Justice Dept under microscope after Stevens trial
The bungled trial of former GOP Sen. Ted Stevens tainted more than just the Justice Department. It probably tipped the balance of a close election, and the fallout from that is far from over.

Stevens, the 85-year-old patriarch of Alaska politics, is headed to court Tuesday, when a judge is expected to grant Attorney General Eric Holder's request to dismiss the case and toss out Stevens' conviction...

Stevens beat the charges, but lost his job. In that, he's not alone (emphasis added).

In Puerto Rico last year, prosecutors filed a new indictment against Democratic Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila three months before the election. He lost the race, but a jury found him not guilty of all charges.

The prosecution "certainly smacked of political motivation," argued Acevedo's lawyer, Thomas Green.

Such accusations are not new from defense lawyers in corruption cases. But they have far more bite when the politicians charged ultimately win in court after having lost their careers.

In Wisconsin in 2006, prosecutors indicted a little-known state worker for allegedly helping contributors to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle get a contract. The worker, Georgia Thompson, was sentenced to prison two months before the election.

After the election _ which Doyle won _ an appeals court not only overturned her conviction, but ordered her immediately freed from prison. One appeals court judge described the evidence against Thompson as "beyond thin."

During the Bush administration, Democrats claimed the conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was pushed by politically minded Republicans.

Siegelman, who was sent to prison in 2007 for bribery and corruption, was freed last year on bond. An appeals court recently dismissed some, but not all the charges and ordered him resentenced. His lawyer is asking the attorney general to toss out the case entirely, just like in the Stevens case.

...Joseph diGenova, a former federal prosecutor, said federal prosecutors suffer from "a lack of supervision."

"I'm a great fan of prosecutors, but the department and the U.S. attorneys offices in my opinion have been out of control," diGenova said.

In Stevens' case, Holder decided to pull the plug after prosecutors withheld notes of an interview with a crucial witness. The notes would have contradicted damaging testimony the witness gave against Stevens...

.."This was, in essence, a framing of a senator. That doesn't mean he's pure as the driven snow, but they were going to convict him no matter what," the lawyer said. "They changed the balance of power in the United States Senate. That ought to be a crime."..