Steve Marshall joins 13 AGs to petition court over federal mining rule they argue violates states’ rights
Alabama may agree to keep abortion ban on hold until 2020
Alabama indicated in a court filing that it might agree to keep the state’s new abortion ban on hold until 2020 to let a legal challenge play out in court. The law set to take effect in November would make performing an abortion a felony in most cases. Abortion providers have filed a lawsuit arguing the ban is unconstitutional. Attorneys for the state and abortion providers this week submitted a joint status report to a judge indicating the two sides would agree to delay the law if it’s not possible to resolve the case before November. The court filing said they would agree to a temporary restraining order until May 24, 2020 — a year from when the lawsuit was filed — to allow time to resolve the lawsuit. “Attorney General (Steve) Marshall agrees that, as suggested above, a temporary injunction would be appropriate to preserve the status quo,” the court filing stated. The court filing also indicated the state wants to obtain information from the opposing side although it was not clear what information it is seeking. Abortion rights groups say the ban is blatantly unconstitutional. Abortion providers also have asked for a preliminary injunction to keep the ban blocked until the case is decided.U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson gave the state until Aug. 5 to respond to that request.The Alabama law would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison for the abortion provider. There would be few exceptions. Abortion rights groups say it is clearly unconstitutional. Emboldened by new conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, Alabama is part of a wave of conservative states seeking to mount new legal challenges to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Some supporters have acknowledged the ban will almost certainly be struck down by lower courts because Roe is controlling precedent, but they hope to spark a court case that might prompt the justices to revisit abortion rights. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Final push in Attorney General runoff brings Trump favorites Pam Bondi and Roger Stone to AL
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former Attorney General Troy King are making their final pitches to voters ahead of Tuesday’s Republican runoff. Marshall returned to the campaign trail Saturday for the first time following the suicide of his wife last month. Marshall thanked people for supporting him during his loss. He said he never considered dropping out of the race because his wife had urged him to run. “One of the last things that my wife had left for me was a note. She said that I know you are the man for the job and the man for Alabama,” Marshall said. A group of GOP attorneys generals, including Pam Bondi of Florida, held rallies with Marshall on Saturday in both ends of the state. Bondi said “ethics and integrity mean everything” and others praised his record as a prosecutor. “We believe in what he’s doing for Alabama and I believe in what he’s doing for President Trump,” Bondi said Marshall is seeking to win the office in his own right after being appointed last year by then-Gov. Robert Bentley. He previously served 16 years as the district attorney of Marshall County. Both King and Marshall are stressing their records in the heated runoff. King, who was attorney general from 2004 to 2011, is seeking a political comeback. King was appointed as attorney general by then-Gov. Bob Riley. He was elected to a full term in 2006, but he lost the 2010 GOP primary to Luther Strange. In an interview with the Associated Press, King said he was the true Republican in the race, noting that, as a 10-year-old, he went door-to-door campaigning for Ronald Reagan. Marshall, who was initially appointed by Gov. Don Siegelman, switched to the GOP in 2011. “On Tuesday this election is about the Republican Party nominating a standard-bearer. Only one of us is a Republican,” King said when asked why runoff voters should choose him. King will hold a series of Monday rallies with Trump ally Roger Stone. Both campaigns paused their activities last month following the death of Bridgette Marshall. King said he pulled his commercials from the air for a week after the death out of respect for his opponent. In returning to the campaign trail, King said he would focus on contrasting their records. That does not mean the primary has not gotten heated at times. King criticized Bentley’s appointment of Marshall when Bentley was the subject of an ethics investigation as a “crooked deal.” King said Marshall got his dream job and “let a man who corrupted Alabama go free.” Marshall responded that he was ethically required to recuse himself from the investigation, but he appointed an “experienced tough prosecutor” to lead the probe and “six weeks after that Robert Bentley was out of office.” Bentley resigned after pleading guilty to misdemeanor campaign finance violations. Marshall’s campaign sent out a direct mail piece with unflattering headlines from King’s time as attorney general, including that King had briefly been the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. The probe ended without charges. King responded that the probe was politically motivated and was leaked to the press to derail his 2010 campaign. He said it ended without charges because he did nothing wrong. The runoff winner will race Democrat Joseph Siegelman in November. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Steve Marshall announces $100 million settlement with Citibank
