Legal News

FBI Whistleblower Gives Stevens More Firepower in Push for New Trial

By Dan Slater

It’s hard to know what to make of the post-trial fallout in the case of Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who in October was found guilty (is that a conviction?) of seven counts of lying on Senate financial documents.

During trial, prosecutors seemed to bungle the case badly. Then, last month, we noted a report that a witness in the trial had told the judge that he received extensive help from prosecutors prior to taking the stand and would have testified differently had he not been given the assistance.

And now this: The Legal Times reports that an FBI agent is accusing prosecutors of intentionally withholding exculpatory evidence from Stevens’ lawyers and scheming to conceal a witness from the defense team. The whistleblower, whose name was redacted from an eight-page complaint, has worked for the FBI since 2003. The allegations, notes the Legal Times, could substantiate claims by Stevens’ lawyers that the government intentionally withheld evidence favorable to Stevens. (Here’s the complaint, via BLT blog.)

Among the allegations in the whistleblower complaint: the prosecution intentionally redacted FBI reports to make the information mirror what had been given to the Williams & Connolly defense team. The FBI agent also says that a Public Integrity Section prosecutor devised a scheme to relocate a government witness who was under a defense subpoena. In court, Judge Sullivan fumed at the prosecution for moving the witness from D.C. back to Alaska.

“The new whistleblower complaint shows unmistakably that government representatives lied to the court or stood by silently while other members of the prosecution team represented facts to the court that simply were not true,” wrote Williams & Connolly’s Robert Cary in a renewed motion to dismiss.

In an e-mail, a DOJ spokeswoman told the Law Blog: “We will continue to litigate in the court all matters, including these allegations, related to the jury’s conviction of Senator Ted Stevens.”

A sentencing date has not yet been set, but in February Stevens’ lawyers will argue a motion for a new trial.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 23, 2008 (boomark / email).