ABC News Jason Ryan reports: The Justice Department has filed two motions to release two former Alaska politicians from jail following recent information that prosecutors and Justice Department officials who worked on the case of Sen. Ted Stevens also withheld evidence during the trial of these two men as well.
The Justice Department has been conducting an internal review of how the prosecutors on the Stevens case acted and carried out their duties and it appears other cases may have been unfairly pursued by the Justice Department prosecutors on the cases. The men Victor Kohring, a former state representative, and Peter Kott, a former Alaska house speaker, have been appealing their cases, especially after the debacle of the Stevens case being dismissed.
The case against Stevens and other public corruption investigations gained momentum in May 2007 after two top VECO executives, CEO Bill Allen and former Vice President of Community Affairs and Government Relations Richard Smith, pleaded guilty to shuttling more than $400,000 to various elected officials in Alaska. Last September the former speaker of the House, Kott, was convicted by a jury on public corruption charges for accepting funds to use his official position to benefit the company.
The Justice Department motions filed today in the 9th circuit court of Appeals note, “the process has uncovered material that, at this stage, appears to be information that should have been, but was not, disclosed to Appellant [Kott andKohring] before his trial.”
Kohring was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy, and extortion in 2007 and was sentenced to 42 months in prison on May 8, 2008.
In a statement Attorney General Eric Holder said, ““After a careful review of these cases, I have determined that it appears that the Department did not provide information that should have been disclosed to the defense…Department of Justice prosecutors work hard every day and perform a great service for the American people. But the Department’s mission is to do justice, not just win cases, and when we make mistakes, it is our duty to admit and correct those mistakes. We are committed to doing that.”
The Justice Department attorneys who were involved in these cases were Nicholas Marsh from Justice Department headquarters and James Goeke and Joseph Bottini from the US Attorney's office in Alaska.
In the Stevens case, which was dismissed April 1, 2009, there have been internal reviews at the FBI underway that the agents on the case acted improperly and reviews by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility into the actions of the prosecutors on the case.
An FBI whistleblower lawsuit began to reveal many of the problems with the Stevens case and possibly other cases in Alaska. The FBI whistleblower, agent Chad Joy, has alleged the lead agent on the cases Mary Beth Kepner had an inappropriate relationship with the government's star witnesses in the case and that she disclosed investigative details to people possibly under investigation in Alaska linked to the Stevens probe.
Joy has also alleged misconduct during by the prosecutors including allegations that Marsh did not even turn over boxes of evidence in the Stevens case to the FBI to be properly entered into evidence databases. An affidavit filed by Agent Joy noted, “When I arrived at Public Integrity Section in Washington DC to prepare for the trial of Ted Stevens, I found many boxes of documents stacked outside the office of Nick Marsh. The FBI did not have custody of any of the material and the evidence had not been reviewed by FBI personnel.”
Following the dismissal of the Stevens cases and review of the other Alaska cases Attorney General Eric Holder and head of the Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer have implemented reforms so that all Criminal Division prosecutors can review how to handle proper procedures of information constitutionally required to be given to defendants and defense counsel.
Today Breuer said in a statement, “We will continue regular discovery training for all Criminal Division prosecutors to make certain that they perform their duties in adherence to the highest ethical standards.”
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