The federal authorities who rammed through seven faulty felony convictions against Sen. Ted Stevens should be ashamed of their careless conduct. The attorney general was right in asking for dismissal of the case because federal prosecutors failed to disclose evidence deemed helpful to the defense. And Judge Emmet Sullivan struck a blow for judicial ethics in ordering a criminal investigation into the appalling conduct of the federal prosecution team.
However, the government should feel more ashamed of bringing those pussycat charges in the first place. The feds had a chance to dig much deeper into Alaska corruption, particularly as it involved the senator's twisting of this nation's fishery policies and earmarking taxpayer dollars to benefit private interests.
Not one of the charges against the senator involved abuse of taxpayer money. But the senator had been deeply involved in steering taxpayer money in strange ways, particularly ways that benefited his son, Ben Stevens.
Stevens co-authored the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, which kicked the foreign fleets out of American waters. He deserves to be honored for that. However, the record suggests the senator got greedy as his power grew.
Stevens pushed legislation to help Alaska's $2 billion a year fishing industry. By no coincidence, his son Ben Stevens, handsomely benefited.
A former commercial fisherman and once president of the Alaska Senate, Ben Stevens capitalized on his father's prestige. Once his father started rolling federal money into the Alaska fisheries, Ben Stevens cashed in big by setting up a consultant firm for clients that directly benefited from federal earmarks and changes in fishing regulations directed by his father. Some notable instances:
• When a funding earmark by Ted Stevens created the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, son Ben became the first chairman. The board approved grants to companies that paid the younger Stevens consulting fees, according to a state financial disclosure report.
• In 2000, Congress approved a $100 million federal loan program to buy Alaska crab boats to trim the size of the fleet and boost prices. The Bering Sea Crab Effort Reduction Fund, which sought the buyout, hired Ben Stevens' company, Advance North, as a consultant.
• In 2003, an earmark inserted by Ted Stevens gave exclusive pollock fishing rights to Alaska Natives at Adak in the Aleutians. This was a direct political intrusion that revised the boundaries drawn scientifically by the North Pacific Management Council to protect the Steller sea lions. The measure to harvest pollock in once-restricted waters was said to be worth millions for Adak Fisheries.
That Native company paid Ben Stevens $295,000 between 2000 and 2004, according to the state financial disclosure reports. When the earmark went through, Ben Stevens secretly had held an option to buy into Adak fisheries.
While three Alaska state legislators in the federal bribery investigation had been tried and jailed in 2007, no charges had been brought against Stevens or his son as that year ended. On July 29, 2008, the federal government indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator, on seven felony charges, but none was related to fisheries.
Alaskans have a right to ask why the federal government concentrated its case on Stevens' failure to report gifts, which did not involve public dollars, rather than pursue his suspicious abuse of taxpayer dollars to benefit private interests.
Did they conclude they didn't have the facts? Or did the federal prosecutors feel they had a slam-dunk case against one of the nation's famous senators and could walk away with a trophy conviction without having to dig deeper?
Was taking Bill Allen's money all there is to the Stevens corruption scandal? Or are we still going to hear more?
John Strohmeyer is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author. His new book, "Empty Nets: Fish, Politics and Avarice," is in the hands of a publisher.
By JOHN STROHMEYER
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