The slate will be wiped clean for former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
In the eyes of the law, at least, the man who narrowly lost re-election last fall after he was convicted of failing to report more than $250,000 worth of gifts from a contractor seeking political favors, will be considered innocent.
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The decision to ask the judge to void the conviction was made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, after a new prosecution team discovered a previously undocumented interview with the star witness, William Allen, which sharply contradicted his 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 to void the conviction.
“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 this 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.
The case against Stevens had been plagued by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Following his October conviction, an FBI special agent in Anchorage alleged that the lead female agent had had an “inappropriate relationship” with Allen, the chairman of defunct oil-field services company, Veco Corp., who was also the star witness against Stevens. The whistleblower also contended that prosecutors had withheld important information from the defense.
In February, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan held four prosecutors in contempt, including DOJ Public Integrity Section Chief William Welch, for failing to produce documents relating to the agent’s claims.
At that point, the government appointed a new team, led by Paul O’Brien, chief of the Narcotics an Dangerous Drugs Section, whose group substantiated several of the allegations.
Stevens, who is 85, said in a prepared statement that he felt vindicated, but complained it had come too late to save his political career.
“I am grateful that the new team of responsible prosecutors at the Department of Justice has acknowledged that I did not receive a fair trial and has dismissed all the charges against me,” he said.
But he added: “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.”
Stevens lost his re-election bid to the former Anchorage mayor, Democrat Mark Begich a little more than a week after his conviction. Since then, his lawyers have filed several motions to dismiss the original indictment or to have a judge grant him a new trial.
While the attorney general’s decision doesn’t exactly exonerate Stevens, it shifts the focus to government misconduct.
“When you think of Ted Stevens, there will always be a little asterisk,” Sarah Binder, an expert on Congress at the Brookings Institution told NPR. “But this gives you a little pause to think that, in the end, there were allegations that the government couldn’t get it together to prove.”
Others noted the irony of a Democratic attorney general effectively voiding the conviction of a longtime Republican lawmaker.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a fierce critic of the Bush Justice Department and a former U.S. attorney, noted that if Republicans wanted to complain that the Justice Department had wrongly cost them a Senate seat, they should recall that it was Bush’s Justice Department which brought the case.
Holder’s decision comes as a big blow to the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, which is responsible for conducting investigations into corrupt lawmakers. Stevens’ conviction was the unit’s biggest win in more than decade. Now that conviction will be tossed out, and prosecutors and FBI agents involved in the case are being investigated themselves.
Holder, himself a former prosecutor and judge, noted that the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility was conducting a review of the first etam’s conduct, raising the possibility that the prosecutors themselves could now face ethics charges.
Judge Sullivan ordered a hearing for April 7 on the government’s motion.
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