special trip to attend Vance’s swearing in ceremony last month and kissed her on the cheek at the event.

Joyce Vance took the oath as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama this afternoon before more than 300 people including 42 judges and Attorney General Eric Holder, a Vance spokesperson said today.

Joyce Vance (DOJ)

Holder did not speak at the event, though he kissed Vance after the ceremony when she gave him a copy of what’s known as the Birmingham Pledge — a vow to treat all people with respect, The Associated Press reported.

The ceremony was held at the Robert S. Vance Federal Building, named after her father-in-law, a federal appeals court judge on the 11th circuit who was murdered in 1989 after he opened a nail-bomb package mailed to his home. His widow, Helen, was in attendance, according to The AP.

The Senate confirmed Vance as U.S. Attorney earlier this month. She had been interim U.S. Attorney since June, when former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin resigned. Martin had a tumultuous tenure as U.S. Attorney and was criticized by the Left for trying to go after ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D).

We previously reported that Vance came back from her U.S. Attorney interview in Washington carrying two framed portraits of Holder and President Obama, after Martin didn’t immediately hang their portraits in the office. (Martin told us in an interview she’d sent the portraits out to be framed, and that she intended to hang them as soon as they were returned).

Attorney General Eric Holder will attend the swearing in of Joyce Vance as Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney, The Birmingham News reported today.

Joyce Vance (DOJ)

Vance is special for several reasons. One, she is widely admired in the Alabama legal community. Two, she is the daughter-in-law of the late Robert Smith Vance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, who was murdered in 1989 after he opened a mail-bomb package mailed to his home by a man who also targeted the NAACP.

Three, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and head of the appellate section in the Birmingham-based office, Vance suffered for years under the tumultuous reign of Alice Martin, the recently resigned Bush-appointed prosecutor criticized by the Left for trying to go after ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D). Martin tried to sideline her perceived rival by shuffling the aggressive prosecutor off into the appellate section, and move that backfired. (For more background, click here to read our previous report, “Martin: I Was Not Pushed Out.”)

Oh, and don’t forget: Holder’s late sister-in-law, Vivian Malone Jones, was one of two of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, only to be blocked by then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace. And for good measure, we’ll recall how Vance came back from her U.S. Attorney interview in Washington carrying two framed portraits of Holder and President Barack Obama, after Martin didn’t immediately hang their portraits in the office. (Martin told us in an interview she’d sent the portraits out to be framed, and that she intended to hang them as soon as they were returned).

Will Holder be present at the ceremonies for the other U.S. Attorneys confirmed with Vance last Friday? They include Tristram Coffin (Vermont), Preet Bharara (Southern District of New York), B. Todd Jones (Minnesota) and John Kacavas (New Hampshire)?

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Vance will be sworn in Aug. 27 at the Robert S. Vance Federal Building, named after her father-in-law and the former federal judge, according to the newspaper. She has been the interim U.S. Attorney for the office since June 19, when Martin resigned.

Mary Jacoby contributed to this report.

UPDATE:

DOJ spokesperson Hannah August said Holder’s upcoming visit to the Northern District of Alabama is part of an ongoing effort by the Attorney General to personally reach out to the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ offices.

“The Attorney General is making it a priority to visit U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country to personally meet with prosecutors and other staff to hear firsthand about the cases they’re working on, the issues they face, and ways in which he can help them do their jobs,” August wrote in an e-mail. “The visit to the Northern District of Alabama was made to coincide with U.S. Attorney Vance’s swearing-in.”

Of the three U.S. Attorney nominees who’ve been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one – Joyce Vance in the Northern District of Alabama – didn’t wait for Senate confirmation to get started.

Joyce Vance (usdoj)

Vance on June 19 replaced the controversial Alice Martin, who came under scrutiny during the Bush administration for what critics called a pattern of politicized prosecutions. Vance is now interim U.S. Attorney, but her formal Senate confirmation could come this week.

In the meantime, we wanted to know: Did Martin’s departure mean the ultra-cautious Obama administration was finally ready to play a little bit of hardball? Did it push out one of those Bush-era U.S. Attorneys clinging to their jobs, even though they’re reviled by the Left? Martin’s office in 2004 dropped a bid-rigging case against Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) after a judge barred crucial evidence. But the office of Martin’s colleague, Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, successfully prosecuted Siegelman on the corruption charges that have caused such an uproar, prompting the imprisoned Siegelman last week to ask for a new trial, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

We phoned Martin at her home in Florence, Ala., last week to ask. Her answer: absolutely not. She was not pushed out. In fact, Martin said she personally recommended that Vance, a veteran prosecutor in the office who was most recently chief of the appellate section, get started early.

Both Vance and the Department of Justice public affairs office in Washington declined to comment, so we only have Martin’s side of the story.

