alaska senator trial in disarray -...
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Mr Stevens has been in the US Senatesince 1968
A US judge has halted thecorruption trial of Alaska SenatorTed Stevens after defencelawyers said prosecutors hadwithheld vital evidence.
Judge Emmet Sullivan sent the juryhome while he decided whether todismiss the charges and declare amistrial.
Mr Stevens is accused of lying onSenate financial disclosure formsabout gifts from an oil firm.
Mr Stevens, who is the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, has deniedthe charges.
Defence lawyer Brendan Sullivan asked the judge on Thursday morning todismiss the charges against his client.
He said that prosecution lawyers had not turned over FBI reports about theirstar witness, Bill Allen, who had already testified, until late on Wednesdaynight.
Prosecutor Brenda Morris admitted a mistake had been made, but said it wasnot sufficient to declare a mistrial.
"We are human and we made an error," she said.
Visibly annoyed, Judge Emmet said that was "unbelievable" and "verytroubling", and told the prosecution to hand over to the defence all FBIinterviews with witnesses.
He ordered both sides to file briefs on the matter and said he would discuss itlater in the day.
Election
Mr Stevens is accused of failing to disclose $250,000 (£135,000) of workdone on his house free of charge by employees of the Veco oil company thatnormally builds pipelines and processing equipment.
His lawyers say the reports withheld until Wednesday by the prosecutionrelated to an FBI agent's interview with Mr Allen, Veco's founder, whopleaded guilty to bribery charges in May 2007.
The interview showed that Mr Allen believed Mr Stevens, his long-timefriend, would have paid for the renovations if he had billed him.
Mr Stevens has pleaded not guilty, saying he has "never knowinglysubmitted a false disclosure form required by law as a US senator".
Mr Stevens has continued to campaign since he was indicted in July.
His Senate seat is up for grabs in November's election and polls suggest he isfacing a tough battle against his Democratic challenger, Mark Begich, if he isto secure an eighth term.
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BBC NEWS | Americas | Alaska senator trial in ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7649168.stm 10/2/2008 13:55
Average guy Ted Stevens, arriving at court with daughter Beth. (By JoseLuis Magana -- Associated Press)
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The Aw-Shucks Defense
By Dana MilbankFriday, September 26, 2008; Page A03
Sen. Ted Stevens, his career and hisfreedom in jeopardy, did the honorablething as he went on trial yesterday oncorruption-related charges. He blamedhis wife.
THIS STORY
The Aw-Shucks Defense
Attorney for Stevens Tells JurorsAlaska Senator 'Is Honest,' Did Not Lie
Yes, Stevens, the first sitting senator tobe indicted in a generation, failed toreport a home renovation and other pricey gifts from apipeline company. But, his lawyer told the jury yesterday, itwas his wife who reviewed the bills and took care of thefinances.
"You have to look at the relationship between Ted andCatherine, because it says something about what happenedhere," superlawyer Brendan Sullivan declared. In fact, hesaid, the Stevens family has a saying: "When it comes tothings around the tepee, the wife controls. That might seemold-fashioned, but Ted Stevens is old-fashioned."
And rather ungallant.
The 84-year-old senator left his lawyers the unenviable taskof explaining away all the goodies he took but didn't report."He didn't want these things," Sullivan said of the gifts. Thetool cabinet? "He wanted it out of there." The furniture?"Used! Big cigarette hole in it." The garage? "It snows sixfeet a year." The $20,000 worth of Christmas lights? "Isuppose Ted Stevens, the senator, should go home and getsome climbing shoes on, go up and take them down, andsend 'em back?"
Actually, all he had to do was report them to the Senate on his disclosure forms. But instead,Stevens, caught up in a sprawling Alaska corruption scandal, sat scowling and grumbling in thedefendant's chair yesterday as he listened to opening arguments that, in a way, echoed the class-warfare themes of the campaign trail. Prosecutor Brenda Morris portrayed Stevens as a man ofprivileged tastes foreign to the 16 jurors. In response, Sullivan, counsel to Ollie North and HenryCisneros, portrayed the former Senate president pro tempore as the very model of the average guy.
