WASHINGTON (AP) — The legal team that defended Sen. Ted Stevens in his corruption trial has harshly criticized as too light the punishment handed out to a pair of prosecutors found to have engaged in reckless professional misconduct in the case.

A Justice Department report, released Thursday, says assistant U.S. attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke failed to disclose information to the Stevens legal team that was favorable to the lawmaker. Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility concluded the failure to turn over the material was not intentional. The department imposed a 40-day suspension on Bottini and a 15-day suspension on Goeke. They can appeal to the independent Merit Systems Protection Board. Lawyers for both prosecutors disputed the finding of misconduct.

In a statement, Stevens’s lawyers called the punishment laughable and pathetic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s internal ethics watchdog says two prosecutors in the bungled corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens engaged in reckless professional misconduct by failing to disclose information favorable to the defense.

The Office of Professional Responsibility, however, did not find that the misconduct was intentional.

A career Justice Department official decided one prosecutor should be suspended for 40 days without pay and the second prosecutor should be suspended for 15 days without pay. They can appeal to the independent Merit Systems Protection Board.

The judge in the case dismissed the senator’s conviction in April 2009 after the Justice Department admitted misconduct in the case. Stevens died in a plane crash on August 9, 2010.

Earlier, a court-appointed special prosecutor declined to bring charges over government misconduct in the case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s inspector general says it is investigating possible misconduct by Drug Enforcement Administration personnel in Colombia unrelated to the Secret Service incident with prostitutes at a Cartagena (kahr-tah-HAY’-nah) hotel.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says the probe began based on information provided by the Secret Service and that the DEA is making its employees available to be interviewed by the IG’s investigators.

CBS News reported Monday that three DEA agents are under investigation for allegedly hiring prostitutes in Cartagena.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.

There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and rejected a challenge by an Alabama county to the landmark civil rights law.

In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court said that Congress developed extensive evidence of continuing racial discrimination and reached a reasonable conclusion when it reauthorized the section of the law six years ago.

Appeals Judge David Tatel wrote for the majority that the court owes deference to Congress’s judgment on the matter.

The act’s section 5 requires state, county and local governments with a history of discrimination to obtain advance approval from the Justice Department, or from a federal court in Washington, for any changes to election procedures.

It currently applies to nine states and parts of seven others.

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Robert Mueller says the bureau has launched an investigation into who leaked information about an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound airline flight.

Mueller says such leaks during ongoing law enforcement operations damage U.S. relationships with allies.

The Associated Press and other news organizations revealed details of the plot this month. A double agent working with the CIA, Saudi intelligence agencies and the British intelligence agency MI6 turned the bomb over to the U.S. government. Mueller’s comment to the Senate Judiciary Committee was the first on-the-record confirmation that a Justice Department leak probe is under way.