department concluded that misconduct by prosecutors was serious enough to justify a new trial for ted stevensovernment will instead drop all the charges. attorney general eric holder after assigning a new team to examine the case concluded that prosecutors repeatedly withheld key evidence from the stevens defense team, which could have been used to challenge government witnesses. >> the justice department basically took it all back. they vacated the conviction they had won against ted stevens, they dropped all charges against him. it was a disaster. justice department's public integrity section botched it. they concealed evidence during the trial which is a cardinal sin for a prosecutor. it led the justice department to take apart their corruption unit. they restaffed it, re vamped it. since then they've had a much better department. that union successfully oversaw the trial of rick rendery who was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for corruption and money laundering. they oversaw the case against republican governor bob mcdonald of virginia, convicted of 11 felony corruption c

ted stevens got screwed by the prosecution.hey screwed him and the guy died defeated for re-election because of that conviction and because of bad, bad evil crooked politics -- what do you call it -- prosecution. is there any chance that is going on here? >> no. >> just for purpose of argument. >> no. this started out -- they started looking at this in 2012, i believe. >> before this talk. >> yes. and things have to come to a conclusion. it's coincidental but the white house is not in with this because the president is not supposed to know anything about any investigation and so this investigation is independent of anything to do with the white house. but i find it very interesting kind of going into it that the white house would say this because loretta lynch has to go for a vote and the vote is tight so now -- >> linkage. >> good point. they should have done it after loretta lynch and said, yes, they are in cahoots. >> bob mcdonnell out of virginia. the expensive watches -- >> rolex. >> you don't know that? >> he only wears a

. >> any lessons from the prosecution not too long ago of the late former senator ted stevens of alaska? >> that was a huge set back. remember the stevens case was simple. he failed to report work that was done on his house boy an oil company executive. it went off the rails and the judge threw the case out and retried -- tried to retry it and they said no way because he said there was misconduct and they failed to turn over evidence that would have been helpful to the defense. >> i'm wondering what if he could prove they were good friends and they took vacations thoughing together. these people were actually close. can he prove that? >> i don't think they'll trouble proving that they were good proves. because they were. there was a close association. it may be different if he was helping a constituent. but menendez is a big deal in florida and the hispanic community. these were not christmas gifts. this was not your easter basket of chocolates. this was checks to his campaign and democratic packs that would help senator menendez at the time he was doing favors. >> senator said in his d

the last time a senator was charged, it was ted stevens of alaska seven years ago. that case blew up, though, because prosecutors were accused of misconduct. he lost his reelection bid. prosecutors had a black eye. people are watching this case very closely. >> thank you. >> iran says a nuclear agreement is close at hand, but getting all the at that sides to approve it may take time. >> a federal judge facing pressure over allegations of domestic abuse. will he lose his job? that story after the break. al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. >> welcome to al jazeera america. it is 10:45 eastern. taking a look at the latest headlines. duke university is investigating a news found on campus, found on wednesday hanging from a tree outside a po

ted stevens was a dear friend of mine and i testified as i said understand the only after he was convictedn we were that the justice department prosecutors intentionally hid exculpatory evidence that could have helped his case. there were not these were not mistakes. they were cropped ask that violated every prosecutors duty to turn over exculpatory evidence so that the trial will be fair. now i recommend that you read this book because if if even half of it is true and i believe it is true, you have a lot of work to do to clean up that department. will you consider doing that for a? >> thank you, sir. i will. >> i appreciated. pics mr. guerre. >> before i called senator feinstein, i'm going to ask just ask the finance committee convenes will offer amendments so i would ask the most senior republican to watch the time and call on the next person in seniority order to senator feinstein. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. ms. lynch, i sat through six opening statements by potential attorneys general, and i just want to tell you yours was the best. >> thank you. >> i see the combination of

public integrity section, which itself is an oxymoron, is the same section that took out senator ted stevens did it -- got reprimanded after he lost his election by withholding evidence. this is a corrupt scene designed -- 76% of the american people want the congress to have a say. barack obama intends to bypass the congress to the u.n. the issue right now for the country, my party and doug's party suffered under the question of who lost china and what happened while being -- >> all right -- >> i tell you that's what faces the democratic party today. >> let me switch gears. talk about double standards here. where is the outrage over harry reid basically admitting that he lied about romney on the senate floor? >> it's such an outrage that this guy can stand there and trash romney and accuse him of paying no taxes and he knew it was a lie when he said it. and he knew they could do nothing to him. and now he chortles about it by saying, well who won the election? i mean, no wonder the american people hate politics except the political insiders. no wonder they hate the two parties and they think

