I wonder why Travis hadn't started a thread on this...?
U.S. attorney general ends Stevens prosecution
Holder says prosecutors failed to share key evidence
By ERIKA BOLSTAD and RICHARD MAUER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: April 1st, 2009 04:54 AM
http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/st ... 43906.html
...and with Steven's out of the way via cheating and lying, and the Senate seat unlawfully in the control of Dems...Holder drops the case, whimpers "mea culpa", then turns and walks away, no harm, no foul...The Justice Department moved to dismiss former Sen. Ted Stevens' indictment on Wednesday, effectively voiding his Oct. 27 conviction on seven counts of filing false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
The decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder comes after a new prosecution team discovered a previously undocumented interview on April 15, 2008, with the star witness in the case that sharply contradicted the most dramatic testimony in the four-week trial. The information had never been turned over to the defense, the Justice Department said in its motion.
"After careful review, I have concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial," Holder said in a statement released Wednesday morning. "In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial."
The government is seeking dismissal of the charges "with prejudice," meaning that they cannot be filed again.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered a hearing on the government's motion for April 7.
"I always knew that there would be a day when the cloud that surrounded me would be removed," Stevens said in a written statement. "That day has finally come. It is unfortunate that an election was affected by proceedings now recognized as unfair. It was my great honor to serve the state of Alaska in the United States Senate for 40 years."
In a written statement, Stevens' attorneys decried the "corrupt" conduct of attorneys and the FBI in the case, though it said Holder and the new prosecution team, along with Sullivan, the trial judge, were "heroes" for bringing the information to light.
"This jury verdict was obtained unlawfully," said the statement by Washington-based law firm Williams & Connolly and the two attorneys who led the defense team, Brendan Sullivan and Robert Cary. "The misconduct of government prosecutors, and one or more FBI agents, was stunning."
In a brief news conference in Washington, Brendan Sullivan said the former senator should never have been prosecuted.
"It was a bad judgment to have done so in the first place," said Sullivan. "He's a war hero. He served in the Senate for 40 years, and he was the target of prosecutors who wanted to enhance their own reputation."
...doesn't he wish...
Palin, Ruedrich call for Begich resignation
By ERIKA BOLSTAD
Published: April 2nd, 2009 01:06 PM
http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/st ... 46047.html
The nature of politics...WASHINGTON -- The head of the Alaska Republican Party today called on Sen. Mark Begich to step down from the U.S. Senate, saying that the state's voters would have re-elected former Sen. Ted Stevens had they known the U.S Department of Justice would abandon its prosecution of him.
The party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, said that the only reason Begich won his race was because "a few thousand Alaskans thought that Senator Stevens was guilty of seven felonies."
He added that he thought Begich should step down "so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice."
Gov. Sarah Palin concurs with Ruedrich and believes a special election is appropriate, said a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee, Meg Stapleton. "I absolutely agree," Palin said in a statement.
Holder made the move after Justice Department attorneys handling the post-trial motions in the case discovered that the trial team failed to turn over to Stevens' lawyers notes from an interview conducted with the star prosecution witness in the case.
It was the most recent ethical lapse by some members of the prosecution team, which was repeatedly chided by the judge in the case during the trial, and then cited with contempt after the trial when prosecutors failed to follow a judge's instructions to turn over documents to Stevens' lawyers.
DOJ found discrepancies between the interview and the courtroom testimony of the star witness, Bill Allen, the former oil-services company chief executive officer who plied Stevens with gifts. Those gifts, which went unreported on Stevens' senate financial disclosure forms, included renovations that doubled the size of the senator's residence in Alaska. Allen, who pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers in Alaska, is awaiting sentencing in his own case.
Stevens, 85, spent the six weeks leading up to the election on trial in Washington, D.C., and lost the race just days after a jury convicted him.
Begich's victory was a coup for Democrats in Alaska, where he unseated a Republican incumbent who had served for 40 years. But it also was a victory for Democrats in the U.S. Senate, who with Begich's win landed 58 of the 60 votes they need to have a filibuster proof majority.
Rep. Don Young told Fox News Channel after Wednesday's announcement by Holder that although he thought Stevens "would have have won hands-down. I would say by 70 percent had the Justice Department investigation not figured into his re-election campaign.
"The seated senator there, Mark Begich, will be in the Senate, he will do a good job," Young said in the Fox interview. "It's just sad that Alaskans were frankly hoodwinked into malfeasance of office work by the Justice Department itself."
...lie, cheat, do whatever's necessary to win...because once in power, when your malfeasance is uncovered, the rules are, there's no "do overs".
Moral of the Story: Cheating Pays.
