By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. signaled Thursday that he is taking additional steps to revamp the Justice Department’s procedures for handling public corruption cases, in the wake of the aborted case against Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens.

Holder said that he has told Justice Department lawyers that “their job is not to win cases; their job ultimately is to do justice.”

Holder said he has “great faith” in the abilities and ethical standards of department lawyers. But, he said, “there are things that we have to take into account given what has happened recently, with regard to training, with regard to resources.” Holder said the department would be announcing those steps in the “not too distant future.”

Holder decided to drop the case against Stevens because of prosecutorial missteps, including the failure of the government to provide crucial evidence concerning a key witness’ account to the former senator’s defense attorneys.

On April 7, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan set aside Stevens’ conviction.

Holder said he decided to drop the case against Stevens, rather than retry it, because “it was my feeling, based on the totality of the circumstances, the nature of the mistakes that were made, that the appropriate thing to do was for the department to dismiss the case, not to proceed.”

The attorney general said he was not examining other public corruption prosecutions in Alaska, or the Justice Department’s prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Donald Siegelman in light of the missteps of the Stevens case. Siegelman, a Democrat, was convicted in 2006. The House Judiciary Committee is probing allegations that the Siegelman prosecution was politically motivated.

“I don’t have any reviews under way at this point, but I always want to ensure that the Justice Department acts in a way that is consistent with the long tradition of this great department,” Holder said.