dana this is the same public integrity unit the department of charges that brought charges against ted stevens, got a conviction overturned broke the rules and the judge didn't like the way that the prosecutors played. now, from what i'm hearing oh, jeerk the prosecutors feel very confident in this case and outside lawyers are saying they have got a better case against him than they did against bob mcdonnell the former governor of virginia. >> right. >> and the only defense that i'm hearing is not what i thought. i thought the defense was going to be under the kind of speech and debate clause that i can say what i want to say, i'm a member of congress, but instead it is going to be that i was doing personal favors for a friend outside of my official capacity and therefore i'm not subject to this law. >> that defense -- that defense you just mention is what harry reid used as his excuse about lying regarding mitt romney's taxes. >> he was on the senate floor though. >> so it is okay to lie about somebody not paying their taxes on the senate floor? i mean the corruption, i think that that issed

john edwards, citied -- ted stevens. you're alluding to the suspicion that perhaps mr.ez has been targeted because he has opposed administration on a number of crucial issues. i find very little evidence to support that but given how political the administration has been and can be in particularly the justice department, one can't rule it out. jon: chris wallace said the same thing when i spoke to him yesterday. yes, he's been a vocal opponent of the democratic president on the iran deal cuba deal immigration policy and all of a sudden, he finds himself under indictment by the obama justice department. >> you know this is not actually new and i do fault the news media for not making a bigger story of this. on the other hand, iran connection is very interesting. a guy that works for us went to prison because, in my view there was quote unquote, corrupt but he also was the only member of congress that spoke the language and did some back door communication with iran that he had gotten and suddenly the bush administration went after him. so this is not terribly surprising

will they be going after menendez the last sitting senator the feds went after, alaska senator ted stevense whole investigation was botched really. >> it was and of course he was later cleared. but senator menendez has a real challenge ahead of him. he has to do his job. he also has to defend himself. but there may be smoke leading to some fire and here's why. he already gave back to the government over $58,000 in monies for private flights he took on vacation on the doctor's private plane. so he was hoping by doing that this would go away. obviously it has not. and that's the probable cause. and more that this indictment brings. gerri: let's switch gears and move to iran for a second and the negotiations going there for iran to have not nuclear weapons they say but they want to develop nuclear energy. guy to start with you. another delay. we're thinking now maybe waiting until thursday to come up with a framework possibly of a deal. is this likely? do you think this is going to stretch out till june? >> i think this is going to go on and on. what we've heard from team obama and team kerry

maybe it's because i have senator ted stevens in the back of my mind who was treated inappropriatelyy the feds. menendez is owed the benefit of the doubt. the argument that says well it's a distraction, he'll have a lot on his plate i found to be thoroughly unconvincing. brooke, i'm not sure. all i know is what i read of the indictment. i read the indictment. i don't see this as a layup. i don't think this is a no-brainer. i think there will be a very active defense put forward on his behalf where he will say this individual is a friend and, yes, i tried to provide constituent service to him in the sammy way i would someone else even though he's from florida, not new jersey and there's nothing illegal about that. for the feds to prove a quid pro quo, that one was doing something for the other in return for that exchange is going to be hard unless the physician is cooperating and offering testimony, and he's not. if he should all of a sudden turn on senator menendez then it's a whole different kind of a case. but without him cooperating with a federal investigation, i think this is a

>> reporter: menendez's lawyer like.ed the charges to previous failed prosecutions of senators ted stevens, john edwards and hud secretary, mike espy. >> prosecutors at the justice department often get it wrong. these charges are the latest mistakes. >> reporter: co-defendant, dr. solomon mel gen left without comment separately, saying the government may try to flip him. >> if that happens, the senator would be in very, very, very bad shape. >> reporter: the pressure for mel general to flip may be intense. one count describes how he treated patients with an injectable drug called luce seine 'tis against fda regulations, mel general would stretch the one vial per patient dosage to treat four patients, then bill medicare for four dosages. an audit found he had overbilled the government by almost $9 million. he denied it and went to menendez for help. menendez intervened at hhs, prompting a staff terror to write a deputy secretary "we have a bit of a situation with senator menendez. he wants to talk to someone today. i talked his office out of the secretary, but therefore, threw you under the

pete the last time the federal government really went after a senator it was ted stevens, governmentasn't that successful. they were successful in going after the former governor of virginia bob mcdonnell. are they on a roll? >> it's going to be a difficult case. two things present in the mctonld case a willing witness involved in the conspiracy, and the government tried to get the doctor to testify, he's not going to testify. and the seconds thing is the man in the virginia case sort of appeared when bob mcdonnell ran for governor and menendez says dr. melgin is a long time friend. i noticed in the picture of senator menendez walking into court, his defense lawyer is abby lowell. >> you reported yesterday that menendez has already stepped down from his position as the ranking democrat on the foreign relations committee and very outspoken in iran and cuba. >> fighting to keep his seat and no intention yet to resign from the senate but in leadership that's where he was able to sort of give cover to fellow democrats by saying i'll step out of the lime light in this important leadership

