republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Luther Strange’s suspect ascension to the US Senate is just the
latest in a series of bizarre House of Cards-esque corruption scandals
that have shocked the state of Alabama.

If you’ve been paying any
kind of attention to the recent slew of corruption and sex scandals
originating from the Alabama state capital, you can’t help but wonder if
this isn’t all some kind of orchestrated dramatic prelude to Season 5
of House of Cards. Approximately one year ago, Speaker of the House Mike
Hubbard was convicted of 12 felony ethics violations. Then, Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court Roy Moore was removed from office by an
unelected Judicial Inquiry Commission for standing up to the federal
government and refusing to force Alabama judges to obey the
controversial Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that overruled various state
laws regarding gay marriage. And finally, Governor Robert Bentley just
recently resigned and pled guilty to multiple misdemeanor campaign
finance violations as part of a deal to avoid felony ethics charges and
impeachment relating to various abuses of power used to cover up his
illicit affair with a senior political advisor. In less than one year,
the heads of all three branches of government (Legislative, Executive,
and Judicial) were removed from office. However, this season of our
drama isn’t quite over yet.

Roy Moore (L), Mike Hubbard (M), Robert Bentley (R)

In the last episode of “House of Cards: Alabama”,
Bentley had just resigned from office and Lt. Governor Kay Ivey was
being sworn in as the first Republican female governor in state history.
Now, as black fades to a wide-angle view of the State Capitol building
on a sunny day, the narrator informs us that the state is on pins and
needles awaiting the decision of Governor Ivey regarding the US Senate
special election. But first, we need to flash back to a few episodes
earlier. “November 2016” appears on the bottom of the screen, and we are
greeted by an unusually tall figure sitting across a desk from a
shorter one. “The Bentley impeachment process had been moving forward
rapidly for months,” continues our narrator. “Now, however, Attorney
General Luther Strange has called a meeting with Mike Jones, the
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Rumors have been swirling
that Strange has been moving forward with a criminal investigation of
his own, and may be close to issuing an indictment.” The conversation
between our two figures begins. The tall one, quickly recognized as
Luther Strange, is asking Chairman Jones to temporarily suspend the
impeachment proceedings against the Governor. Why? “Related work,”
replies Strange. No details are given, but the implication is obvious:
he wants to be the one to take the Governor down. Faced with the
prospect of a lengthy, expensive, and very complicated legislative
process in order to impeach a sitting Governor for the first time in
over a century, Jones eagerly agrees. A criminal indictment instead of
an impeachment will not only ensure that the punishment fits the crime,
but will save the state significant amounts of money.
A few days later, Donald Trump wins the
Presidency. Cue dramatic footage of cheering crowds, waving flags, and
patriotic music. Fade to black. Commercial break.

As the latest unimaginative car
commercial ends, the next scene opens on dramatic footage of Alabama’s
junior US Senator, Jeff Sessions, being sworn in as Donald Trump’s
Attorney General in the Oval Office. Alabama voters are ecstatic. It has
been almost a decade since any conservative in Alabama held a cabinet
position in the Federal government. For the first time in a couple
years, Alabamians are cautiously optimistic about their political
future. But this does not last long. Across the screen, newspaper
headlines dramatically scroll past: “Bentley Preparing to Interview Senate Candidates,” “Bentley Narrows US Senate Picks To Six,” “Robert Bentley Appoints Luther Strange To US Senate,” “Bentley Sets Senate Special Election,” “Steve Marshall Named Alabama Attorney General By Bentley,” “New AG Confirms Investigation Into Gov. Bentley,” “Attorney General Appoints A Special Prosecutor To Continue Bentley Investigation” “Auditor To Sue Bentley, Strange Over Senate Appointment,” “Lawsuit Filed Over Bentley’s Senate Special Election Date,” “Gov. Bentley Wants To Toss Lawsuit On Delayed Senate Election,” “Bentley To Defend His Special Election Decision Next Month,” and so on and so forth.

