CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the conviction and sentence of James Tobin, a former Republican National Committee official who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for his role in an Election Day 2002 phone-jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats.

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, was convicted in December 2005 on two criminal charges of telephone harassment in the scheme, which tied up phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters’ union for more than an hour the day Republican John Sununu won a hotly contested U.S. Senate race against then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled that the statute under which Tobin was convicted “is not a close fit” for what Tobin did – it found that the trial judge’s interpretation of the law was too broad – and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin showed an intent or purpose to harass.

“Oh my God, wow, you know sometimes there is no justice,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan.

Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said prosecutors were reviewing the opinion and evaluating their options.

Tobin, who was free pending his appeal, and four defense lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The Republican National Committee paid for Tobin’s defense, despite maintaining a public position that the party would not tolerate vote tampering.

GOP leaders said the party paid for Tobin’s legal bills with the high-power Washington law firm of Williams and Connolly because he assured them he had done nothing wrong. Williams and Connolly’s other clients included Bill and Hillary Clinton.

“We are pleased for Jim and his family,” said Dan Ronayne, an RNC spokesman. He declined to comment further.

A jury found Tobin guilty, but the appeals court said testimony left a question of “whether a jury could rationally conclude that Tobin had so far associated himself with the emerging plan as to make him effectively a party to it.”

At the time of the phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states. He went on to serve as President Bush’s New England re-election campaign chairman in 2004, but resigned after the allegations surfaced.

The jamming has led to four criminal prosecutions, a lawsuit that was settled with Republicans paying the Democrats $135,000 – Democrats had sought $4.1 million.

The three people who pleaded guilty to criminal charges were Charles McGee, executive director of the state Republican Party in 2002, and Allen Raymond, then head of GOP Marketplace, a telemarketing firm in Alexandria, Va., and Shaun Hansen, who was a co-owner of the Idaho company that made the hang-up calls.

Tobin was convicted of putting McGee in touch with Raymond, who hired Hansen’s telemarketing firm to place the calls. Hansen, now of Spokane, Wash., pleaded guilty in November to a conspiracy charge and to making the calls. He awaits sentencing. Raymond pleaded guilty to executing the plan and served a three-month sentence.

Phone records introduced at Tobin’s trial show he made two dozen calls to the White House political office within three days around Election Day 2002, as the phone-jamming operation was finalized, carried out and abruptly shut down.

“That’s wonderful news,” said McGee, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months for his part in the scheme.

McGee declined to say if he agrees with the decision and said the ruling had nothing to do with him.

“It’s something in my past,” McGee said.

Also Wednesday, New Hampshire Democrats wrote to Congress asking for an inquiry into whether political interference delayed prosecution of the case until after the 2004 elections; Democrats and Manchester police contacted federal authorities about the incident in 2003.

Sullivan said the furor over alleged political firings of eight federal prosecutors prompted the move.

“Both the failure to name Tobin and the failure to charge him in the summer of 2004 give rise to the likelihood that he was being shielded form public scrutiny until after the president election in November,” Democrats said in the letter.

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Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Kathy McCormack contributed to this story.

AP-ES-03-21-07 1926EDT