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Globe Editorial
FROM BOSTON to Anchorage, prosecutions of politicians for misconduct in office are among the most high-profile cases that US attorneys take on. They should take special pains to follow the rules. When they don't, as in the trial of former Alaska senator Ted Stevens, they deserve to see their case collapse. Attorney General Eric Holder made the right decision last week in dropping all charges against Stevens.
For Stevens's political career, Holder's action came too late: He lost his reelection bid just a few days after a jury convicted him on felony corruption charges. But at least Holder's action means the 85-year-old will not face a prison sentence. The case against Stevens hinged on the testimony of a businessman who had helped make improvements to a chalet that Stevens owned. Prosecutors had accused Stevens of lying about $250,000 in goods and services he got from the businessman, Bill Allen. Recently, however, government lawyers learned that prosecutors had withheld from Stevens's lawyers the notes of an interview with Allen in which he said the chalet work was worth just $80,000. And this was not the trial's first incident of prosecutorial misconduct: The judge nearly declared a mistrial at one point after learning of other evidence withheld from the defense. The Department of Justice's tradition of professionalism suffered under President Bush, not least when his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, presided over the sacking of nine US attorneys for insufficient partisan zeal. Holder's action in the Stevens case will help restore the department's reputation for neutrality. Holder
and President Obama can further help that cause by appointing US
attorneys who will stick to the rules in prosecuting cases. © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
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You ask for evidence of your own political bias that you call mythical. I say the correct word is legendary.