Swing Pendulum Swing!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/18/alaska.senate.race/?iref=mpstoryview

Begich has 150,728 votes to 147,004 for Stevens, according to Gail Fenumiai, director of the state division of elections.

__________________
Cheers,
Robert

On a bridge to nowhere.

Convicted felons cannot vote, but you can vote for a convicted felon.

__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I am amazed that that appears to be the case. Why is that? It seems very illogical to me.

I'm glad he's out, though. He's another good argument against letting these guys hold office permanently. One term too many, and you start to feel like you can do anything you want.


Apparently.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

it would be the icing on the cake if the GOP still goes forward with kicking him out of the Senate. I'm not ordinarily a proponent of the 'kick him while he's down' school, but I'm making an exception in this case.

__________________
Cheers,
Robert

One term, and you start to feel like you can do anything you want.



^^^ There. Fixed it for you.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Happy 85th Birthday, Sen. Stevens!

U.S. Plans to Drop Case Against Former Senator From Alaska
By NEIL A. LEWIS NYT

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved on Wednesday morning to drop all charges against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, who narrowly lost his seat last year shortly after being convicted on seven felony counts of ethics violations.

In a stunning development, Justice Department lawyers told a federal court that they had discovered a new instance of prosecutorial misconduct in the case and asked that the convictions be voided. There would be no new trial in the case.

Mr. Stevens, who is 85, had been the longest serving Republican in the history of the Senate. He had been charged with lying on Senate disclosure forms by concealing an estimated $250,000 worth of goods and services he received, mostly to renovate a chalet he owned in Alaska. Prosecutors said he received most of the goods and services from Bill Allen, a longtime friend who had made a fortune by providing services to Alaska’s booming oil industry.

But in their filing on Wednesday, government lawyers said that trial prosecutors had concealed from Mr. Stevens’s defense lawyers the notes from an interview with Mr. Allen that raised significant doubts about the charges. Among other things, Mr. Allen asserted in the interview that the work on the Stevens home was worth only about $80,000, they said.

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., who made the decision to move to drop the charges, said in a statement that "I have concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial.” He said it was "in the interests of justice” to dismiss the indictment and forgo any new trial.

Mr. Stevens’s lawyers, Brendan V. Sullivan, Jr. and Robert M. Cary, issued a statement on Wednesday welcoming the decision, decrying the conduct of the prosecutors in the case and hailing Mr. Holder as “a pillar of integrity in the legal community.” The statement called the case “a sad story and a warning to everyone” that “any citizen can be convicted if prosecutors are hell-bent on ignoring the Constitution.”

Senator Mark Begich, the Democrat who defeated Mr. Stevens in November, issued a statement calling the Justice Department’s decision “reasonable.”

“I always said I didn’t think Senator Stevens should serve time in jail, and hopefully this decision ensures that is the case,” said Mr. Begich, a former mayor of Anchorage. “It’s time for Senator Stevens, his family and Alaskans to move on and put this behind us.”Mr. Stevens had risen to become one of the most powerful figures in Congress, helping to direct enormous sums of money to Alaska, whose history as a state virtually paralleled his career. His lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get his trial shifted there.

Mr. Holder noted that the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility was conducting a review of the prosecutors’ conduct in the case, but he said that no conclusion had yet been reached.

Even so, it appeared that the prosecutors who tried Mr. Stevens on ethics charges would themselves now face ethics charges.

Judge Emmet Sullivan had delayed sentencing Mr. Stevens, who faced a prison term, because of several previous disclosures of prosecutorial misconduct. The judge repeatedly scolded prosecutors during the trial over a series of incidents in which they concealed important information from defense lawyers that might have been used by the defense.

Judge Sullivan recently ordered that some of the government lawyers involved be held in contempt of court, including the two top officials of the Justice Department’s public integrity division, the section that prosecutes official corruption.

