First, as I mentioned in my earlier post, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he was recommending the judge throw out the felony convictions of former Senator Ted Stevens because of "prosecutorial misconduct."
In their court filing Wednesday, Justice Department lawyer Paul O’Brien told the judge they recently discovered prosecutors’ notes from an April 2008 interview with Bill Allen, a key witness against Stevens.
The notes’ indicate that Allen said he did not recall talking to a specific person about giving a bill to Ted Steven.
Yet when he testified at the trial, Allen claimed he had such a conversation. Under trial rules, such contradictory statements are supposed to be given to the defense team, and they weren’t.
It's only common sense to believe that the prosecutors should be severely punished. Though there is no evidence it was intentional, they made a grave error on top of other errors which may have effected the outcome of this trial.
However, there was plenty of evidence that Senator Ted Stevens was receiving unreported gifts.
"...During the nearly seven-year period in which STEVENS received multiple things of value from ALLEN and VECO, STEVENS filed and caused to be filed false annual Financial Disclosure Forms for the years 1999 to 2006 that did not report STEVENS' receipt of any thing of value from ALLEN and VECO, either as gifts or as liabilities, as required."
The list of gifts was extensive.
As a former federal employee, I remember when my co-worker, a project manager who was required to file a Financial Disclosure Statement every year, was going through a terrible divorce and had his truck conk out on him. While his truck was in the shop, a friendly contractor lent him a beat up old truck until the other was fixed.
Someone who didn't like my co-worker turned him in and they started an investigation...where he was eventually cleared after much heartache. If any other federal employee had done a 10th of what we know Stevens did, he/she would have been immediately fired, fined and/or jailed.
And finally, let's not forget Ted's own musings on his potential fate regarding the charges:
"You got to get a tough mental attitude," the six-term Republican lawmaker said in a telephone conversation with oilman Bill J. Allen recorded by the FBI. "These people can't shoot us. This isn't Iraq."
"Hell, the worst that could happen is that we run up a bunch of legal fees ... pay a fine, spend a little time in jail," Stevens added. "I hope ... it doesn't come to that."
Those are not the words of an "innocent" man.
So yes, if the judge agrees, Ted Stevens conviction will be thrown out because the prosecutors were idiots. But don't try to claim he's innocent.
Next...what the hell is the deal with ripping into Begich? OK, so his statement might have been a little TOO careful and should have been rethought before being released. I'll grant that is probably true.
But come on...
From the Dispatch:
In a terse statement today, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich calls the government's decision to drop its charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens "reasonable."
Ooooh...how horrible...he called it "reasonable!" The cad...
This after it was discovered that the Feds didn't turn over an interview with star witness Bill Allen that would have directly contradicted the most incriminating testimony against Stevens during his trial last fall.
It was possibly the most incriminating evidence for one of a whole string of gifts. There was a pattern of behavior that was well-established without that piece of evidence.
It's an interview, in fact, that strongly indicates that the Feds (and maybe Allen, too) might have been contriving to make up testimony and evidence against Stevens.
That "strong indication" was according to the defense team...AG Holder has stated they have no such evidence yet and that they are investigating.
Easy for Begich to say. Begich, of course, beat Stevens in the election by just a few thousand votes. Makes you wonder what the outcome would have been had Stevens never been charged in the first place, had he not had one hand tied behind his back while running against Begich.
Mark Begich signed up to run for the Senate back in April of 2008...almost four months before there was any indictment of Stevens. He never campaigned on Stevens legal troubles nor did he try to capitalize on them, even when many of his supporters thought he should. Early voting was well underway when Stevens conviction was announced. If Amanda had been at the Division of Elections when they were counting the vote, like I was, she would have discovered that there was little difference between how the votes shook out before the conviction and after.
It is possible that Sen. Stevens could have won had he not been convicted...but it's also possible that he still would have lost. We'll never know.
Amazingly, the Alaska GOP is asking Begich to actually step down and invalidate a completely legal election and well-run campaign. Alaska Dispatch doesn't sound too far-off from the Republicans.
Speaking of Republicans, I find it amusing that the Dispatch is flogging Begich for not expressing dramatic outrage, yet is silently allowing Governor Palin to slide on the glaring hypocrisy of her press release. Now, Palin claims to be Stevens best friend when just a few short months ago she demanded he step down before the election.
Keep up that "fair and balanced" journalism, Dispatch!