Robert Bentley (left) and Luther Strange (right)

Governor Robert Bentley, now a convicted
criminal, had received an application from, interviewed, and appointed
Luther Strange to the US Senate. The same Luther Strange who had been
halting his impeachment proceedings for months with no explanation. When
questions arose during the interview process about a possible conflict
of interest, the then Attorney General said “We have never said in our
office that we are investigating the governor. It’s somewhat unfair to
him and unfair to the process.” Not quite an explicit denial, but an
obvious implication of one. Both the Governor and the Attorney General insisted there was no conflict of interest, presumably because there was no investigation – despite the impeachment proceedings being suspended for his “related work.”
Enter Steve Marshall. It’s not quite
clear what Governor Bentley thought he had to gain by appointing Mr.
Marshall as the next Attorney General (which, in Alabama, he can do
unilaterally with no approval required). However, it’s obvious that it
did not work out in the Governor’s favor. Within 48 business hours of
being sworn in, Attorney General Marshall met with his staff and asked
them about any potential investigation into the Governor. Upon being
informed that there was indeed an ongoing criminal investigation and
potential impending indictment, he immediately and publicly recused
himself from the process and appointed a special prosecutor. In doing
so, he effectively implicated Senator Strange in an ethics violation –
by insisting he himself was legally required to recuse himself from the
investigation simply because he had been appointed by the Governor, he
in effect implied that Luther Strange had been legally required to do
the same when he was applying for the appointment to the Senate. Since
this time, a bar complaint has been filed against Strange based in part on this sequence of events.

Don’t leave to make more popcorn yet. We’re just getting to the good part.

Now, under any normal circumstances, what
would you expect to happen next? Naturally, we (Alabama voters)
expected to see a special election for the Senate seat come up. We all
figured that the problem with Luther would be quickly resolved in a
rapid special election in which he’d spend all his time defending
himself from corruption allegations, have no ability to raise money, and
have none of the advantages traditionally associated with an incumbent.
But we weren’t confident long. Even though our scumbag of a Governor
had become fairly well known for being unpredictable, we were all still a
bit shocked when he announced that he was not, in fact, holding a
special election. The election for the Senate seat would be held in
2018, along with the normal election cycle. This would allow Luther
Strange over a year to build up incumbency and financial resources, and
would give him time to let the controversy subside before he’d be forced
to answer to the general public. Time is the greatest ally of every
politician. This proclamation was issued despite opinions written by
both the Legislative Reference Service and the Secretary of State that
clearly stated that doing so was in direct violation of state law.

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Angered at this turn of events, and especially at the clear implication that they’d been misled by Luther Strange for months, legislators began calling for the impeachment process
to resume immediately. The process quickly picked back up, and within a
month, the first hearings were being held. Governor Bentley did
everything in his power to postpone the process and maintain his
innocence, but finally caved right before the evidence was due to be
presented, and negotiated a deal with AG Marshall and the rest of the
law enforcement agencies involved. In exchange for no jail time, he
immediately resigned, pled guilty to multiple campaign finance
violations, agreed to community service and significant fines, and
promised to never run for office again.
Now, we can pick back up where we left
off. Kay Ivey is being sworn in as the second female governor in the
history of Alabama. She promises transparency and pledges to restore the
public’s faith in their government. She immediately fires multiple
senior staffers that were known to be involved in the various scandals,
including the husband of the Governor’s mistress, who ironically was in
charge of Governor Bentley’s faith-based initiatives. Then, the other
shoe drops: she announces that the Senate seat would immediately see a
special election.  Rejoice! Now, we can finally clean this state’s slate
of corruption. Remove the last vestige of the embarrassment that was
Dr. Governor Robert Julian Bentley.

Not so fast.

