From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. --

Lawyers for former Sen. Ted Stevens have filed their response to yesterday's admission by Justice Department prosecutors that they may have screwed up on releasing the name of an FBI whistleblower with critical things to say about the government's handling of the case.

They're not happy: "The defense (and the court) was forced to spend hundreds of hours dealing with these 'mistakes' in the middle of the trial," Stevens' lawyers wrote. "It strains credulity to believe that these were all good-faith mistakes."

Some background: At a hearing on Wednesday, the judge in the case was angered when prosecutors told him that Special Agent Chad Joy of the FBI didn't qualify for whistle-blower status. Joy's complaint about his co-workers on the investigation is at the center of what is shaping up to be the heart of Stevens' effort to overturn his conviction or get a new trial.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he would have handled the complaint differently last month had he known that Joy didn't have whistle-blower status. (Although it now turns out his status as a whistle-blower is...well, unknown.) Sullivan ordered a new version of Joy's complaint released with most of the deleted information restored.

He also ordered that Attorney General Michael Mukasey sign a declaration under oath concerning who knew what when about Joy's whistle-blower status. But on Thursday, prosecutors admitted they got that part wrong and are asking that the judge back off his order for Mukasey to get involved. They're asking not to file it at all.

This is all developing as I type -- the judge just sent out a notice that he's about to file an order, so standby for more.