Breaking News this afternoon from the Associated Press:

The White House says an aide to President Bush has resigned because of the alleged misuse of grant money from U.S. Agency for International Development.

Presidential spokesman Scott Stanzel says the former aide, Felipe Sixto, had been a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs. Stanzel said Sixto was promoted to that position on March 1 and that he came forward on March 20 to tell his superiors about the alleged wrongdoing.

Stanzel said it involved improprieties involving the use of grant money and Sixto's former employer, the Center for a Free Cuba. Stanzel says the matter has been turned over to the Justice Department.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wants the Attorney General to explain why the public corruption unit of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Los Angeles was shut down.  That's the office investigation Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who was named one of the most corrupt members of Congress in CREW's report, Beyond DeLay.

According to The Hill, Feinstein is demanding an explanation:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to explain the decision to eliminate the public corruption unit in Los Angeles that has been investigating Rep. Jerry Lewis's (R-Calif.) ties to a lobbying firm.

The U.S. Attorney for the central district of California in Los Angeles reassigned the 17 lawyers in the public corruption unit and disbanded it earlier this month. The decision has stirred ill will and low morale within the office and raised questions about whether pending and future public corruption cases will be rigorously pursued, according to press accounts.

Attorneys in the Los Angeles office have spent years reviewing an FBI investigation into Lewis's connection to a lobbying firm and the earmarks its clients received. Lewis has doled out more than a million dollars in attorney fees related to the probe.

The real world implications of the court decision of the Jefferson case are beginning to be understood by prosecutors. For example, CREW said could decision have a  "devastating impact" on future cases like the one involving Ted Stevens.  In fact, as The Associated Press reveals, prosecutors are worried that the ruling could prevent wiretapping federal elected officials suspected of corruption.   And, not coincidentally, Ted Stevens being Exhibit A:

The Justice Department is worried that a recent appeals court ruling could make it impossible to use wiretaps to investigate members of Congress in corruption cases.

If so, that could extend to the ongoing investigation of Sen. Ted Steven, R-Alaska. The Associated Press recently reported that the FBI used an Alaskan oil contractor to tape phone conversations with the powerful senator as part of a corruption sting.

In court documents filed last week, government attorneys asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reconsider last month's decision regarding the FBI raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.