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OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — Speaking in sharp tones, Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard on Wednesday squared off with a state prosecutor over $2.3 million in business and investments Hubbard's companies received and emails Hubbard sent to his political mentor-turned-lobbyist asking for help finding a job.
Hubbard, on trial on ethics charges, and prosecutor Matt Hart exchanged testy remarks during a contentious cross-examination as Hart tried to undermine defense arguments that the transactions were normal business dealings and sometimes joking requests to friends that had nothing to do with Hubbard's powerful post at the helm of the Alabama House of Representatives.
Hart projected Hubbard's emails to former Gov. Bob Riley, now a lobbyist, on a screen in the courtroom and asked Hubbard about how he repeatedly mentions his need for a job and help finding and maintaining employment. The emails included discussion of state business, such as Hubbard meeting with one of Riley's lobbying clients in a trip to the 2013 Paris Air Show.
Hubbard in his answers tried to emphasize a key defense theory, that the requests to Riley were to a friend — not because Riley was a lobbyist
"That's Bob Riley, my friend," Hubbard replied when Hart asked if he was asking a lobbyist for help finding a job.
"He's a lobbyist right?" Hart asked.
"He's my friend," Hubbard retorted. Hart then started referring to Riley as "your friend, the lobbyist Bob Riley."
Former Alabama Ethics Commission Director Jim Sumner, testifying as an expert witness for the prosecution, told jurors that the friendship exemption was meant to be narrow, covering things like allowing lifelong friends to vacation together without keeping a ledger of who paid for what. The defense has argued outside the jury's presence that the law as written doesn't include such a narrow constraint.
Hubbard faces 23 felony ethics charges accusing him of using his political offices, as speaker and as former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, to steer campaign work to his printing company, solicit investment and employment from lobbyists and company executives, and benefit his clients through legislative action or lobbying the governor's office.
Hubbard had testified that it was a "group decision" by top state Republicans to use the printing company, where Hubbard is a partial owner, for 2010 legislative campaign materials. Hubbard said it was because the prices were cheaper and they would have better control of when mail pieces arrived in voters' mailboxes.
Hart asked Hubbard if he was the only one in that group who had a financial stake in the printing company. Hubbard acknowledged that he was.
Hubbard also contradicted testimony from earlier witnesses.
Hubbard said he "never" asked lobbyist Dax Swatek to invest $150,000 in his printing company. Swatek testified earlier that Hubbard asked him for the money and it was an "awkward" moment when he turned him down because he feared it was illegal.
"It's at minimum bad perception, and based on my understanding of the ethics law, he couldn't ask and I couldn't give," Swatek testified earlier in the trial.
Hubbard's former chief of staff, Josh Blades, testified that Hubbard directed him to make calls to a patent office on behalf of the owner of a drinking cup company. Blades, who did not know the owner was paying Hubbard $10,000-a-month, said Hubbard said he had "one hundred thousand reasons" to help
Hubbard testified Wednesday that he thought he said "hundreds of thousands" of reasons, a reference to the $100,000 each day the owner said he was paying in legal fees during the patent dispute.
The speaker said he made the calls because the company was an employer of 500 people in his district.
The Republican speaker, who faces up to 20 years in prison for each count, said he took precautions to make sure what he was doing was legal. His consulting contracts, with an exception of a job doing economic development work for a gas utility, spelled out that he only worked on out-of-state matters for the companies, a provision he said was designed to keep him within the bounds of the ethics law.
Defense lawyer David McKnight asked Hubbard if he ever used his office for personal gain or knowingly violated the state's ethics law.
"Never," Hubbard replied.
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