Mitch McConnell – AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

There were two factors that nobody had
considered. One: Very few people remembered what Luther Strange did for a
living before he was Attorney General. What was that? He was a
lobbyist. A DC lobbyist, to be specific. He knew how the system worked.
He’d been building relationships with the swamp creatures in the Capital
for decades, not months. And, two: Mitch McConnell needs a win. Not
just McConnell, but the entire GOP establishment. Their ability to
defend their own members against attacks from within their own party has
been severely diminished over the past few years, starting with the
unexpected downfall of Eric Cantor and the rise of the House Freedom
Caucus. This significantly impacts the ability of these partisan leaders
to whip votes and reassure their caucus members whenever they need them
to vote on an issue that is wildly unpopular with their constituents.
Now, here’s Luther Strange: a loyal foot soldier and reliable caucus vote on whatever issue Mitch McConnell deems important at the time.
They need to prove that loyalty is rewarded with re-election, even in
difficult times. So, they’ve placed all their eggs in Luther’s basket.
Despite Luther never being elected to the Senate, they are treating him
like an invaluable long-term incumbent, devoting unlimited resources to
ensure his ascension.
Mitch McConnell is the real-life
equivalent of President Underwood on a mad rampage. Over the past few
weeks, and even now, he and his operatives at the NRSC are doing
everything in their power to not only build Luther Strange up, but to
unceremoniously destroy any attempt at opposition to him. They forced
numerous consults to resign from opposing campaigns by threatening them
and telling them that they’d be blackballed from any future work with
the GOP if they dared work against them. They’ve bought off unprincipled
Republicans – Luther is personally calling even mid-level operatives
himself and offering them large sums of money for their allegiance, many
times asking them to switch sides and betray a candidate they are
currently supporting. I have personal friends that have received such
calls, receiving offers of over $20,000. For every one one of those that
refused to auction off their integrity, I shudder to imagine how many
accepted such offers and have yet to admit to it.

Despite scaring off numerous legitimate
and well-funded candidates and co-opting Donald Trump’s campaign
speeches to attack principled conservatives, the NRSC is still boring
full-steam ahead in their war against those who refuse to toe the line
and bow the knee to party leadership. Just this past week, they placed a $2.6 Million television ad buy with out-of-state funds,
saying that it is a “fraction” of what they plan on spending. Buoyed by
these out-of-state funds, establishment backing from deep within the
swamp, and a total lack of any kind of conscience that would prohibit
him from blatantly lying in his campaign ads, Luther is poised to potentially win this seat and escape punishment for his corruption.

However, all hope is not lost.

Given the circumstances, it is no
surprise that the field for the Senate seat has quickly become quite
crowded. Ed Henry, the state legislator that led the impeachment process
against Robert Bentley, was the first to jump in – followed by former
Chief Justice Roy Moore, activist Randy Brinson, and Congressman Mo
Brooks, a member of the Freedom Caucus, as well as numerous less
well-known individuals on both sides of the aisle. The diversity of
candidates in this case is actually helpful, as Alabama uses a partisan
primary runoff system. Dividing the anti-Luther vote among several
candidates does not guarantee his success. In fact, it can only hurt it,
as each candidate that jumps in will pull of a small part of Luther’s
voters just through personal relationships and connections. The fewer
votes Luther has, the higher the chances of a runoff occurring, assuming
Luther survives that long. Once in a runoff, as long as all candidates
unite behind whoever is opposing Luther, we’ll be in good shape. But we
may not even get to that point.

Credit: twitter.com/algop

Yesterday, Representative Ed Henry held a
press conference at the Alabama Republican Party headquarters – right
as the qualifying period was ending. He shocked the assembled crowd by
dramatically tearing his qualifying papers in half and announcing that
he had NOT, in fact, qualified to run as a candidate for the Senate
seat. In order to maintain his credibility in calling out Luther Strange
on his corruption, he has chosen to put ambition aside and do what’s
best for the state – fight from outside the race. He talked about the
bar complaint against Luther and is actively supporting a ballot access
challenge filed by Madison County resident Tom Scovill with the state
GOP steering committee. This will hopefully force the 21-member steering
committee to vote up or down on whether or not Luther Strange will be
allowed ballot access as a Republican candidate. This is a procedural
move that has the potential to actually work, given the mountain of
evidence compiled by Mr. Scovill to support his challenge. You can
download the challenge paperwork here, here, here, and here,
and if you want to encourage the Alabama Republican Party to hear the
challenge and vote on it, you can call their office from 8am to 5pm at
(205) 212-5900. They will be voting tonight (Thursday, May 18) on
whether or not to hear the challenge. If it passes that hurdle, they’ll
then hold hearings on the evidence presented.

