Birmingham Attorney, Coal Executive Found Guilty of Bribing State Lawmaker
An attorney with the Birmingham firm Balch & Bingham and an executive with coal company Drummond have been found guilty of bribing a state lawmaker to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from expanding a Superfund toxic cleanup site around north Birmingham.
Jurors found attorney Joel Gilbert and Drummond Vice President David Roberson guilty on six federal charges including bribery, conspiracy and money laundering. The verdict was announced Friday evening.
“We’re obviously pleased with the verdict. We believe that justice was done,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney George Martin, who led the prosecution. “We’re happy for the citizens of north Birmingham. Someone is finally speaking on their behalf.”
The EPA had designated part of north Birmingham as a Superfund site because of elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other substances in the soil. Such toxins are linked to coal production. The EPA notified Drummond and four other companies they could be held responsible and face millions of dollars in cleanup costs.
Prosecutors argued Drummond hired Balch & Bingham to oppose efforts to expand the Superfund site and to add the area to the National Priorities List, which would have fast-tracked the cleanup effort. They say Drummond’s Roberson and Gilbert bribed then-state Representative Oliver Robinson through a secret consulting contract in exchange for Robinson’s help opposing the EPA’s effort. Prosecutors say Robinson’s payments totaled $360,000. Robinson had pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution.
A third defendant, Balch & Bingham attorney Steven McKinney, was dismissed from the case earlier this week. Judge Abdul Kallon did not comment on the dismissal.
Drummond officials released the following statement after the verdict.
“We are disappointed by the jury’s decision to convict our employee, David Roberson. While we respect the judicial process, we consider David to be a man of integrity who would not knowingly engage in wrongdoing.
“When an environmentalist group raised allegations regarding our operations in the Birmingham area, Drummond responded by hiring one of Alabama’s most well-respected environmental law firms. As testimony in the trial showed, we were assured the firm’s community outreach efforts on our behalf were legal and proper.”
In a first-of-its-kind decision, an AI company wins a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by authors
U.S. District Judge William Alsup's ruling this week, in a case brought by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson last year, opens a potential pathway for AI companies to train their large language models on copyrighted works without authors' consent — but only if copies of the works were obtained legally.
RFK Jr. says U.S. will stop funding global vaccine group over ‘vaccine safety’ issues
The secretary of health and human services said that funding will be curtailed until Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, takes into account the science of vaccine safety in its campaigns.
Senators question Trump plan to kill federal funds for PBS, NPR and some foreign aid
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee pushed back against the Trump administration's bid to rescind federal funding for public broadcasting and international aid programs.
Judge orders Trump administration to resume distributing money for EV chargers
Congress designated money for building new EV chargers, but the Trump administration put a freeze on those funds. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the program to resume.
Judge sees no reason to keep holding Abrego Garcia pending criminal trial
Despite the court order, if released from prison, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is likely to be immediately taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Expert panel picked by RFK Jr. will scrutinize the vaccine schedule for kids
The advisory committee makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the nation's vaccine schedule. Any changes could affect vaccinations for millions of children.
