Tuesday, April 7, 2009

U.S. Judge Probes Political Prosecutors

In a major setbck to the Rove Republican Racket, a federal judge tossed out the conviction today of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and launched a probe into prosecutorial misconduct.

This probe may well open a can of worms.

From Mississippi to Puerto Rico, U.S. Attorney Offices are on notice: the distasteful political prosecutions of the Rove-Bush Administration will be closely reviewed.

From today's Reuters Wire:

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge angrily threw out a jury's corruption verdict against former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on Tuesday and ordered a criminal contempt probe into what he called "shocking" Justice Department misconduct. U.S. District Judge Emmmet Sullivan said prosecutors in the Stevens case had withheld exculpatory evidence, violating their duty to all cases whether they apply to "a public official, a private citizen or a Guantanamo-based detainee." Democratic President Barack Obama's Justice Department decided last week that government prosecutors in the Republican Bush administration had made irreconcilable mistakes in the case against Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate. Stevens, 85, lost his Senate seat in November elections only days after the guilty verdict was reached. He was a powerful Republican whose reputation over a 40-year Senate career became symbolized by a costly "bridge to nowhere" he sought to fund in his home state. Sullivan said he was naming Washington lawyer Henry Schuelke III to begin criminal contempt proceedings against the six-member prosecution team based on the prosecution's failures and "potential obstruction of justice."