Actual footage of Ed Henry tearing his qualifying papers in half.

It’s anybody’s guess how this Senate race
will turn out. There is too much money being pumped into the race and
the field is too wide open for anybody to predict with any kind of
certainty a specific outcome. All we can hope is that justice will
prevail and the Strange slate of state corruption in Alabama will be
wiped clean.
Stay tuned for the next dramatic episode of “House of Cards: Alabama.”

If you found this article informative, please share it on Facebook and on Twitter using the hashtag #alpolitics.

About the author: Trey Edwards is an Alabama Republican political
consultant, and anti-tax/anti-corruption activist. He does not currently
work for any candidate or any party/group involved in the US Senate
race

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Over the past few months, we here at The Resurgent have been covering the corruption
surrounding newly appointed US Senator Luther Strange in great detail.
Now, The Resurgent has learned that the hearing on multiple alleged
campaign finance violations committed by Luther Strange have been
mysteriously delayed until the day after the special election primary in
which he is running to keep the seat he was appointed to by former
Governor Robert Bentley, who pled guilty to multiple crimes earlier this
year. This hearing was scheduled to occur on August 2nd, but has been
quietly postponed until August 16th, the day immediately following the
election on the 15th.

Luther Strange & Robert Bentley

Luther Strange is the former Alabama Attorney General, and was appointed
to be a US Senator after the man who previously held that spot, Jeff
Sessions, was appointed by Trump as the nation’s Attorney General.
Strange was appointed to the Senate by now-convicted criminal and former
Governor Robert Bentley, after Strange actively sought to halt the
impeachment proceedings against the Governor for more than six months.
Since then, scandal after scandal has come out surrounding the unelected
Senator, all while he is fighting for his political survival in a
special election that was called by the new Governor, Kay Ivey. Ivey
called a special election because former Governor Bentley had refused to
hold one, in violation of state law. By refusing to hold the special
election on schedule, Bentley gave Senator Strange months to raise
millions and cozy up to Mitch McConnell, who is now spending more than
$2.4 Million of NRSC money to protect him in a heated primary against 10
Republican opponents.
Approximately 90 days ago, there was a new development in the case
against Luther Strange that went largely under the radar: the Alabama
Secretary of State’s office filed a report with the Alabama Ethics
Commission stating that two expenses filed by Luther Strange’s campaign
were both outside the window in which expenses are permissible, and were
also over the maximum limit for those kinds of expenses. At the time,
Secretary of State John Merrill, also a Republican, told ALReporter,

“That is not a permissible expense and it exceeds the amount that could
be given even if it were within the correct time frame. There are two
violations there.”

These violations are both felonies according to Alabama law.

According to Strange’s campaign, these expenses have to do with Luther
Strange transferring the domain names for his website from his state
account to his federal account. However, this claim is suspicious, as
the amount of the transaction is over $1,400. Annual domain fees
generally vary in the $10-40 range. Normally, it would be assumed that
he was buying a batch of domain names similar to his website address,
but a statement from his attorneys in a Yellowhammer News article specifically says it was the purchase of “two web domains at fair market value.” These attorneys, – Megan Sowards Newton and Benjamin L. Ginsberg of
the high powered DC law firm Jones Day, have a history of working for
establishment GOP Congressmen and Senators. Megan Sowards Newton is the
former General Counsel for the NSRC, Mitch McConnell’s organization that
is spending millions of Republican dollars to protect the unelected
Luther Strange – in a primary, in a solid Republican state. Not only
that, but the NSRC has been actively intimidating and threatening
any consultants or campaign contractors that have gone to work for any
of the other Republican candidates running. It is uncertain exactly how
Mitch McConnell’s high powered lawyer friends were unable to achieve a
delay in this ethics hearing for his friend Luther Strange, and it is
unlikely that we will ever know, as the proceedings have been shrouded
from the public eye. In fact, the announcement that the meeting was
rescheduled was not widely broadcast, but simply quietly posted up on
their website. Below is a screenshot, just in case it mysteriously disappears in the near future:

