Updated at 6:30 p.m. to include testimony from the afternoon.
Former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has clenched the title for longest testimony thus far in the ethics trial of House Speaker Mike Hubbard. Riley served as governor of the Yellowhammer state from 2003 to 2011.
Riley began testifying Friday afternoon, returned to the stand Monday and will be back at the Lee County Justice Center at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday to continue cross examination by Hubbard’s defense team.
His testimony has lasted between nine and 10 hours so far and leaves the jury with the question: How do you legally define friendship?
The defense has relied on an exemption in the state ethics law allowing for existing relationships between friends. Riley testified Monday afternoon that he and Hubbard met more than a year before either was elected to office.
"He named his youngest son for you … and that was before you were governor?” lead defense attorney and former Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley asked Riley. He said yes.
In several of the emails exchanged between the two Republican powerhouses, Hubbard referred to Riley as a father figure and role model.
"You are without a doubt my mentor and role model on a number of fronts and because of that, I believe I am a better person, husband, father and public servant,” Hubbard wrote in one email to Riley. “I’m still [working] on the businessman part of it, though! I love you like a father and admire you as a son admires his father as well."
Riley agreed.
"Mike is one of the best friends that I've ever had," Riley told Baxley during cross examination.
Hubbard faces 23 felony charges of violating Alabama's state ethics laws. The laws regulate behavior between state officials, lobbyists and those who employ lobbyists dubbed principals. Hubbard maintains his innocence, but a conviction on any one of the 23 counts could carry a sentence of between 2–20 years
Count 20 of the 23-count indictment alleges Hubbard solicited and received help obtaining new clients for his Auburn-based media and consulting firm Auburn Network Inc.
The prosecution also alleges Hubbard solicited help finding employment after he lost his job with IMG Sports, the company which now owns the rights to broadcast Auburn's athletic events. Hubbard's company Auburn Network once owned those rights, but the rights were sold in 2003 to ISP Sports, which eventually merged with IMG.
Riley now runs his own political consulting and lobbying firm, Riley and Associates, along with his daughter, Minda Campbell. Campbell testified in the case last week. Both Riley and Campbell are registered lobbyists in Alabama.
Email streams between Hubbard and Riley show Hubbard asking Riley numerous times if he could work for his firm. Hubbard also asserted throughout the emails that Riley was not a lobbyist, he was a strategic consultant.
He said in the emails he wanted Riley to deregister as a lobbyist so he could work for him.
State ethics laws mandate public officials cannot ask for or receive a thing of value or personal gain from lobbyists or those who hire them, which would include employment.
"I need to be a salesman for [Riley and Associates]," one email sent from Hubbard to Riley in 2011 reads. "Except for those ethics laws. Who proposed those things?! What were we thinking?"
Riley said Hubbard was rarely serious about wanting a job with his firm — he claims it was a running joke, but Hart disagreed.
"Hubbard was very serious about getting work from you," Hart said during his questioning. "He was very serious."
Hart began questioning Riley on Friday and continued Monday morning for almost three hours, and Riley has yet to be excused.
Throughout contentious direct questioning led by Deputy Attorney General Matt Hart, Riley said he had trouble recalling specifics when asked questions about dozens of emails he exchanged with Hubbard throughout 2011 and 2012,.
But at some points he also pleaded with Hart to allow him to provide expanded context to the questions.
Hart repeatedly told Riley no.
Hart moved to have Riley designated as a hostile witness after the first two hours of contentious testimony on Monday. Riley did not volunteer to testify, he was subpoenaed by the prosecution.
If a witness is declared hostile, prosecutors are allowed to ask leading questions — questions with suggested answers — and call into question the accuracy of the witnesses testimony. Hart suggested Riley's testimony today did not match his testimony before the Lee County Grand Jury that indicted Hubbard in October 2014.
Riley said he has known Hubbard for almost 20 years, and the job requests were a running joke between the two.
"Of course it was a joke…" Riley told Hart. "They're literally just conversations about what he's doing — what I'm doing. 'It's almost like my job is to introduce you as brilliant and dynamic.' That was a running joke we had for five years."
The prosecution is expected to call one or two more witnesses after Riley concludes his testimony, and then they should rest their case. The defense is lining up witnesses for their case including character witnesses such as Auburn Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson.
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