Senate Panel Sets Deadline on Corruption Case

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This next story shows the power that U.S. attorneys can have. The Senate Judiciary Committee is focused on a case in Wisconsin where last week a conviction on corruption charges was overturned and a defendant was freed from prison. The appeals court attacked the prosecution for relying on thin evidence, and following that stunning reversal and rebuke, some Democrats wonder whether the U.S. attorney involved might have been pressured by higher-ups in Washington - pressured to prosecute in a case that Republicans were eager to use for political advantage.

NPR's David Schaper reports.

DAVID SCHAPER: Last summer, a jury in Milwaukee convicted Wisconsin procurement official Georgia Thompson of steering a state travel contract to a firm that contributed $20,000 to the campaign of Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. And supporters of Doyle's unsuccessful Republican opponent in last November's election had a field day.

(Soundbite of campaign ad)

Unidentified Man: How does Governor Doyle's office work? This Doyle aide is going to prison for rigging a state contract for...

SCHAPER: But last week a three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, considered a conservative circuit favorable to prosecutors, ripped apart the Milwaukee U.S. attorney's case during oral arguments. The judges noted no evidence of a cozy relationship between the governor and the firm in question, no evidence Thompson even knew about the firm's campaign contributions, no evidence anyone told her to favor the firm or that she stood to gain. It also turned out that the firm was the lowest bidder.

7th Circuit Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood took the prosecution to task.

Ms. DIANE WOOD (Judge, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals): It strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin, so I'm not sure what your actual theory of this case is.

SCHAPER: Such a sharp rebuke, such a quick reversal, and the immediate release order taken together were almost unheard of.

Professor FRANK TURKHEIMER (Law, University of Wisconsin): I've never come across that before in about four decades of involvement with the federal criminal process.

SCHAPER: Frank Turkheimer is a University of Wisconsin law professor and former U.S. attorney for western Wisconsin under President Carter.

Prof. TURKHEIMER: The U.S. attorney, then, is open to - his motives are open to question. And that wouldn't have been the case, you know, a year ago, three years ago, four years ago, where we didn't have the wholesale midterm removal of U.S. attorneys.

SCHAPER: That's led to speculation that Milwaukee U.S. attorney Steve Biskupic may have been one of the U.S. attorneys the Bush administration had contemplated firing. Why? Wisconsin Republicans had alleged rampant vote fraud in Milwaukee in the 2000 and 2004 elections, years when the state narrowly favored Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry. Biskupic investigated scores of reports of vote fraud but prosecuted relatively few. Late in 2005, Biskupic announced there were only isolated incidents of vote fraud and no partisan conspiracy to rig the elections.

That reportedly led to a complaint from the Wisconsin GOP to White House political aide Karl Rove. Later, documents released by the Justice Department mentioned Wisconsin as one of three places where vote fraud had not been adequately addressed by U.S. attorneys.

Mr. JOE WINEKE (Chairman, Wisconsin Democratic Party): And you start putting two and two together and you start having to at least question.

SCHAPER: Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Joe Wineke.

Mr. WINEKE: Especially after we found out that Attorney General Gonzales had fired eight people for not being aggressive enough, the question then becomes, why did the other 84 keep their job?

SCHAPER: Wineke suggests prosecutor Biskupic may have been under political pressure and unable to resist a corruption case against a relatively apolitical state bureaucrat.

Mr. WINEKE: Georgia Thompson was indicted in an election year. She was tried in an election year. She was convicted shortly before an election. It has all the makings of a partisan witch-hunt.

SCHAPER: But many in Wisconsin's legal community, regardless of party, say they'd be surprised to see Biskupic buckle under to such pressure. He has a sterling reputation as a career prosecutor, tough but fair, and ready to bring corruption cases against both parties. Biskupic's first assistant, Michelle Jacobs, denies there was political pressure.

Ms. MICHELLE JACOBS (First Assistant Milwaukee U.S. Attorney): There was no communication from the White House, from the attorney general's office, or anybody else with any sort of political motive pressuring this office or Mr. Biskupic and the other prosecutors who worked on the case to bring this prosecution.

SCHAPER: Jacobs says the case was investigated jointly with Democratic state and local prosecutors, and the office welcomes a review by Congress.

David Schaper, NPR News.

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