Stevens prosecutors apologize for bad info

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors apologized for providing misleading information in former Sen. Ted Stevens' trial, but defense lawyers said they should be held in contempt.

In a letter to the judge dated Jan. 30 and made public Thursday, the head of the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section said he was wrong when he said government employees named cited in an FBI complaint alleging improprieties by government officials "want their story to be made public," the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

In reality, he said, not all consented to having their names released Jan. 14 in the public document. In the complaint, FBI agent Chad Joy accused a fellow agent and prosecutors of violating FBI policy and fair-trial rules in the public corruption investigation in Alaska and in Stevens' trial in Washington last year. Stevens was found guilty and is appealing.

In a motion filed Thursday, Stevens' lawyers cited the latest material from prosecutors as additional grounds for their demand that either Stevens' charges be dismissed because of government misconduct, or that he get a new trial.

Attorneys also asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to hold the government lawyers in contempt.

"The government still does not get it. Over and over again, it has been caught red-handed making false representations to the court and the defense," defense attorney Robert Cary said in his motion.