The Justice Department won its case against Andersen... and in the process basically demonstrated that its star witness, David Duncan, should never have pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges. The jury couldn't agree that he was guilty. Nor does it help that Duncan testified that there was no accounting fraud at Enron. That certainly won't help the Justice Department investigation of Enron and its executives.

After claiming for months that Andersen illegally shredded tons of Enron-related documents, the guilty verdict that was handed down Saturday, had nothing to do with shredding. The verdict was based on the e-mail of an attorney in the Andersen General Counsel office advising David Duncan to alter a draft memo pertaining to an Enron press release. Everyone has known since last year that Enron's management had issued a misleading press release.

The prosecution team didn't even focus on that e-mail, nor apparently did they realize its persuasive importance to the jury. That alteration of that e-mail certainly won't help the investigation of Enron.

The Justice Department prosecutors say they're not through with Andersen.... That's a pathetic statement, because there's been no Andersen since the Justice Department indicted the firm three months ago. Let's hope what they mean is they're about to prosecute individual wrongdoers... whether at Andersen or Enron... which is what they should have done in the first place.