CHARLESTON – Federal Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn has issued an order requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to provide Don Blankenship's attorneys with a copy of a report on the prosecutorial misconduct from his trial by Aug. 15.
Blankenship, who has been pushing for the release of the Office of Professional Responsibility’s report, says that isn't good enough.
"The judge’s order effectively denies my request for the OPR to produce this report within 10 days," Blankenship said. "Critically, it gives the DOJ an easy out — when the deadline rolls around, they just need to say, 'It ain’t ready yet.'"
Blankenship's attorneys filed the motion July 13 asking the court to order the release within 10 days.
"Blankenship expects the report to disclose prosecutorial misconduct by former DOJ prosecutors, including U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby," a press release from Blankenship's U.S. Senate campaign states. " It is worth mentioning that Goodwin’s father, Judge Joseph Goodwin, is one of five federal judges sitting in the Southern District of West Virginia.
"Though Judge Goodwin did not hear Mr. Blankenship’s case, Judge Goodwin’s mentee, Judge Irene Berger was assigned the case. And Judge Goodwin didn’t miss the opportunity to stop in to oversee the proceedings."
Blankenship said he hopes the report is "an honest and complete communication of the atrocious prosecutorial misconduct which led to his false misdemeanor conviction and extremely rare imprisonment as a misdemeanant."
"The report will likely highlight the overt Brady violations by the prosecution — the intentional withholding and misrepresentation of information that would have exonerated Mr. Blankenship," his campaign release stated. "Unfortunately, however, Brady violations are merely a small portion of the pandemic corruption within the Obama-era DOJ."
Blankenship says the combination of misconduct by both the DOJ and Mine Safety and Health Administration not only led to his federal misdemeanor conviction, but he says it "also slandered the very miners who perished in the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine tragedy."
Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO, contends the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County that killed 29 miners occurred because of government regulations that reduced the amount of air to the mine.
Blankenship was convicted in 2015 of conspiring to violate federal mine safety and health standards during the 15-month period before the April 5, 2010, explosion. He was acquitted of felony charges of securities fraud and making false statements. He was sentenced to one year in prison in April 2016. He finished that sentence last May and appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said it wouldn’t hear his appeal.
In his motion to vacate his conviction, Blankenship is being represented Henry Jernigan of the Charleston office of Dinsmore & Shohl as well as Howard C. Vick and Benjamin L. Hatch of Richmond-based McGuireWoods.
