By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—Court documents filed today by State’s prosecution in Speaker Mike Hubbard case reveal that Hubbard and his close associates began receiving Grand Jury leaks in 2012.
Hubbard’s criminal defense J. Mark White, has been making accusations of Grand Jury leaks even before the Lee County Grand Jury, investigating Hubbard ever heard a word of testimony.
With the new flings by the State, it is revealed that it was the defense that was receiving the benefits of leaks and no one else.
Recently, White entered motions before Lee Count Circuit Judge Jacob Walker III, and also issued subpoenas on Hubbard’s behalf.
The prosecutions answer contains emails between Hubbard and former Gov. Bob Riley (Exhibits K and L) which make it clear that they were receiving confidential Grand Jury information from then Deputy Attorney General Henry T. “Sonny” Reagan.
The first email exchange between Riley and Hubbard is dated the day after Bill Armistead, then Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, made it publicly known that a Grand Jury was investigating Hubbard.
On December 12, 2012, Armistead made it known that the Grand Jury had subpoenaed information from ALGOP concerning Hubbard’s tenure as Chairman. The following day, an email exchange between Hubbard and Riley reveals Grand Jury leaks from inside the Attorney General’s Office.
The email identifies the “leaker” as Deputy Attorney General Sonny Reagan who occupied an office that adjoined Chief Prosecutor Matt Hart’s.
In Exhibit L Hubbard writes Riley, “Gov: Talk with Rob [Riley] when you can. Armistead and Luther have now teamed up to try to ruin me politically. Not sure what Luther’s end game is other than he views me as a potential threat down the road. Rob knows details.”
Riley answers Hubbard saying, “I was with him [Rob] during the conversations with you [Hubbard] and Sonny [Reagan] last night. Have a couple of people trying to understand what’s happening.”
Here, Riley acknowledged a conversation with Reagan and Hubbard and also indicates that Rob Riley was involved in receiving information about the Lee County Grand Jury as early as December, 2012.
Also in the email Hubbard writes, “Armistead is evil and I guess so is Luther.”
Hubbard also makes the assertion that Strange was conducting the investigation to damage Hubbard’s political career. An assertion that has been proven false not only by the fact that Strange recused himself from the prosecution but all the 85 exhibits released at the request of Hubbard’s attorney White.
Exhibit K shows that in an email correspondence which took place on January 17-18, 2012, Hubbard tells Riley, “Confidentially, I received word just now from Josh [Blades] that a mutual friend in the AG’s office (he used to work for you) called to tell him that the prosecutor told him this afternoon that the accusations against me have been thoroughly investigated and totally dismissed by the Grand Jury.”
The emails shows that Riley and Hubbard, along with Rob Riley and Josh Blades, then Hubbard’s Chief of Staff, were involved in leaked secrets from the Grand Jury. It also reinforces that Reagan was the leaker because he is the only person in the Attorney General’s Office who had worked in the Riley Administration.
While Hubbard’s mouthpiece White has accused others of leaking Grand Jury information, these emails prove that there were leaks but they were going to the defense not the prosecution. The evidence shows that Reagan was explicitly sharing the deliberations of the Grand Jury. However, the information that Hubbard passed along to Riley was false.
White also filed a motion with the court to dismiss the case against Hubbard saying the Grand Jury had exceed it authority in its investigation into Reagan’s activities at the Attorney General’s Office.
Reagan was allowed to resign his post with the AG rather than being fired after it was learned that, in the words of General Strange, “forged relationships with persons, outside the Office of Attorney General, who had an interest in undermining the Lee County Special Grand Jury’s investigation.”
It is public record that Reagan shared attorneys with Rep. Barry Moore and Speaker Hubbard. Court documents show that Moore’s attorney Bill Baxley, also represents Reagan. As this publication has previously reported, Rob Riley, the son of former governor Bob Riley, also represents Reagan as well as Hubbard.
A letter from attorney Bill Athanas confirms that Rob Riley had represented Hubbard for some time. And matches with Strange’s press release stating “Mr. Reagan shared legal counsel with Speaker Hubbard, who was the subject of the grand jury’s investigation.”
In the latest court filing, we learn that is was Reagan’s attorney Bill Baxley that recommended he write the memo that led to a personnel complaint against Hart.
In a hearing before Judge Walker, Baxley said, “I advised Sonny to write this memo about Hart.”
The very next day, Baxley filed a motion on behalf of Rep. Barry Moore to get Hart’s personnel record (complaint) in discovery.
So the record shows that Reagan drafted a false personnel complaint against Hart on July 22, 2014, and the next morning, on July 23, 2014, he delivered this false complaint to Charlotte Ducet, Chief of the Administrative Services Division at the AG’s office. The very next day, July 24, 2014, Attorney Baxley who represents Reagan and Moore filed a motion to compel State to review personnel files of testifying agents in the Moore case. Exhibit N.
The motion to compel sought the personnel files for Hart including any personnel complaints. Notably, even though Moore had been indicted in April 2014, Moore’s attorneys did not seek any discovery whatsoever from the State up to that point.
As more motions are filed by Hubbard’s attorney White the clearer a picture of Hubbard’s alleged wrong doings emerges as well as the complex entanglements to damage the prosecution.