Now, officially, we do not know for certain that the hearing on this
particular case was on the agenda for the August 2nd meeting of the
Alabama Ethics Commission, as that agenda has not been publicized.
However, The Resurgent did reach out to the Secretary of State’s office
and verify the facts:

1. A report was filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission approximately 90 days before the August 2nd meeting was scheduled.
2. There has been no hearing on the report yet.
3. The rescheduling of this meeting of the Alabama Ethics Commission to
   August 16th guarantees that the matter will not be heard before the
   election on August 15th.

Former Governor Robert Bentley’s Mugshot

Legally, the Alabama Ethics Commission has up to one year before hearing
a complaint filed against a public official. However, there is a recent
precedent for holding the hearing before the election. Earlier
this year, after Secretary of State John Merrill filed a similar report
regarding Governor Robert Bentley’s campaign finances on Feb 3rd,
a hearing was held by the Alabama Ethics Commission within 90 days – on
April 10th, right as the impeachment proceedings against the Governor
were beginning. The evidence was nearly identical to the case against
Luther Strange, as is the language used by Secretary of State Merrill,
who at the time called Governor Bentley’s violations “not a permissible
expenditure.” These violations were turned over to the District Attorney
for prosecution, who immediately negotiated a plea deal with Bentley in
which he pled guilty to both campaign finance violations, stepped down
from office, and agreed to significant fines and community service. The
impeachment proceedings were abandoned, Kay Ivey was sworn into office,
and the state was finally able to move forward. The Ethics Commission’s
quick and decisive action in that case saved the taxpayers a significant
amount of time and money. Now, however, they have abandoned the
precedent they themselves set, and appear to be allowing this election
to move forward with no resolution on the highly pertinent ethics
complaints filed by the Secretary of State’s office. This is a violation
of the due process rights of the victims of this crime – in this case,
each and every individual voter in the state of Alabama. The general
public has a constitutional right to a speedy trial, and deserves to
know whether or not the sitting US Senator has violated the law before
heading to the polls on the 15th.

US Senate Candidate Randy Brinson

To make matters worse, all of this is going on while Luther Strange is
having to answer questions about yet another alleged scandal. He was
recently implicated in a conspiracy by some of the biggest corporate
political donors in the state to bribe legislators and public officials
to oppose an EPA Superfund project. After State Representative Oliver Robinson recently struck a deal and
pled guilty to taking a six-figure bribe, fellow State Representative
John Rogers told US Senate candidate Randy Brinson on the record that
he, too, was offered a bribe – and that Luther Strange was present at
the time. In fact, in an 18-month period while Luther Strange was using
his position as Attorney General to actively campaign against the
proposed EPA Superfund project, he received a total of $75,000 in
campaign contributions from the people who Oliver Robinson pled guilty
to taking a bribe from. After promising to hold a press conference to
that effect alongside Randy Brinson, Rogers backed out at the last
minute and started telling reporters that he’d never said such a thing –
apparently unaware that multiple additional people were listening to
the phone call. It really makes you wonder who got to him, and what he
was threatened with. Reports from political operatives close to the
situation tell The Resurgent that Rogers was visibly shaken after being
contacted by the people he previously claimed had attempted to bribe
him. These sources tell The Resurgent that he has since disappeared
completely from the public eye and refused to speak to anyone about the
matter. You can read the news articles about this event as it unfolded here, here, here, and here.
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