The government now says it misspoke when it told the judge on Wednesday that an FBI agent in the Stevens case had been denied whistleblower status. The misstep on Wednesday set off the judge who ordered Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey to sign a declaration of oath on the matter. Now the prosecution says it was all a misunderstanding. Ooops.
Anchorage Daily News
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors revealed that Anchorage FBI agent Chad Joy was the person alleging misconduct in the Ted Stevens corruption investigation and also said he had been “denied whistleblower status.”
Today, they told the judge they were wrong on the second point.
A document filed late in the day today describes another misstep for the prosecution in the case of former U.S. Sen. Stevens, convicted last year of seven felonies for failing to reveal gifts on federal financial disclosure forms.
At Wednesday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan was angered when prosecutors told him that Joy didn’t qualify for whistleblower status. Had he known that earlier, the judge said, he would have handled the complaint differently from the start, he said. In December, when the complaint came to light, he ordered that a redacted copy with almost no names be released. “I want to know what your office knew and when,” Sullivan demanded at the hearing. He ordered that Attorney General Michael Mukasey sign a declaration under oath about who knew what when about the whistleblower status. But on Thursday, prosecutors admitted they got that part wrong and are asking that the judge back off his order for Mukasey to get involved. For Full Story
Read Government Motion UPDATE: Friday 6:40 P.M. Annoyed Judge Still Wants Answers From Mukasey (Anchorage Daily News)