In the new filing on Wednesday, which was first reported by NPR, the government said that it had recently discovered previously undisclosed notes made by prosecutors of an interview with Mr. Allen on April 15, 2008. In the interview, Mr. Allen was asked about a note he received from Senator Stevens on Oct. 6, 2002, discussing the situation of former Senator Bob Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to resign from office over the issue of failing to disclose gifts.

The Justice Department said the notes from the interview showed that Mr. Allen made different statements about that exchange than he had during his testimony at the trial. Mr. Stevens’s lawyers should have had those notes to help them cross-examine Mr. Allen, the department said on Wednesday.

The motion said that in addition to asking that the indictment be voided, the government had determined, based on the totality of the circumstances, that it would not seek a new trial of Mr. Stevens.

Judge Sullivan first displayed his annoyance with the prosecutors’ conduct almost four weeks before Mr. Stevens was convicted. On Oct. 3, the judge almost declared a mistrial after discovering that prosecutors had not told the defense team about an F.B.I. interview with the prosecution’s chief witness.

“How does the court have confidence that the public integrity section has public integrity?” Judge Sullivan asked that day.

The chief prosecutor, Brenda Morris, apologized for her team’s mistakes. But she also called the errors careless, not purposeful.

But last month, an F.B.I. agent who had worked on the investigation disputed that characterization of events, accusing prosecutors and a fellow agent of willfully concealing evidence from Mr. Stevens’s lawyers.

The agent, Chad Joy, wrote in the complaint that he had “witnessed or learned of serious violations of policy, rules, and procedures as well as possible criminal violations.”

Days later, Judge Sullivan held Ms. Morris and three other members of the prosecuting team — William Welch, Kevin Driscoll and Patty Stemler — in contempt after the Justice Department failed to produce documents the judge had requested to assess Mr. Joy’s complaint.

Oh, it wasn't that he wasn't guilty. It was just that they didn't go about PROVING he was guilty the right way. At least he's out of the Senate.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

If a prosecutor conceals exculpatory evidence there's a good chance you'll be found guilty, regardless. I sure hope this is an aberration not the norm.

No matter whether he was innocent or not, the public will remember the conviction. That's not a bad thing if he really is guilty. But what if he really is innocent? His reputation is tarnished down through history. Even an ass deserves a fair trial.

Can Stevens seek some sort of redress?

B

Judge Orders Probe of Attorneys in Stevens Case
Prosecutor Misconduct Alleged In Former Senator's Trial
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 8, 2009; A01

A federal judge focused scrutiny yesterday on a small Justice Department unit assigned to root out corruption when he dismissed the conviction of former senator Ted Stevens and appointed an outside lawyer to investigate allegations of misconduct by prosecutors.

The rare move to turn the investigation on the prosecutors themselves puts six federal lawyers, accused of mishandling evidence and witnesses, in the awkward position of becoming potential defendants in a criminal trial. It also creates a challenge for the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who must put a tainted prosecution behind him as he tries to remake the reputation of his department, which has been troubled in recent years.

The Justice Department would usually examine such accusations internally. But U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said yesterday that he has no faith in such an investigation after seeing so much "shocking and disturbing" behavior by the government.

"In 25 years on the bench, I have never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I have seen in this case," he said.

The judge aimed his criticism at prosecutors from the Justice Department's public integrity section, which has faced a shortage of experienced prosecutors and other resources, and has drawn attention for not winning convictions in some cases.

Yesterday, Sullivan said he would appoint his own "prosecutor" to determine whether the six Justice Department lawyers should face criminal contempt charges. Convictions on such charges could lead to fines or jail time for the lawyers, who range from front-line prosecutors to the head of the public integrity section.

Last week, a new team of prosecutors asked Sullivan to dismiss Stevens's conviction and indictment after uncovering notes from previous prosecutors that contradicted testimony from a key government witness. Under court rules, the notes should have been turned over to defense attorneys before the trial, but Stevens's legal team did not receive copies until last month. Stevens was convicted in October.

