TPM Muckraker

Posts on “Ted Stevens: December 2008” in December 2008

Stevens Case 'Whistle-Blower' Revealed To Be FBI Agent

We now know that the federal employee alleging government misconduct in the Ted Stevens case is a special agent with the FBI, according to a heavily redacted version of the agent's complaint released today.

While working on Operation Polar Pen -- the wide-ranging probe into public corruption in Alaska whose most prominent catch has been Ted Stevens -- the agent "witnessed or learned of serious violations of policy, rules, and procedures as well as possible criminal violations."

Among the agent's more eye-popping charges -- which you can read here -- is that an unnamed government employee "accepted multiple things of value from sources," including "drawing/artwork, house-hunting assistance and employment for ___."

TPMmuckraker can't help but wonder how the artwork in question compares to Ted Stevens' salmon statue -- one of the unreported gifts that led the government to prosecute the elderly senator in the first place.

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'Whistle-Blower' Complaint Latest Twist In Ted Stevens Case

It's now been about two months since Ted Stevens' conviction on seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms, and there's yet another twist in the case, this time in the form of new allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by an anonymous federal "whistle-blower."

This one may end up being a lot more consequential than the last twist in the case -- that juror who skipped out of the trial early to catch a horse race in California and later admitted lying about it.

The new charges came to light in a 29-page ruling issued late Friday by Judge Emmet Sullivan. The prosecution first alerted the court to the whistle-blower complaint on Dec. 11 in a sealed filing, prompting the defense to urge the judge to make the complaint public, the Washington Post reports. Sullivan described the whiste-blower as someone "significantly involved in the investigation and prosecution of the defendant."

The Post details some of the charges:

Among the accusations were that the government intentionally "schemed to relocate a witness" and that an employee working on the investigation accepted artwork and employment for a relative from a cooperating source, according to a legal ruling issued late last night by the federal judge who presided over Stevens's trial.

Sullivan ordered prosecutors to make a redacted version of the complaint public Monday afternoon.

The new charges are just the latest in a string of developments that will determine whether the outgoing Alaska Senator ever faces punishment for his felony convictions.

There's a hearing scheduled for Jan. 15 for a witness who said he lied on the stand about having no immunity deal with prosecutors. Sullivan also has set a Feb. 25 hearing on Stevens' lawyers' motion for a new trial.


Stevens To Ask For New Trial

Looks like we may not have heard the last of Uncle Ted.

Politico reports:

Lawyers for convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) told a federal judge today that they will soon file a motion seeking a new trial.

Stevens, who was defeated in a bid for a seventh full term, will ask Judge Emmet Sullivan to overturn his conviction on seven federal corruption counts for failing to disclose more than $250,000 in improper gifts.

Stevens' defense team raised numerous objections to the Justice Department's handling of his corruption trial, arguing that the government deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory information and witnesses during the proceedings.

A hearing is scheduled for next month in regard to claims by a witness that he was unofficially promised immunity by prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, and lied about it on the stand.

Several of Stevens' Senate colleagues have recently raised the possibility of asking President Bush to pardon the octogenerian lawmaker.


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