By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—Exhibit A in the State’s Surreply (additional reply) to defendant Speaker Mike Hubbard’s Amended Motion for Production reveals that Hubbard and his attorney J. Mark White knew Hubbard was the subject of a Grand Jury investigation as early as September 2013. This is contrary to statements made by White and Hubbard during that period of time. In a letter to W. Van Davis dated September 13, 2013, White acknowledged that Davis is acting on behalf of Attorney General Luther Strange in the investigation into Hubbard, and that Hubbard’s co-counsel Lance Bell had spoken directly to Davis and Matt Hart.
However, in September, White was telling the media, and anyone else that would listen, that he had been retained to, “investigate the false and malicious rumors being circulated about the Speaker, his family, and his business, and to hold accountable those individuals and organizations creating, circulating, publishing and re-publishing false and malicious statements.”
White continued the same spin for the next year until Oct. 20, 2014, when Hubbard was indicted on 23 counts of felony public corruption.
Bell, who began his career as an investigator for Davis in the St. Clair County District Attorney Office, also maintained the same public deception. The press and the public were led to believe that White and Bell were acting to protect Hubbard from false and malicious rumors being spread by unnamed individuals or organizations.
White does inform Davis that his team is doing an investigation into several matters, but to the media, he only supplied one motivate behind his work for Hubbard. It would appear that lies by omission or “White” lies are acceptable in the legal profession.
The 2013 letter from White confirms what this publication has known all along: That White and Bell were hired to defend Hubbard in a criminal investigation and the rest was a pubic relations scheme.