"The defendant is a career politician; he has been a United States senator for 40 years," Morris toldthe jurors. "You do not survive politics in this town for that long without . . . knowing how to flyunder the radar."
"Excuse me!" Sullivan, leaping to his feet, complained to the judge, who ignored the objection.
Morris spoke to the jurors, 10 of whom are women, as if chatting with girlfriends. Stevens "deniedthe public its right to know," she said, "so he could keep the flow of benies coming." Therenovation was expensive, she taunted, "but, hey, the cost is always good when the price is free."She had contempt for Stevens's "expensive massage chair from Brookstone -- you know, thatgadget store you see in all the malls." She ridiculed the free services done for him by Veco, thepipeline company: "We reach for the Yellow Pages -- he reached for Veco."
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Morris deplored his "sheer extravagance," his "house near Georgetown," his "racehorsepartnership" and the Alaska home Stevens unwisely called his chalet. "The chalet wastransformed," Morris exulted. "The hammers were swingin' at the chalet."
For the occasion, Stevens left his Incredible Hulk necktie at home in favor of a somber bluenumber, and he traded his usual orthopedic sneakers for traditional black shoes. Using a court-provided hearing device and sticking out his lower lip in a perma-scowl, he muttered a protestwhen the prosecutor spoke of his failure to pay for the renovations, grumbled when she mentionedall the add-ons at his home, and tossed his pen down when she mentioned the Land Rover he gotin a sweetheart vehicle swap.
With some difficulty, Sullivan tried to portray his client, and himself, as humble commoners,giving aw-shucks accounting of the "strange story about the remodel" that landed Stevens in court."I'm not used to wearing a microphone," the superlawyer said sheepishly as he began hisargument. And Stevens, though representing "pretty far away" Alaska, "lives here with us in theDistrict of Columbia because he works up on Capitol Hill."
"You won't find him at the art gallery" on days off, Sullivan assured the jurors. "He'll put on bootsand go out in the woods." Sullivan even tried the creative argument that his client sided with laborunions over big oil. "To heck with them!" Sullivan recalled the former Senate CommerceCommittee chairman saying of his beloved energy companies.
Sullivan also said he would call to the witness stand "some people you will recognize," specificallymentioning Daniel Inouye, Orrin Hatch and the ailing Ted Kennedy. But that doesn't mean thedefendant isn't an ordinary guy. "Those are the people he lives with," Sullivan said.
Another person Stevens lives with came in for rougher treatment. Catherine, his wife, was the onesupposed to "keep track" of paying for the home renovation, Sullivan said. She took a "moresubstantive" role in the project. The scope of the work expanded when "the wife came in."Catherine "ran the financial part of the renovations," and the bills "were sent basically toCatherine."
And how about Uncle Ted? "The workhorse of the Senate," Sullivan said. "You don't get a titlelike that unless you're at the job every moment." Or at least every moment when you're notthrowing your wife under the bus.
Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.
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Dana Milbank - The Aw-Shucks Defense - wash... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content... 9/26/2008 14:24
A Dual Fight for StevensSenator's Trial Begins Monday as He Campaigns to Keep Seat
By Del Quentin Wilber and Paul KaneWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, September 21, 2008; A04
Embattled Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska goes on trial tomorrow in a historic public corruption case, bucking conventional legal wisdom in the hope of winning acquittal in time to bereelected to a seventh full term.
The first sitting senator to face a federal trial in more than two decades, Stevens, an 84-year-old Republican icon of both the Senate and his home state, was indicted eight weeks agoon charges that he failed to disclose lavish gifts he received from executives of an oil services company. If convicted, Stevens could face prison time, his 40-year Senate careerwould meet an ignominious end, and Republicans would probably lose a normally reliable Senate seat.
While battling prosecutors in what is expected to be a month-long trial, Stevens also will be running an uphill reelection campaign from the same Washington courthouse -- 3,500miles from Anchorage. He may have to debate his Democratic opponent well after midnight by teleconference and make arduous red-eye flights to attend weekend campaign events.
It's a risky strategy but perhaps the only one that could result in his reelection, analysts say.
