Two months after prosecutors abandoned the criminal conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), the Justice Department unit that polices public corruption remains in chaos, coping with newly discovered evidence that threatens to undermine other cases, the Washington Post reports. William Welch and Brenda Morris, senior managers in the Public Integrity Section who supervised the case against Stevens, have been moved into other roles following the transfer this month of two of their subordinates, who worked on lengthy investigations of Alaskan influence peddling.
Document-sharing lapses that provoked the Stevens turnaround are affecting other bribery prosecutions in the state, prompting authorities to take the extraordinary step of releasing two Alaska lawmakers from prison last week. A new team of government lawyers and FBI agents is reviewing thousands of pages of evidence, trying to assuage the concerns of judges and fielding complaints from defense attorneys.