Opinion: Ted Stevens: Feds drop charges, but can he get his Senate seat back?
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(UPDATE: Gov. Sarah Palin’s reaction is below.)
When the U.S. Justice Department brought charges during last year’s election season against Alaska’s political patriarch, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, some wondered if the feds were over-reaching.
Sure, Stevens had apparently neglected to report hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from a prominent businessman who renovated the Stevens’ home in Anchorage without charging him. And true enough, a jury in virtually-all-Democratic District of Columbia convicted the 85-year-old Stevens on seven counts of falsifying his Senate financial forms.
But please, fudging on Senate financial disclosure forms? Is there a senator living or dead who hasn’t neglected to report something? It was enough to make critics muse about whether this was a targeted prosecution by a Justice Department eager to prove its independence from the George W. Bush administration and its discredited attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.
Ever since his conviction -- and his ouster by voters in Alaska a few days later -- Stevens and his legal team have argued that the Justice Department was guilty of prosecutorial misconduct -- withholding....
...evidence from the defense, propelled by ‘an inappropriate relationship’ between the lead agent and the prosecution’s star witness.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan was so outraged that last month he held Justice Department lawyers in contempt for failing to turn over documents as ordered, calling their behavior ‘outrageous.’
Today , Atty. Gen. Eric Holder made it official, dropping all charges against the former senator, a move that could, if a judge agrees, vacate his convictions.
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.
Of course Sen. Mark Begich is now installed in the Senate, only the second Democrat to serve in Washington since his father was elected to the House four decades ago. And he’s not about to rerun the November election.
Like Ray Donovan, the Reagan Labor secretary who was eventually acquitted of corruption charges, Stevens might wonder, ‘Which office do I go to get my reputation back?’
(UPDATE: Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin has released the following reaction to Holder’s decision:
“Senator Stevens deserves to be very happy today. What a horrible thing he has endured. The blatant attempts by adversaries to destroy one’s reputation, career and finances are an abuse of our well-guarded process and violate our God-given rights afforded in the Constitution. It is a frightening thing to contemplate what we may be witnessing here – the undermining of the political process through unscrupulous ploys and professional misconduct.
(Senator Stevens and I had lunch together recently at my home and he reiterated the faith he held for vindication; he never gave up hope. It is unfortunate that, as a result of the questionable proceedings which led to Senator Stevens’ conviction days before the election, Alaskans lost an esteemed statesman on Capitol Hill. His presence is missed.’)
-- Johanna Neuman
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