April 01, 2009

Charges Tossed Against Ted Stevens

Prosecutorial misconduct (no details given). Exoneration? Nope.:

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid accusations of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials.

UPDATE: LAT has more details - four DOJ prosecutors were reprimanded for withholding documents during the sentencing phase.

Curiously, the LAT had no problem identifying the party of Stevens twice before the second paragraph of the story - once in the deck and once in the lead:

[...]
The Alaska Republican was convicted last year on seven felony counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms.
By Mark Silva and Josh Meyer

The Justice Department plans to drop all charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens, the 85-year old Alaska Republican convicted last year of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from a businessman, according to a news report this morning.

Funny. When it's a Democrat, the party affiliation is buried at the end of the article, sometimes not even stated but rather implied.

By Good Lt. at 07:19 AM | |