U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has lost all patience with the unethical DOJ lawyers who prosecuted former Senator Ted Stevens:
Note to the Justice Department, FBI and IRS: Don't destroy any evidence in the Ted Stevens prosecution.
That order came from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, acting on his own, on Sunday. Sullivan demanded the immediate preservation of e-mails, notes, memos, investigative files, audio recordings and electronically stored information. The judge didn't provide any context to the order.
In a separate order, the judge Sunday ordered the Justice Department to turn over to the court by 10 a.m. Monday copies of all the material the department has gathered in the post-trial phase of the Stevens case. Prosecutors have been turning over that evidence, by court order, to Stevens' lawyers at Williams & Connolly. Sullivan wants to take a look at the material, too. It wasn't immediately known Monday whether Justice fulfilled its obligation to turn over documents.
A federal judge is working on Sunday, issuing orders requiring parties to preserve evidence. Not good.
