Tobin (GOP election day "phone jammer") attorneys claim vindictive prosecution

[jpak]

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/95684.html

PORTLAND, Maine — Defense attorneys for a former GOP political organizer cited vindictive prosecution in asking a federal judge to dismiss charges that James Tobin, 48, of Bangor lied to investigators about his role in a phone jamming scheme on Election Day 2002 in New Hampshire.

Tobin was indicted in October by a federal grand jury on two counts of lying to the FBI during an interview on Oct. 14, 2003. The charges were just days before the statute of limitations would have prevented prosecutors from making them.

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In a motion filed late Friday, Tobin’s legal team claimed that prosecutors’ decision to indict their client on charges in Maine after he has been vindicated on far more serious ones in New Hampshire meets the standard set in other cases for vindictive prosecution.

Tobin was convicted in December 2006 by a federal jury in Concord, N.H., of being part of a conspiracy to jam phone lines in the 2002 election but acquitted on the more serious charge of violating residents’ constitutional right to vote. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in 2007.

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[originalpckelly]

1. It's always seemed to me that there more this story...

and we just never found out about it. What would have happened if there was no Deep Throat in Watergate? We know now. :-(