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced a $100 million multi-state settlement with Citibank on Friday. 42 other attorney generals in the U.S. joined in the investigation of Citibank’s U.S. Dollar (USD) LIBOR interest rate. The interest rate is a benchmark that affects trillions of dollars of financial instruments and has a widespread impact on global markets and consumers. According to Marshall, Citibank allegedly misrepresented the integrity of their LIBOR benchmarks to both state and local governments, private trading companies, and several non-profit organizations by failing to disclose that: Citibank, at times, made USD LIBOR submissions to avoid negative publicity and protect the reputation of the bank; Citibank’s USD LIBOR submitters, on occasion, asked Citibank personnel in other units of the bank to avoid offering higher rates than Citibank’s USD LIBOR submissions Citibank expressed belief that other banks, at times, made USD LIBOR submissions that were inconsistent with their borrowing rates and contributed to inaccurate LIBORs. “As a result of its fraudulent conduct, Citibank made millions in unjust gains when government entities and not-for-profit organizations entered into swaps and other financial contracts with Citibank without knowing that Citibank and other banks on the USD LIBOR-setting panel were manipulating LIBOR submissions,” said Marshall in a news release. Several entities in Alabama including the state government, local governments and private entities (with LIBOR-linked swaps and investment contracts with Citibank) may be considered as those who were affected by Citibank’s fraudulent conduct, and may be eligible to receive recompense from a settlement fund of $95 million. The office of the Attorney General will contact those eligible for a portion of the settlement directly, the balance of the fund will then be used to pay costs and expenses of the investigation. This settlement with Citibank is the third of several USD LIBOR-setting banks to resolve claims following investigation by state Attorneys General. 42 states have collected $100 million for each state involved in the settlement. The funds will be distributed to state and local government entities and not-for-profit associations.
Ethics Commission director says bill weakens ethics law
The director of the state Ethics Commission said a bill before Alabama lawmakers could open up a potentially wide loophole in state ethics law by carving out an exemption for people doing economic development work. “I think it’s a bad bill that weakens the ethics law considerably,” Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton said. The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill to exempt economic developers from the definition of lobbyist under the state ethics law. Supporters argued it is needed to help Alabama compete with other states for projects and factories by keeping developers’ activity confidential, but critics said it opens up an exemption in the ethics law that governs interactions with government officials. The bill says that an economic development professional — defined as a person who does full-time economic development work or works part-time and is “precertified” by the Ethics Commission — shall not be considered a lobbyist. “It exempts people from the definition of lobbying when I think most people would agree that what they are doing is in fact lobbying,” Albritton said. “You are also declaring that the other portions of the ethics act related to a lobbyist’s transaction with public officials no longer apply to them. That’s where the problem lies in my view.” He said another danger is that “economic development is “often used as kind of catch all designation for activity that people want to conduct with executive branch agencies, or executive offices or the legislature itself.” “At the end of the day, there’s a good bit of activity that could be argued is economic development,” Albritton said. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, who oversees the state’s industry recruitment efforts, said his department and professional economic developers asked for the legislation because of confusion that began arising in 2015 on whether developers should register as lobbyists. “If we don’t clarify this under the law, professional site consultants are going to draw a big red line around Alabama,” Canfield said. “That red line is going to say avoid bringing projects to the state of Alabama because there are too many states that will, for one, protect the confidentiality of your project and two, not require you go through training and registration on a regular basis. It will be easier to conduct professional economic development activities in these other states,” Canfield said. Rep. Ken Johnson, the bill’s sponsor, said the state should not put a “hurdle” on professional site developers by requiring them to register as lobbyists. Johnson said the five-member Alabama Ethics Commission previously tabled an advisory opinion on the matter so lawmakers could attempt to address the issue. Johnson said he believes lawmakers have prevented it from becoming a wide loophole by specifying that the exemption couldn’t be claimed by legislators, other public officials and people who are otherwise lobbyists. The Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he opposed the bill at first but was pleased with changes to the bill, before its House passage, that he said creates a “narrowly-drawn exemption for full-time economic development professionals.” Albritton said a better way, in his view, would be to keep the developers under the state ethics law, but allow the reports on their activity to remain confidential for a period of time so deals in the making are not publicly disclosed. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate. Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh said he wanted to speak with both Marshall’s office and the state ethics commission. “I’m not going to move anything unless the attorney general and the ethics commission are on board with it,” Marsh said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
