DOJ Springs Two More Alaska Republicans

[Hissyspit]

Mark Crispin Miller comments on a news item posted by Roger Shuler at his blog:

The man (and the man he works for) just can't seem to stop exonerating BushCo's men-
and also just can't seem to start considering the gross injustices committed by Bush/Rove
against Don Siegelman, Paul Minor, Oliver Diaz and all the others.

MCM

From: Roger Shuler:

Attorney General Eric Holder apparently cannot be bothered to review the political prosecutions of Democrats Don Siegelman and Paul Minor. But he seems to have no problem letting Republicans off the hook, with the latest example coming yesterday with news that the DOJ is asking that former Alaska state legistors Victor Kohring and Peter Kott be released from prison because of prosecutorial misconduct in their cases. On the heels of the Ted Stevens and James Tobin cases, the Obama AG now has made four favorable rulings for Republicans, zero for Democrats. Is that change we can believe in?

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-republicans-cant-believe-holders.html

Convicted legislators may be released

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Failure to disclose information is cited.

By RICHARD MAUER, LISA DEMER and SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News

http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/story/819539.html

In another shocking development in Alaska's political corruption investigation, the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday asked that two former state legislators be released from prison because their trials were tainted by the failure of prosecutors to disclose information favorable to the defense.

In filings with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department said Pete Kott and Vic Kohring should be set free while their cases are sent back to U.S. District Court in Anchorage for further consideration. They were both convicted in that court in 2007.

The Justice Department didn't describe the new information it discovered. But the issue is similar to the problem that led to dismissal of charges against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in April after he was convicted on seven counts of failure to disclose gifts and services.

In a written statement issued just after 5 p.m. on the East Coast, Attorney General Eric Holder said he has asked the Justice Department's Criminal Division "to review the department's public corruption investigation in Alaska to ensure that all other discovery obligations have been met." The move by the Obama administration's reconstituted Justice Department "is enough to make Vic Kohring become a Democrat," lawyer John Henry Browne joked about his arch-conservative client.

- snip -

"Wow, wow, wow," said Sen. Fred Dyson, the Eagle River Republican who helped the FBI in its investigation. "I'm surprised, to say the least. I sat all the way through the Kott trial and watched the video," said Dyson, referring to secretly made recordings by the FBI.

The videos, secretly taken from a lamp in a Juneau hotel suite in 2006, captured Kott and Kohring talking oil-tax strategy with officials from the now defunct oil-field service company Veco Inc. The government presented evidence that those officials, chief executive Bill Allen and vice president Rick Smith, also made illegal payments to Kott and Kohring. Allen and Smith have pleaded guilty to bribery and are awaiting sentencing.

"Particularly with Kott, I thought the evidence was compelling," Dyson said.

MORE

[Catshrink]

1. Why not Siegelman?

I'm thinking that maybe freeing these republicans will set a precedent so the squealing by the RW won't be so loud when Siegelman is released. Maybe I'm dreaming.

[TexasObserver]

2. Courage and Justice are not part of the fierce urgency of now.

Apparently.

Can something be fierce and timid at the same time?