Attorney General Eric Holder in a brief filed before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal admitted that the government failed to provide significant discovery to two Republican members of the Alaska legislature who were convicted on corruption charges . The cases of former Alaska House Speaker Peter Kott, from Eagle River, Alaska, and former state Rep. Victor Kohring, from Waslla, Alaska, are currently on appeal before the Ninth Circuit. Holder asked the court to release the defendants on their own recognizance and to return the cases to the trial court where it is expected that their attorneys will move to have the cases dismissed on Brady grounds. In Brady v. Maryland the Supreme Court ruled that the failure of the government to provide a defendant with discovery favorable to the defendant violates due process. Kott and Kohring were charged with bribery, extortion and conspiracy for allegedly accepting bribes from VECO, an oil services company in exchange for legislative votes which favored the company. After being convicted Kott was sentenced to six years in prison and Kohring was sentenced to 3 1/2 years.

The admission is particularly embarrassing since it has only been two months since the government was forced to ask U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to dismiss corruption charges against Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for similar reasons. The documents that the government failed to provide to the attorneys for Kott and Kohring were discovered in the Stevens trial. It was only after Stevens’ attorney sent the documents to Kott’s attorney that Kott was able to move for discovery in the Ninth Circuit. Holder’s request came while Kott’s motion was pending before the Ninth Circuit.