NPR is reporting this morning that the Justice Department plans to drop what once looked like an open-and-shut case against the case against the longest-serving Republican senator in history.

Things looked bleak for Stevens when a federal indictment dropped in July. Prosecutors alleged that Stevens had failed to disclose $250,000 worth of gifts from a campaign contributor, Veco Corp., on his Senate disclosure forms. The case was straightforward: witnesses (including Stevens himself) said that Veco, an oil services firm with no background in home remodeling, had overseen an overhaul of the senator’s private residence in Girdwood, Alaska. Stevens claimed he paid all the bills Veco sent him. The jury didn’t buy it.

Stevens’ attorneys appealed the case on a number of grounds, including prosecutorial misconduct. Attorney General Eric Holder is supposedly livid at what appears to be, at least, clear-cut mismanagement by prosecutors. For example, in February, five months after Stevens’ conviction, Judge Emmett Sullivan held prosecutors in contempt when he discovered they had not handed over important information to the defense. The Justice Department replaced its legal team after the accusations surfaced.

There were other twists and turns in the trial, including allegations that an FBI agent on the case had an affair with a witness. Though an embarrassing story for the Justice Department, withholding evidence from the defense was technically worse, apparently.

NPR reports that Holder has taken into consideration Stevens’ age (he’s 85-years-old), and the fact that he’s no longer in office. We’ll be waiting for further announcements from the Justice Department.

Update: TPMMuckraker has Holder’s statement on the decision here.

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An FBI whistleblower claims that the lead FBI agent on the Stevens case, Mary Beth Kepner, was having an affair with the prosecution’s star witness, Bill Allen, who admitted under oath to giving the longest-serving Republican senator some $250,000 in gifts that Stevens never disclosed on his Senate disclosure forms.

Stevens’ case is winding through the appeals process at the moment, on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct — separate from today’s revelations. If it’s true that Stevens’ conviction hinged on a sexual relationship between an FBI agent and an oil services company CEO, well, maybe it won’t matter that President Bush passed him over in the end.

Lindsay’s probably a little too fake-America for Uncle Ted’s tastes — she’s using Japanese chili powder and cautions against using regular canned crabmeat, plus she even has a philosophy degree, so clearly she thinks she’s better than hardworking Americans who just want to accept simple bribes from hardscrabble oil-services corporations. But note that she doesn’t serve it atop a bed of the dreaded arugula.