If you have solid tips, news or documents on potential ethical violations or abuses of power, we want to know. Send us your suggestions. 
Unfortunately I believe that we are limited in what we can focus on. I think that if we proceed with the partisan sideshow of prosecuting Bush admin. officials, healthcare will get lost in the brouhaha.
The Washington Post's permanent investigative unit was set up in 1982 under Bob Woodward.
Jury in Stevens Case Hears Tapes
Jurors in the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens began listening to secretly-recorded phone calls today between Stevens and the government's lead witness, as defense attorneys tried once again to get the Justice Department's case against the lawmaker thrown out.
The phone calls between Stevens, the 84-year-old senator, and Bill Allen, Stevens's 71-year-old friend and a former oil company executive, were recorded by the FBI.
Stevens is accused of hiding improper gifts and favors from Allen, including $250,000 in home renovations and vehicles he received.
In one tape, Stevens tells Allen that they have a fight ahead and "we're going to win because we didn't do anything wrong," according to The Associated Press.
A copy of the defense's court filing asking for Stevens's case to be dismissed can be found after the jump
Meanwhile, Stevens's attorneys have continued to hammer government prosecutors for allegedly withholding FBI testimony from Allen, in which he says that Stevens told him he would have paid home remodeling bills if they had been provided.
"The indictment in this case charges Senator Stevens with intentionally concealing material information that he was required to disclose to the government," Stevens's lead attorney, Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. wrote in the court filing. "Sadly and ironically, it is the government that has intentionally concealed material information that it was required to disclose to the defense...There must be an end to this behavior. How many times can the government defy the orders of this Court and its constitutional obligations before dismissal ensues?"
Stevens's defense team tried unsuccessfully to get the case against their client thrown out last Thursday on the same grounds.
By Derek Kravitz |
October 6, 2008; 12:40 PM ET
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Posted by: Ed Weirdness | October 6, 2008 1:34 PM
You know, that govt. surveillance despite constitutional restrictions just comes back to haunt you once-in-a-while, even if you're Republican and hail from Alaska!
Posted by: boesc | October 6, 2008 2:46 PM
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If the government withheld any evidence, exculpatory or not, the jury has a right to hear and see any and all evidence, anything less denies the accused a fair trial. The case should already have been thrown out following Thursday's revelation of the exculpatory evidence. It's unethical to require someone to prove their innocence when the government intentionally hides exculpatory evidence.