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Alaska corruption prosecutors criticized
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision Sep 16, 2007 09:25pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Monday, September 17, 2007 03:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Justice Department inappropriately pressured a former state lawmaker to consider pleading guilty in a corruption case, according to his lawyer, who wants a federal judge to review the agency's actions.
The claim is surfacing in a bribery investigation that has now stretched to Capitol Hill, where Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, both from Alaska, are under scrutiny.
A lawyer for former state Rep. Vic Kohring said the FBI recently used another state lawmaker, who was cooperating with investigators, to press Kohring to take a plea deal.
Investigators normally are prohibited from contacting defendants once they have a lawyer.
Kohring has pleaded not guilty to bribery and extortion charges despite what defense lawyer John Henry Browne contended was persistent pressure from the Justice Department to change the plea.
That pressure culminated recently, Browne said, when Kohring's former aide received a call from an aide in state Sen. Fred Dyson's office. The message, Browne said, was to take a plea deal.
It was only last week that Browne learned Dyson had been working with investigators since 2006. Details about the cooperation emerged in a related trial and showed that Dyson helped prosecutors persuade oil contractor Bill Allen to cooperate in the overarching investigation.
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