PrairiePundit

Reuters /NY Times: The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials. ... It was one of the more botched cases I have ever seen. The prosecution was constantly being hammered by the court for misconduct. Some of it had to do with Steven's decision to push for an early trial that the prosecutors were obviously not ready for. This raises questions about why they brought the case before they were ready. But the follow on misconduct was even more inexplicable. It was so much so, that they did not even bother and were held in contempt again. I think Holder made a wise decision to drop the case at this point. It did have the unfortunate effect of costing Stevens his reelection bid. The Democrats have been lucky in that regard. The Washington Post has much more on the dismissal. This is a case that needed to be dismissed.

The Hill: An FBI special agent who worked on the probe that resulted in the conviction of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has filed a complaint in federal court alleging misconduct against an unknown number of law enforcement officials and prosecutors in the case. In an eight-page complaint that is heavily redacted, the whistleblower claims that federal agents mishandled sources in the case, including Bill Allen, the oil company executive who was the prosecution’s star witness against Stevens. The complaint also alleges that prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense and improperly tried to remove a witness from the reach of Stevens’s defense team. The court redacted much of the document to protect the identities of FBI sources and techniques. A spokesman for Stevens did not return a call for comment. The available text indicates that the whistleblower, who worked as an FBI special agent since 2003, believes that at least one federal official working on the investigation mismanag...