Posted on 04/07/2009 7:55:31 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
As he ordered a highly unusual criminal probe of the federal lawyers who prosecuted former Sen. Ted Stevens, a federal judge delivered a blistering rebuke Tuesday of the Justice Department's actions in the case--and asserted that the department's failures extend beyond its failure to give the long-time Alaska politician a fair trial.
In dismissing the public corruption case against Stevens, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington railed against a government agency that he said had committed unprecedented missteps in a feverish quest to secure the Republican senator's conviction.
"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I have never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct I have seen in this case," Sullivan told a packed courtroom.
Sullivan said he was launching his own criminal probe of the Justice Department's actions in the case, tasking a private lawyer in Washington with investigating six lawyers from the department's Public Integrity Section, and suggesting he could not trust the department to clean up its own mess.
The department had already initiated its own internal probe, but the judge said the violations were instances of misconduct were "too serious and too numerous" to be left to a Justice Department investigation that has "no outside accountability." The lawyer appointed by Sullivan, Henry Schuelke, will submit a report to the court recommending whether the members of trial team should be held in criminal contempt. If not exonerated, they could be fired, disbarred, or even go to jail.
"It is a blow to have Sullivan say he doesn't trust the Justice Department to do that work," said Michael Bromwich, who served as the Justice Department's inspector general during the Clinton administration. "That is a very significant black eye."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I hope that some of these partisan hacks in prosecutor’s clothing at least have their law liscences revoked.
Many of Bush’s problems stem from the fact that he didn’t clean house when he was first elected. That and spending endlessly on social programs and trying to legalize illegals...
Wasn't there something similar in the 2006 Montana Senate race, where the Republican went into the election under a cloud, lost by the slimmest of margins, and was exonerated after the election when it was too late?
You’re correct on that, although I never heard about the prosecutorial conduct being this flagrant.
My question is, if this is the worst misconduct he has seen in the last 25 years then why did he not do anything about it during the trial? Sanctions, dismiss charges, etc.
As angry as this judge is they should all be shaking in their boots.
Bush’s DOJ investigated and falsely accused many Republicans while ignoring all but a few dims. Bill Jefferson, Spitzer and Blago.
Obviously no one cleared out the liberal underlings from the US Attorney offices. These unelected civil service bureaucrats are the 4th branch of government and they’re 90% rat.
Or the state department. Or the CIA... But remember the Bush administration was guilty of politicizing civil service, don't ya know.
During the post-trial process, even more wrongdoings were discovered at which point he demanded that Mukasey personally respond to the issues. Mukasey ducked and left office without a response. Holder inherited it and removed the whole team of prosecutors in February, assigning a new bunch of attorneys to take a new look at the situation. Those attorneys found yet more evidence favoring Stevens that had been withheld and resulted in the recommendation for dismissal.
In retrospect, I think Sullivan wishes he threw the whole case out earlier. But no single event during the trial seemed to warrant it at that time, in his view, anyway. When evidence came up after trial, there was no action he could take that could undo the damage done during testimony.
Surely DC insiders know whether or not the individuals accused of misconduct in the DOJ are just overzealous prosecutors or are also partisan activists in their DOJ roles. The MSM have not touched this aspect of the scandal (no surprise there). I wish someone from the media outside the establishment would seriously investigate this issue and either bring to light a hideous corruption among the career DOJ lawyers or put these suspicions to rest, based on evidence. Like many, I have lost faith in establishment institutions.
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