Jim Clark (Alaska) - Polar Pen Charges Dropped

Polar Pen Charges Dropped

In 2008, Clark admitted that he was aware that Veco Corp had paid $10,000 for a political poll to gauge the popularity of then-incumbent Governor Murkowski, and was charged with honest services fraud. However, this charge was flawed. The statute was so vague it gave prosecutors "almost carte blanche power to use it in both political and private settings to sweep within the net of criminal liability conduct which, while arguably improper, should not be criminalized." Thus, before he was sentenced, the US Supreme Court ruled that the statute was drafted with unconstitutional vagueness and henceforth will only cover "fraudulent schemes to deprive another of honest services through bribes or kickbacks supplied by a third party who ha not been deceived." Since Clark's awareness of the poll constituted neither bribes or kickbacks, all charges were voided. Moreover, due to misdeeds on behalf of the federal prosecutors in their "Polar Pen" operation, the prosecutors themselves were later investigated and found guilty of gross prosecutorial misconduct in the Ted Stevens case.