Watch this space

Back on January 4 I told you about the dispute between Richard Convertino, a federal prosecutor in Detroit, and his superiors over the handling of the first major post-9/11 terrorist trial and whether or not Convertino was being punished because he gave testimony to Congress about terrorism prosecutions. I also noted how the case was coming apart because of misconduct by the prosecutors' concealment of exculpatory evidence.

Well, there's a new development in this strange case, as reported by USA Today (tip by Buzzflash).

Washington (AP, February 17) - A federal prosecutor in a major terrorism case in Detroit has taken the rare step of suing Attorney General John Ashcroft, alleging the Justice Department interfered with the case, compromised a confidential informant and exaggerated results in the war on terrorism.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino of Detroit accused the Justice Department of "gross mismanagement" of the war on terrorism in a whistleblower lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Washington. ...

Convertino is seeking damages under the First Amendment and Privacy Act, alleging he has been subjected to an internal investigation as retaliation for his cooperation with the Senate and that information from the internal probe was wrongly leaked to news media. ...

Convertino also accused Justice officials of intentionally divulging the name of one of his confidential terrorism informants (CI) to retaliate against him.

The leak put the informant at grave risk, forced him to flee the United States and "interfered with the ability of the United States to obtain information from the CI about current and future terrorist activities," the suit alleges.

This has the potential to get really interesting.