Prosecutorial misconduct

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

The Justice Department on Wednesday asked a federal judge to set aside the corruption conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens,

R-Alaska, and said it would not seek a new trial.

In October a jury convicted Stevens, who lost his reelection bid the following month. In court papers filed Wednesday, the department acknowledged at least one instance of prosecutors’ failure to turn over documents that could have been helpful to Stevens’ defense, information that undercut the credibility of the government’s star witness.

That comes after months of complaints by Stevens’ attorneys. They said prosecutors withheld evidence, broke rules and even spirited away a witness who would have been helpful to the defense. They also said the FBI fudged its work, an accusation supported by one agent’s whistleblower complaint.

Judge Emmet Sullivan was provoked to anger more than once by attorneys from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, who handled the case. In February, during pre-sentencing hearings, Sullivan found three prosecutors in contempt for failing to follow court orders. During the trial Sullivan stopped short of declaring a mistrial but berated the prosecution.

“How does the court have confidence that the public integrity section has public integrity?” Sullivan said.

Good question. The Justice Department’s bungling of such a high-profile case is incomprehensible. By nearly all accounts, government prosecutors had a solid case and plenty of damning evidence to demonstrate Stevens’ guilt.

With the immense power that prosecutors have, there shouldn’t even be a hint of impropriety in their actions. It is unclear whether this is a case of pure incompetence or overzealous prosecutors. Regardless, their actions will affect current and future corruption cases, and that is a shame.

The Bush administration’s incompetence and political games cost the Justice Department too much credibility. Now it is up to the Obama administration to clean up the mess.

Attorney General Eric Holder promised a full review of the case, and we hope he is able to move quickly to restore the public’s confidence in the department.