"We have an Alaska Senate race that's about to be decided by 12 residents of the District of Columbia," said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report."If he's acquitted, he goes home, and it becomes more of a victory lap than a campaign."
Prosecutors have said their case is simple. In a 28-page indictment and other court filings, the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section alleges that Stevens repeatedly lied onSenate financial disclosure forms about gifts and $250,000 in home renovations he received from executives of the now-defunct oil services company Veco.
Prosecutors say Stevens never attempted to pay Bill Allen, Veco's chief executive, for the cost of the renovations or other gifts. Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracycharges in a long-running federal investigation of corruption in Alaska's government, and he has provided critical testimony that already has helped convict two Alaska statelegislators.
In hearings and court filings, prosecutors allege that Veco, Allen or friends gave Stevens a Viking grill, a discounted Land Rover, a $29,000 bronze statue of a fish, a $2,700 vibratingmassage chair, a $3,200 stained-glass window and a sled dog -- none of which the senator reported.
Those gifts were in addition to extensive renovations to Stevens's Girdwood, Alaska, home by Veco employees and contractors, who installed a wrap-around deck and raised thehome on stilts to add a new floor, prosecutors allege. They say Stevens interacted with the workers, discussed the project with Allen and suggested improvements to the renovationplans.
In exchange, the government says, Stevens helped or promised to help Veco on various matters, including prodding officials to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska and requestingthat the World Bank get involved in a dispute between Veco and Pakistan over delays in a project. At the time, Stevens chaired two of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill,the Senate's Appropriations and Commerce panels.
Prosecutors have described those favors as Stevens's motive for lying on the disclosure forms. "He knows someone is going to look at that and say, 'Wait a second, he's getting stufffrom Veco and Allen and he wrote a letter on their behalf,' " prosecutor Joseph Bottini said at a recent hearing.
But prosecutors stopped short of charging Stevens with corruption. By limiting the charges to failing to report gifts, some legal experts said, the prosecution can introduce Stevens'salleged favors as context and motive, not a required element of the crime.
"The case is devastating in its simplicity," said Victoria Toensing, a former top Justice Department official who is now a criminal defense lawyer.
Stevens's lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, does not speak to the media about ongoing cases and did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Several criminal defense lawyers and former prosecutors said Stevens's defense has several ways to counter the charges. His lawyers are likely to argue that he never tried to hide hisfriendship with Allen. The senator is well known for his ability to obtain federal funds for Alaska, and the things he did for Veco benefited other companies and Alaska residents,the lawyers are expected to tell jurors.
"Stevens's lawyers are going to argue that if the government had a case where prosecutors thought Senator Stevens had done something wrong, they would have charged him withbribery," said Steven Tabackman, a criminal defense lawyer. "Instead, they will argue that the government is trying to back-door this by saying he didn't put these things in hisdisclosure forms."
Tabackman said he would be surprised if defense lawyers didn't try to introduce evidence that aides, not Stevens, filled out the forms.
Some criminal defense lawyers criticized Stevens's rush to trial, saying it is better for defendants to delay as long as possible. Memories are more likely to fade, and witnesses can getin trouble or even die, they said. But others said the early trial date was a brilliant tactic that put the government in the unexpected position of having to hurry to prepare.
But the senator didn't ask for the early trial date just to pressure prosecutors. He also is fighting for his political life. Even before his indictment, he faced a tough race againstAnchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who is ahead in recent polls.
Stevens is embarking on an unprecedented political effort in the modern era of multimillion-dollar campaigns. From Monday through Friday in the final weeks of his bid, he will bea continent away from his home base outside Anchorage.
On some weekends his aides will have to weigh the physical toll of putting Stevens on a Friday night flight for about eight hours to the Alaska airport that bears his name, so he canspend the weekend campaigning before returning on a red-eye flight to appear here at trial on Monday morning.
Begich's campaign, which is hoping for about five debates with Stevens, expects that some will involve the senator appearing via teleconference on weeknights. If local televisionhopes to broadcast those debates live in prime time in Alaska, the four-hour time difference would require Stevens to appear near midnight in Washington.
Stevens has yet to agree to any specific debates, and some observers question whether he can afford to do so without reinforcing his legal predicament in voters' minds.
