Henry F. Schuelke III, a lawyer with links to a wide variety of high-profile cases, has taken on the task of investigating the bungled prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave the job to Schuelke, whose resume includes an in-house investigation of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist.
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Schuelke will try to determine if six government attorneys committed possible crimes in their handling of the corruption trial that led to Stevens’ conviction last year a few days before Election Day.
Stevens, 84, a Republican who had served in the Senate for 40 years, lost by fewer than 4,000 votes, his defeat at the polls attributed by many to his loss at trial.
The Justice Department withdrew the indictment against Stevens last week. Sullivan threw out the conviction on Tuesday, citing prosecution misconduct that included the failure to turn over to the defense evidence favorable to Stevens.
The Justice Department is investigating the prosecution, as well. However, Sullivan said an outside investigator was needed.
“The events of this case are too numerous and serious to leave to an internal inquiry by the Justice Department,” Sullivan said.
Schuelke, 66, a partner in the Washington firm of Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler and a former assistant U.S. attorney, has taken on the investigation of government officials before.
In 1981, He served as special Democratic counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when it was considering the nomination of Alexander Haig to be secretary of state in the Reagan administration.
In 1989, he acted as special counsel to the U.S. Senate committee looking into allegations against then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York. After a long process, the committee chose not to censure D’Amato.
In 1996, During the Clinton administration, Schuelke represented Carolyn Huber, the special assistant to the president who found some missing papers related to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s work while at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas.
Later Schuelke represented Betty Currie, President Clinton’s personal secretary, during the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Away from government, Schuelke has represented Ben F. Glisan Jr., the former treasurer of the Enron Corporation, and Jack L. Williams, a former lobbyist for Tyson Foods.
In 2004, Greenberg Traurig LLP hired Schuelke to conduct an internal investigation into the conduct of Abramoff, a lobbyist with the firm who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion.
Fellow attorneys said this week that Schuelke brings the right blend of experience and temperament to the task of looking into the handling of the Stevens prosecution.
“He’s somebody who is scrupulously balanced, which I think is what you are looking for,” W. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a litigator with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, told the Associated Press.
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