Probe Sought In Alabama Prosecution

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee yesterday invited Karl Rove, a onetime White House adviser, to testify about his possible involvement in building a corruption case against former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D).

Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (Mich.) and three other Democrats on the panel also wrote to the Justice Department's inspector general and the chief of the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, requesting that they open an investigation into what they claimed was a pattern of "selective, politically motivated prosecutions."

Siegelman, Alabama's governor from 1998 to 2003, was convicted by a jury two years ago but won release from prison last month while an appeals court considers his request for a new trial. He said he was targeted by highly placed Republican officials who wanted to block his reelection race against the state's incumbent Republican governor.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said last month that prosecutors conduct investigations of public officials "without fear or favor, and utterly without regard to the political affiliation of a particular public official."

Rove attorney Robert D. Luskin previously told a television network that his client would testify if asked. Yesterday, however, Luskin said that Rove would follow normal procedure and seek guidance from the White House before agreeing to appear.

"The decision is not going to be made by me or Karl Rove," he said.