Attorney General Eric Holder has put a hold on a case against former US Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, asking a federal judge to drop all charges. Stevens was defeated in November after serving Alaska in the Senate for 40 years and just days after being convicted on corruption charges.

A jury convicted Stevens last fall of seven counts of lying on his Senate disclosure form in order to conceal $250,000 in gifts from an oil industry executive and other friends. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in the Senate. However, he lost his bid for an eighth full term in office just days after he was convicted.

Since his conviction, prosecutorial misconduct charges have been levied by the trial judge.

Judge Sullivan has repeatedly delayed sentencing and criticized trial prosecutors for what he has called prosecutorial misconduct. At one point, prosecutors were held in contempt. Things got so bad that the Justice Department finally replaced the trial team, including top-ranking officials in the Public Integrity Section, which is charged with prosecuting public corruption cases.

Former Senator Stevens and his lawyers were quick to declare this a victory for justice. “I always knew that there would be a day when the cloud that surrounded me would be removed,” Stevens said. It seems however, that Holder decided to drop the charges based on his desire to save face in an ugly trial plagued with embarrassing missteps by Justice Department officials. Stevens is also not the catch he was at the time this case began, as he is no longer in the Senate.

For the man behind the “Bridge to Nowhere,” and a bevy of other needless pork projects over his 40 years in the Senate, Stevens seems to have cleared his name, at least officially. However, he did lose the ultimate prize that he coveted so greatly – his seat of power in the U.S. Senate. In the process Stevens helped to tarnish the Republican brand, costing the GOP more than just his seat in the 2008 election.