Here it is:

Martin said she received a “courtesy call� in March from an official at Main Justice whom she declined to identify telling her Vance would be nominated. “At that time I said I will tender my resignation,� Martin told me. “They said no. They asked me if I would please stay until they had her [Vance] in line and out committee.�

Then in June, shortly before the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Vance and two other U.S. Attorney nominees, Martin said she received another “courtesy call”  from an official at Main Justice. “They didn’t need to tell me to go. I knew it was time.â€�

Martin said she immediately drafted a resignation letter effective June 19 – the day after the committee was slated to vote on Vance – and then personally called H. Marshall Jarrett, the new head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, to inform him of her decision. Martin said she doesn’t have a new job yet and is taking the summer off to spend time with her children.

Barack Obama official portrait

We also asked Martin about the rumor circulating that she had refused to hang the official portraits of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder in the Northern District’s offices. “That’s not true,� she told me. “Those pictures are sent out by the administration when they have them. Ours were sent out, and we sent them out to be framed. They don’t send them to you framed. That’s what’s so infuriating about people.�

Eric Holder official portait

She said Vance had gone to Washington for her U.S. Attorney interview and apparently “made the comment that we didn’t have any [portraits] in. She came back from Washington with two framed portraits. They had a different matting than we normally use. … I’m pleased as punch she didn’t know what was going on, but that’s not uncommon for someone who is not the U.S. Attorney.�

Martin called the rumors she’d refused to hang Obama and Holder’s portraits “insulting.� She added: “I’m personally the one who removed George Bush’s picture. I certainly did. We had a new president. He [Bush] was no longer the president. I thought it was appropriate.�

Martin also took issue with the characterization of her as “controversial.â€� She said the 130 public corruption convictions won during her tenure were split evenly between Democrats and Republicans – in a state where local Democratic office holders outnumber Republicans.

However, the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility is apparently still investigating Martin’s prosecution of a company called Axion Corp., which was acquitted in October 2007 of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Axion attorney Henry Frohsin of Frohsin and Barger LLC in Birmingham, who filed the complaint, told me Monday it remains pending. Frohsin has said he believes the company was targeted during the “Axis of Evil” era because its owner is Iranian-American. You can read Scott Horton’s piece in The American Lawyer about the Axion case here.

Vance, meanwhile, is a highly regarded prosecutor who worked at the white-shoe Bradley Arant Rose & White firm in Birmingham. A native of California, she is married to Robert Vance Jr., the son of judge Robert Smith Vance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, who was murdered in 1989 after he opened a package mailed to his home containing a nail bomb.

Walter Leroy “Roy� Moody Jr. was charged with the murder of Vance and a Georgia civil rights attorney who was killed in another explosion. Moody was also charged with mailing bombs to the 11th Circuit’s headquarters and to an office of the NAACP. In 1990, the federal courthouse in Birmingham was named the Robert S. Vance Federal Building.

After Martin was confirmed in 2001 as the Northern District U.S. Attorney, she put Vance in charge of the office’s appellate section in what appeared to be an attempt to sideline her as a prosecutor, several people with knowledge of the office told me. But it backfired, the people said: Vance became well known and respected among 11th Circuit judges, whose opinion can make or break a U.S. Attorney nominee.

Here is the text of the email Martin sent to her staff announcing her departure:

Dear Colleagues:

It is with a smile on my face but sadness in my heart that I announce I will resign as United States Attorney effective this Friday, June 19th at close of business.

The smile comes from knowing each of you and the confidence that you will continue to do outstanding and impactful work for the people of this district and nation (and the knowledge that I am taking the summer off to spend with my girls before my eldest starts college in the Fall)! The sadness comes from knowing each of you – and knowing that I will not have the level of contact which has made the past almost 8 years so meaningful for me. Wow, I can’t believe it has been almost 8 years since I joined your ranks – you have had far more time with me than you deserved! So, as we learned in leadership classes, change can be good – just know that one thing will not change and that is my following your careers and successes. You are an important part of my life.

I have advised the Department of my decision to spend the summer playing and not prosecuting, and my recommendation that Joyce be designated Acting U.S. Attorney pending her Senate confirmation. Her nomination is on this week’s Senate Judiciary Executive Business Meeting, and I trust the process will be swift to her confirmation!

I am in Huntsville today, and Birmingham the remainder of the week. I will be coming by each office to wish you well, but know if we miss, I trust we’ll see each other at a party which is planned for July 16th to celebrate our successes since September 2001. They are many because of your dedication to the mission!

Thanks for your individual leadership and professionalism. There is no better U. S. Attorney’s Office in the country and I am proud to have served with you!

Warmest wishes for your every success,
Alice

Joyce Vance, nominee for the Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney, became the interim U.S. Attorney for the office following the resignation of Alice Martin today, The Birmingham News reported this afternoon.

President Obama’s appointee was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. The full Senate must still vote on her nomination before she can be sworn in as U.S. Attorney.