While Begich runs ads about his positions on issues, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Alaska Democratic Party have pounded away at Stevens. A DSCC adbegan airing last week accusing him of steering more than $100 million in earmarked funds to lobbying clients of his son Ben Stevens, a former state senator who has been accused
A Dual Fight for Stevens http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content... 9/20/2008 20:53
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in court documents of accepting consulting payments from Veco in exchange for legislative favors.
But the coordinators of the anti-Stevens effort are careful that the past service of a man who helped Alaska enter the union and went on to be named "Alaskan of the Century" is notdismissed. Rather, the focus is on his most recent years in the Senate. "He's no longer the same person we sent there 40 years ago," said Bethany Lesser, spokeswoman for the stateDemocratic Party.
Despite his legal woes, Stevens, who remains a senior member of the Appropriations and Commerce committees, has raised $4 million in campaign funds. National Republicansappear to be gearing up to defend him. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has paid for staff members to follow Begich to public events with video equipment, usually asign of a TV advertising campaign to come.
There is even the prospect of Stevens winning reelection despite a conviction. William Canfield, an ethics lawyer who has advised the senator for more than two decades, said hemight win if he is convicted of only one or two of the seven counts against him. If that were to happen, Stevens could resign, or the Senate ethics committee would have to considerexpelling him.
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A Dual Fight for Stevens http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content... 9/20/2008 20:53
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Contractor, wife blamed in Stevens corruption case
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By MATT APUZZO and TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writers
Thu Sep 25, 6:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens was clueless about the cost and scope of a pricey makeoverof his Alaska cabin that led to federal corruption charges and threatened his lengthy career, hislawyer said Thursday at the opening of his trial.
Federal prosecutors allege that Stevens— one of Congress' most powerfulRepublicans and a patriarch of Alaskapolitics for generations — lied on Senate forms about more than $250,000 in home renovationsand gifts from a wealthy oil contractor and close friend, Bill Allen, who expected political favors inreturn.
But defense attorney Brendan Sullivan, in making the first public defense of the 84-year-oldsenator, shifted blame to Allen and responsibility to Stevens' wife, Catherine.
"You cannot report what you don't know," Sullivan said. "You can't fill out a form and say what's beenkept from you by the deviousness of someone like Bill Allen."
Sullivan said the senator's wife handled all the project's finances and was the driving force behindthe renovations. When Stevens had a message for her, he communicated through his Senatestaffers.
"They have a saying in their house that when it comes to things in and around the teepee, the wifecontrols," Sullivan said.
A longtime Senate powerhouse, Stevens has been highly successful in steering billions of federaldollars to his home state. But he now is such a political liability that the Republican vice presidentialnominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has not endorsed him in his unusually tight re-election race.
"Ted Stevens' trial started a couple of days ago," Palin said Thursday. "We'll see where that goes."
The Senate's longest-serving Republican sat grim-faced at the defense table in a packedcourtroom as prosecutor Brenda Morris dismissed the theory that he was oblivious to what went onaround him.
Morris portrayed Stevens as a crafty politician whose decades in office schooled him in the art ofcultivating cronies and concealing gifts and favors.
"You do not survive politics in this town for that long without being very, very smart, very, verydeliberate, very forceful and, at the same time, knowing how to fly under the radar," Morris said inher opening statement.
At the heart of the case is a complicated 2000 home remodeling project in which Stevens' smallchalet in the woods outside Anchorage was jacked up on stilts and a new first-floor was built. Ratherthan hiring a home contractor, Stevens relied on Allen, the chairman of oil services firm VECOCorp., to manage the project, hire the carpenters and review the bills.
Prosecutors say Stevens never paid Allen or VECO employees for their services, part of a longpattern of freebies he is accused of concealing. Allen gave Stevens a gas grill, a generator, anelaborate rope lighting system and a sweetheart deal on a car.
"We reach for the yellow pages, he reached for VECO," Morris said, "and the defendant never paida dime."
Sullivan countered that Stevens' wife promptly paid every bill received — $160,00 in all — for thehome project that was to make room for visits by his 11 grandchildren. He described Allen regularlygoing overboard with his giving, and at one point pressuring a local contractor to "eat" a $19,000 billrather than send it to Stevens.
