Tuesday, November 22, 2011

How the Democrats stole an election without cost.

Justice Department lawyers committed serious and intentional misconduct in their botched prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a court-appointed investigator found, but he didn't recommend that the lawyers be prosecuted for criminal contempt.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington, who presided over the case and ordered the special investigation in its aftermath, gave a synopsis of the investigation's findings on Monday. The full 500-page report is under seal.

A jury convicted Mr. Stevens in October 2008 of accepting and concealing tens of thousands of dollars in free home renovations and other gifts. The senator denied all wrongdoing and narrowly lost his re-election bid the following month. The next year, Judge Sullivan dismissed all charges at the request of Attorney General Eric Holder, who said dropping the case was in the interests of justice.

Judge Sullivan's special investigator, Washington lawyer Henry F. Schuelke III, found the prosecution was "permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence" that would have corroborated the longtime Republican senator's defense, according to the judge's synopsis. The judge said Mr. Schuelke's report found that some of the misconduct was "willful and intentional." Without giving details, he said the investigation revealed new evidence of misconduct that "almost certainly would never have been revealed—at least to the court and to the public," but for the independent probe.

Nevertheless, Mr. Schuelke didn't recommend a criminal contempt prosecution because he said the attorneys never disobeyed a "clear and unequivocal" order by the judge. Judge Sullivan said the report would not be made public, at least until the Justice Department and the attorneys involved in the case have a chance to review it.

A department spokeswoman said the agency was reviewing the judge's order and synopsis. Mr. Stevens's lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, declined to comment because the report is under seal. Mr. Stevens died last year in a plane crash.

During the trial, Judge Sullivan repeatedly chastised the government for withholding information favorable to the defense and introducing other evidence that it knew to be false.

Mr. Schuelke investigated six Justice Department lawyers involved in the Stevens prosecution. The judge's synopsis didn't name any of the six. The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has separately been investigating the lawyers' conduct.

Why not proscecute the DOJ attorneys? Why not have a special election now to correct for this stolen election?

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