At first I thought it was an April Fools joke, but no, it's on the Department of Justice website:
"In connection with the post-trial litigation in United States v. Theodore F. Stevens, the Department of Justice has conducted a review of the case, including an examination of the extent of the disclosures provided to the defendant. After careful review, I have concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial. 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."
But just how relevant were the recent complaints about prosecutional irregularities to the actual accusations? Let's take a look.
In January, at the request of the Defense, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the prosecution to turn over some documents that they used to build the overall case. When the prosecution missed their deadline, Judge Sullivan held them in contempt. These failures have been instrument in the latest decision to dismiss the indictment and not to retry former Sen. Stevens. But what were these documents about?
According to the associated press:
Sullivan ordered the Justice Department to turn over all the agency's internal communications regarding a whistle-blower complaint against the FBI agent leading the investigation into the former Alaska senator.
...
He also said the lead FBI agent in charge of the investigation, Mary Beth Kepner, had an inappropriate relationship with witness Bill Allen, the Alaska millionaire at the center of the investigation. Joy said he once saw Kepner entering Allen's hotel room alone and that Kepner told Joy that she wore a skirt during her appearance at the Stevens trial as a "surprise/present" for Allen.
He accused her of developing close personal relationships with other witnesses — inviting them to dine at her home, revealing details of FBI investigations and accepting gifts from them, including a job for her husband as a security guard at the Port of Anchorage, Alaska.
While I don't for a moment condone that FBI agent's behavior, I have to ask - did this have anything to do with Ted Stevens' original crimes? Remember the testimony by Catherine Stevens, his wife? From NPR.ORG:
At the end of this week came testimony Stevens and his wife. Catherine Stevens said she was the one in charge of the renovation on the couple's Alaska home and paid all the bills she received. She had no idea that oil industry executive Bill Allen absorbed tens of thousands of dollars in labor and material costs, and was furious when Allen took it upon himself to remove the Stevens' furniture and replace it with his own, some of it new, some old, with cigarette burns.
Prosecutor Brenda Morris observed that Catherine Stevens is a partner in a major law firm. You make close to a half million dollars, she said, why didn't you just have Allen's furniture taken to the dump?
The prosecutor seemed to flummox Catherine Stevens with more uncomfortable questions. Did you use the senator's staff to pay your Saks Fifth Avenue bill? Your overdue Blockbuster bill? Did you use the staff to feed your cats, and to cash checks for you? Didn't you use the senator's staff aide as a human ATM machine? The witness ran her fingers through her hair and shrugged her shoulders in frustration, but for the most part, came up empty.
Stevens himself was composed and lucid, but still gave no answers that couldn't be termed evasive. As is the Republican mantra, he blamed everybody but himself, even though he was the center of the situation:
Bill Allen's testimony that Stevens' requests for bills were "just Ted covering his ass," was an absolute lie, the senator said. Stevens said he repeatedly asked for all the bills, assumed that he had gotten them and that his wife had paid them. Stevens said he didn't want many of the expensive items that Allen kept providing at the house and told him to take them away.
The big gas grill? Stevens said he never used it and that his wife thought it was dangerous around the grandchildren. The wraparound deck? He thought he had been billed and paid for it. The huge back-up generator? He didn't want it. Ditto the steel stairway, the balcony and the toolbox. And that furniture Allen had sent over? Stevens told the jury he demanded it be taken away. But seven years later, the furniture is still there.
Whether or not the FBI agent in charge of the case had inappropriate contact with people, Ted Stevens was found to have lied about expenses, and was convicted of that. He very conveniently didn't know things he would have known, whenever they had any relation to corruption. On balance, I think he's probably guilty of the original charges. It seems a shame to me that the whole thing is now to be dropped and quietly swept under the carpet after so much effort was put in convicting him.