Paul O'Brien, one of the new Justice lawyers, told Sullivan that "we deeply, deeply regret that this occurred." Laura Sweeney, a department spokeswoman, said officials will review Sullivan's order "and will continue to cooperate with the court on this matter."

Yesterday's court action was the latest twist in the troubled prosecution of Stevens, 85, a Republican from Alaska who narrowly lost his reelection bid eight days after he was convicted of seven counts of lying about $250,000 in gifts he received and free renovations to his Alaska house.

Stevens, who smiled before the hearing as he shook hands with the new prosecutors, told Sullivan that the Justice Department had "nearly destroyed" his faith in the legal system. "Their conduct had consequences for me that they will never realize and can never be reversed," he said.

During and after the trial, the judge reprimanded prosecutors several times for how they had handled evidence and witnesses. He chastised prosecutors for allowing a witness to leave town. He grew more agitated when he learned that prosecutors had introduced evidence they knew was inaccurate, and he scolded them for not turning over exculpatory material to the defense.

After the trial, an FBI agent came forward to complain about the conduct of prosecutors and another agent. And in February, Sullivan held three prosecutors in contempt for not complying with an order to produce documents connected to an investigation of the FBI agent's allegations. The judge said the most recent allegation linked to prosecutors' notes was "the most shocking and serious" so far.

Sullivan asked Holder to better train prosecutors in how to handle evidence and witness statements that may be helpful to defendants.

He identified those being investigated for potential contempt violations as four lawyers with the public integrity section: William Welch II, who heads the unit; Brenda Morris, the lead prosecutor on the Stevens case; Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan; and two federal prosecutors from Alaska, Joseph W. Bottini and James Goeke.

To investigate the allegations, Sullivan appointed Henry F. Schuelke III, a former federal prosecutor who the judge said is known for his "fairness, integrity and sound judgment." Schuelke declined to comment.

Under Sullivan's order, Schuelke will review records and e-mail and will interview prosecutors, FBI agents and key witnesses. He will then recommend whether any prosecutors should be tried on charges of intentionally violating Sullivan's orders or rules on handling evidence. The judge could hold a trial in which Schuelke acts as the prosecutor.

Much of yesterday's hearing focused on what transpired during an interview on April 15, 2008, with the key witness, Bill Allen, a close friend of Stevens who is the former chief executive of Veco, a now-defunct oil services company.

During the interview, according to the notes taken by two prosecutors, Allen said he did not recall talking to a friend of Stevens about sending the senator a bill for work done on the house in Alaska, the judge and prosecutors have said.

Under oath at trial, however, Allen testified that the friend told him to ignore a note Stevens sent seeking a bill for the remodeling.

"Bill, don't worry about getting a bill" for Stevens, Allen said the friend told him. "Ted is just covering his [expletive]."

That testimony buttressed prosecutors' arguments that Stevens knew he was receiving gifts and was trying to create a paper trail. But defense attorneys have argued that Allen lied on the stand and that prosecutors allowed it to happen.

"It is clear from the evidence that the government engaged in intentional misconduct," Brendan Sullivan, Stevens's lead attorney, told the judge.

He was painted rather darkly by the media. Thats too bad if he happens to be innocent.

Time will tell.

OJ got off on the murder charges due to police doing very sloppy work and planting evidence because they didn't have the goods on him.

He had a pretty clever lawyer too.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Oh I doubt he's innocent, don't you? But his crime, though bad, is far, far outweighed by the accusations this judge is making against federal prosecutors. It reminds me of that Paul Neuman/Sally Fields film. Help me out here.

Okay, you're right. I'm glad that our system is designed to err on the side of the defendent. Sometimes it seems there is a form of justice that comes in spite of what happens in the courtroom.

Stevens is just another example of what happens when you've had too much power for too long a time.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Are you thinking of Absence of Malice, perhaps?

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles