The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to temporarily release former Alabama governor, Don Siegelman, from prison to testify before Congress in early May about possible political influence over his prosecution.

A spokeswoman for the committee said Thursday that Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said committee chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wants to hear directly from Siegelman because lawmakers are having trouble getting information elsewhere, including from the Justice Department.

Siegelman, a Democrat, was elected governor in 1998 and served one term. He was convicted on six bribery-related and one obstruction of justice charge in 2006.

Democrats last year began reviewing the case as part of a broader investigation into selective prosecution under the Bush administration.