but in 2008 when ted stevens ran into his own problems with boj, people like john mccain called for histook a step back and it was a whole hoopla saying you should be really innocent until you're proven guilty. so you're not hearing a lot of those national calls for menendez's resignation. you're hearing it from the editorial board of the i know star ledger newspaper. if it gets to be worse, perhaps you'll hear some calls. but the trial is not until the summer. expect menendez to keep a profile, probably not as large of one as he had before on capitol hill. he just released a statement on the latest on the iran talks. he wants to be a player. >> absolutely. thanks so much. >>> next an update on developments in that deadly university attack in kenya. >>> and in france crews have found the second black box among the germanwings wreckage. what new clues might that hold? nice morning, scott? aye, or... a mornin' of tiny voices crying out, "feed us"! i don't understand... your grass, man! it's a living, breathing thing. it's hungry, and you've got to feed it with scotts turf builder. that a

. >> a few years abthe justice democratic went after alaska senator ted stevens a very powerful republican at the time but didn't try to prove bribery or quid pro quo but accused him of taking gifts that he didn't report on forms. that blew up in prosecutor's face tasked with trying to conduct this, but it turns out they hid evidence from defense attorneys. it ended up being a real disaster for the justice department. many people are remembering that and watching this case closely. >> libby casey, thank you. >> california for the first time imposed mandatory water restrictions. the four year drought has reached near crisis pro organization he is after a winter of record low snowfalls. this is lake orville in 2011. you see a full lake, ample vegetation and this is the lake today. as you can see water levels have plunged there. 68%. here's another look at the same lake. this is before and this is after. more on why the state is taking desperate measures. >> desperate times calling for desperate measures in the golden state. standing on the slopes of a bone dry ski area, california governor j

quo they have not had an exemplary batting average with these political corruption cases, back to ted stevens also john edwards, both cases that in large part seemed to fall apart. >> right. i think that because of that, i would think they're going to try to have this case as locked down as they can. i would note more recently they were successful in the prosecution of governor mcdonnell in virginia which was a similar official act in exchange for gifts type of case. they probably learned a lot from that as well but, again, i think that the history here is a tough one and i think particularly where senator menendez has excellent counsel which he does, it's not correct just to look at the facts and say this is a slam dunk for the government. >> that's the justice side of the equation. now the political side of this case. senator menendez an outspoken critic of the president not only about cuba but very outspoken when it comes to the issue of iran. he's now had to step down from the foreign relations committee. that's number one. you have to think about the timing here, bob. it came out literal

that is, ted stevens, the republican from alaska, charged with financial misconduct for failing to discloseifts, about $250 -- $250,000 with. kay bailey hutchinson, from texas, accused of having abused her power in her previous office as state treasurer. the list, 12 in all, going back to 1807. that was in the national journalists morning. robert from texas, he said he supports the boycotts. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call, pedro. i support the boycotts because people have rights, just like people who do not support the boycott -- the all caps. and to the lady that says she's a born-again christian, she needs to open up the bible and take a good look at it, because if she does, she will find out that christianity was creating -- created by satan. in the first chapter of genesis went satan got thrown out of heaven, he went to the second chapter of genesis and called himself the lord. he did not get a new name until the new testament and started calling himself lord jesus, and then jesus christ, which is short for christianity. people need to take a look at the holy bible. it is n

>> and al hunt, obviously steven hayes up in new hampshire, we were on the panel and steven hayes said that tedery member in the senate, both on the republican and the democratic side and steven hayes said he wasn't saying that as a negative. but this does show that he's going to have to watch his back, ted cruz, whenever he starts talking about the senate. because he's sure to have critics in both parties coming after him. >> joe, i actually know a couple who like him. it may be limited to that. john mccain is not one of them. he called him a whacko bird i think about a year ago. this was silly. but also the issue was silly. he was pandering. whatever you think ability gun rights in there country the idea of protecting them on military bases really is in the a very high priority. so i think this was a blunder by a rookie candidate. >> all right. the war of words between 2016 candidate senator rand paul and the hawk issuing of the republican party appears to be reaching a boil. here's what senator lindsey graham had to say about paul's world view on "morning joe" followed by paul's response to

. >> the person who put brian steven son on the stage was chris anderson, the man who runs ted.his speakers he hosts ted conferences, and he decides which talks go online. >> there are numerous brilliant people out there and they come up with something really important. so part of the way we see our role is to help them make their knowledge accessible. >> it's a campfire in part isn't it? >> it is a campfire. someone stands up everyone's eyes are upon them they tell a story. >> amazing. >> the response, it changes people's lives and changes their careers and really makes a lot of difference. i mean brian stevenson is on the "time" 100 list and has gotten attention and is an amazing man. he would have spectacular regardless but it helped him draw a lot of money. >> and that's this sunday? >> yes, this sunday on "60 minutes." how ted talks are changing lives on stage and off. you'll see the emotional connections they create sunday here on cbs. >> he's accused of rigging the results to iowa's lottery by uploading computer malware. how investigators say a lottery security director t