Posted on 12/09/2007 2:14:33 PM PST by CutePuppy
US to Drop Charge Against Ex-Prosecutor
By COREY WILLIAMS
December 9, 2007
DETROIT (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to drop the final charge against a former federal prosecutor acquitted of holding evidence from the defense in a major terrorism trial.
In documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the government asked that an obstruction of justice charge from a 2003 drug case be dismissed. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino had been accused of lying to a federal judge in that case.
It is the last of four federal charges against Convertino, who along with Harry Smith III was acquitted in October of withholding evidence from the defense during the nation's first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Convertino had won convictions in 2003 against two North African men accused of operating a "sleeper" terrorist cell. But government prosecutors argued that he and Smith, a former State Department investigator, hid evidence from defense attorneys in the terrorism trial.
October's not-guilty verdict and a federal judge's refusal to testify in the obstruction of justice case contributed to the government's decision not to pursue the final charge, according to court documents.
A Justice Department spokesman said Saturday the government had no comment on the dismissal request.
Convertino's defense attorney said they are gratified by the decision, which still has to be ruled on by U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow.
"Our position is that these charges never should have been brought," William M. Sullivan Jr. said.
Convertino's whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2004 against former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials now can proceed, Sullivan said.
Convertino accused the government of "mismanaging the war on terror" and violating the federal Privacy Act by leaking information involving him. He has said the government's case against him was in retaliation for his lawsuit.
“Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino had been accused of lying to a federal judge in that case.”
And Martha Stewart served how much jail time for lying about a crime she was never charged with????? A simple example, I am sure others can adds many, many more examples.
Proof, as if any were needed, that ‘justice’ in America is all but dead.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The case in which this happened involved the nearsighted Patrick Fitzgerald... who was baked by Comey.
Seems that everything around Fitz and Chicago get deported or dropped...
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