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Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Photo taken Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

It’s not a stretch to say the prosecution of the late Ted Stevens cost him his U.S. Senate seat. Stevens, R-Alaska, lost in 2008 to an opponent who naturally made the criminal case a campaign issue. A few days before the election, a federal jury found Stevens guilty of lying on Senate financial disclosure documents to conceal expensive home renovations and gifts from friends. But the conviction was a fraud. This week, a special counsel who investigated the case said prosecutors never did a comprehensive review of material that was favorable to Stevens and that two prosecutors intentionally withheld key information. The report also said notes taken by prosecutors and two FBI agents during interviews with two important witnesses contained information that wasn’t given to Stevens’ attorneys. “While the department meets its … obligations in nearly all cases,” the Justice Department said, “even one failure is one too many.” That apology is much too little, too late.

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska (AP Photo)

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• bill Boggs on Mar 20, 2012 @ 5:30 pm
  I assumed the Senator guilty based on what I read of the prosecution and a preconceived notion of legislators in general. As it turned out I was wrong and the prosecution was wrong and in my view the prosecution, by withholding information, committed a worse crime than the one they were prosecuting, had there been no information to withhold. The Senator is gone and what has been done since is indeed too little too late.