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The jury restarted deliberations in the corruption trial of Ted (Toobz) Stevens today after one juror was replaced over the weekend. CQ Politics reports that the jury quickly submitted a note to the judge indicating an error in the indictment:
Shortly before noon, the jury sent a note pointing out an error in the indictment. The jury observed that Stevens checked “yes” when asked on his 2001 disclosure form whether he received any gifts that needed to be reported but that the indictment indicates he answered “no” to that question.
“These documents do not correspond,” the jury wrote. “What do we do?”
Probably because he is already upset with massive incompetence from The Department of Justice that nearly led to a mistrial earlier, Judge Sullivan noted that this jury is quite perceptive. As for the prosecution (which provided evidence that Stevens received more gifts than he disclosed on the form), Sullivan was not as forgiving, and rejected their argument that the error was a typographic error:
"Surely someone reviews these documents,” he said.
h/t to DefendingOurConstitution.
12 Comments
No question that this is due to one or both of these:
1. Incompetent staff populating DOJ from Monica Goodling days.
and/or
2. A way to make sure judge throws out case or jury loses confidence in prosecution – either is a way of trying to help Stevens not lose case (either by mistrial as you suggest or perhaps by having a jury determine enough reasonable doubt not to convict him making him immune to further prosecution). Either way Stevens declares victory before Nov. 4 election.
I think there is a very good chance we will have a verdict by Thursday. The most recent poll at RCP has Stevens down 1 point. You can bet a conviction on any of the counts will finish him off. I hope he and McConnell can ride off into the retirement sunset together…
Is there anyway Obama can clean out the DOJ once he assumes office?
Jim,
I agree with your analysis on what happens if Toobz is found guilty, but I think the most likely outcome is a mistrial – or a not-guilty verdict. How do these affect the election? I think not-guilty clinches it for Stevens, but it’s not clear what a mistrial does (although Stevens will spin it as a victory).
I think the real story is how the DOJ has done everything in its power to make this trial fail.
It took a long time to destroy and will take even longer to rebuild (maybe in much better shape by the end of Obama’s first term).
Political appointees are no problem, they’re gone with a few pen-strokes. The real problem is all those Regents U Law School graduates filling jobs in ostensibly civil service roles. I have no idea how they can be cleaned out. Maybe a rule can be put in place that they have totake and pass the bar exam again. That should clear out about 99% of them.
Oooh! Verdict coming according to CNN.com.
Guilty on all seven counts!!!! w000t!
Yeah! Time to celebrate and welcome Senator Begich!
Although the media will take a few days to focus on this, I expect both Scooter Libby and Stevens to be pardoned. This will not save the Senate seat though. Right now Mark Begish is leading Stevens and I expect the lead to increase over the next few days.
Many people feel that Brendan Sullivan’s motion to dismiss over prosecutorial misconduct should have been granted and in an ideal and fair world this would have been done as Bmaz suggested. I also think even in the D.C. Circuit, Stevens’ appeal will not result in a remand or reverseal.
I don’t know if you heard this Jim, but you have written some articles tracking election/voting litigation.
In Georgia there are 3 cases. 1) One is in the Ga. Supreme Court over voter ID. 2) The second is in the Ga. Court of Appeals over Diebold machines(the second highest court here–I say that because in New York and some other states it’s the highest including Indiana where there is a voting rights case right now).
But in the major one for this election, the Republicans were defeated this afternoon in a ruling on vote caging or matching to lists that are inaccurate. Here’s the story on it from the Ga. legal newspaper, and I linked the actual order from the 3 Judge panel for you.
Panel: Georgia Checks Should have been Cleared by Feds
Order by 3 Judge Panel in Morales v. Handel (Vote Caging Case against Republicans in Georgia
The order means that no one will be stopped from voting because of faulty lists or because they were matched with their middle initial in a name on one list and not on another which was causing people to be flagged as ineligible because of the poor way the match was programmed by the Republican and very partisan Secretary of State in Georgia. Whether the matching will continue at all is now being mulled by the Ga. AG.
There also is a lot of interest building on Georgia because it could very well be the last race and one of the hottest races in the U.S. Here’s what I mean:
Right now an excellent candidate, Democrat Jim Martin is surprising everyone because he was so outfunded by literally millions of dollars to a few thousand when the race started. Jim is a seasoned trial lawyer who helped run Senate Judiciary in the state for 17 years and would be a terrific member of Senate Judiciary. He is running against Saxby Chambliss who votes nearly 100% of the time with Bush.
Chambliss led the way during the FISA litigation making numerous completely false statements on the need for the bill.
Here’s where things get interesting in Georgia with huge national implications. There are 3 candidates running for Senate. One is a libeterian who may get 2-3% of the vote. Georia is the only state in the country that requires a 50% +1 margin for victory in the Senate race. That increases the chance for a runoff with 3 candidates where 2 are running neck and neck.
If there were a runoff it would occur Dec. 1 and President elect Obama would be coming to Georgia more than once to try to seal the election of Jim Martin.
This is a juicy interesting scenario and is discussed here:
The U.S. Senate race, and the case for a Georgia visit from Barack Obama
Great post, Jim! All I can say is,”Oy!”