A potential witness in the case, Catherine Stevens was not in court Thursday.
Just as Stevens relied on Allen for favors, prosecutors say Allen tapped the senator for helpwinning government grants and navigating Washington's bureaucracy. Citing Stevens' reputation forsteering money and business to Alaska, Sullivan embraced the suggestion.
"If you hear evidence that he assisted Bill Allen or VECO in any way so those 4,000 employeescould continue to work, they're right," Sullivan said. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. He'sproud of it. Bring it on."
As for the grill, rope lighting and other unreported gifts including a sled dog, Sullivan said Stevens"didn't want these things, he didn't need these things and he didn't ask for these things."
The lawyer also cited e-mails he claimed would show that the senator had no intent to deceive thepublic. One to Allen read in part: "Thanks for the work. You owe me a bill."
The trial's first witness, a VECO project manager who met with Stevens about the home project andprepared the plans, testified that he received a note from the senator saying, "Under Senate rules, Imust pay you for what you've done."
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The manager testified that he instructed Stevens to pay VECO. But prosecutors say the senatornever covered the $3,000 job.
Another VECO worker testified that he was dispatched by Allen to the Stevens cabin to shovelsnow and install a $6,000 backup generator while the senator was away. On cross-examination, hesaid his boss was "very generous" with many people.
Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers and is the government's star witness againstStevens. He is expected to testify soon but was not due to take the stand Friday.
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Sen. Ted Stevens, accompanied by his daughter,Beth, arrives at federal court in Washington Sept.29, 2008, for his trial on corruption charges.
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Stevens mistrial bid fails,judge angryDEFENSE COMPLAINS: Prosecution is scolded forreleasing witness.By ERIKA BOLSTAD and RICHARD MAUERAnchorage Daily NewsPublished: September 29th, 2008 11:32 PMLast Modified: September 29th, 2008 11:42 PM
WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors on Monday drew ire from thefederal judge hearing the corruption case against Sen. TedStevens for sending home to Alaska a potential witness who hasfigured prominently in other people's testimony but so far hasnot testified himself.
Stevens' lawyers asked for a mistrialand accused prosecutors of failing totell them everything they knewabout Robert "Rocky" Williams, oncean employee of former Veco chiefexecutive Bill Allen and the man whooversaw renovations to Stevens'Girdwood home in 2000.
Scolding prosecutors from his bench,U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivansaid there was no basis for a mistrial,but he said he was "flabbergasted"
that they had sent Williams home without alerting him ordefense attorneys that Williams was no longer scheduled totestify.
The contentious issue weaved through Stevens' trial all day,boiling up at every recess just before the jury entered thecourtroom or just after it left. By the end of the day it wasunclear how serious the row would be to the outcome of thecase.
Stevens, 84, faces seven felony counts of failing to report on hisU.S. Senate disclosure forms more than $250,000 worth of giftsand home renovations, chiefly from Veco and Allen. The AlaskaRepublican, who is up for re-election Nov. 4, asked for a speedytrial so he'd have the opportunity to clear his name before then.
Prosecutors explained sending Williams home to the judge and the defense in hushed tones in amorning conference at the bench. No information was made public aside from a reference in thedefense motion that Williams suffered from a serious cough and had health issues.
Whatever it was, the judge was openly skeptical, suggesting the government might have decidedthat Williams, who has been voluntarily cooperating with the FBI for more than a year, might nothelp its case.
"I find it very, very disturbing that this has happened, and concerned about the appearance ofpropriety, or impropriety," Sullivan said. He stopped short of accusing prosecutors of misconduct ora lapse in ethics, but threatened sanctions.
"After all, this is the search for the truth and people ought not to forget about that," said Sullivan,who asked lawyers to give him a sworn declaration of what had happened under penalty of perjury."This is a serious one; we're all officers of the court."
WILLIAMS' WORK
Despite all the talk and court filings, Williams appeared to be able to contradict only one piece ofevidence presented so far.
On Friday, Veco accounts manager Cheryl Boomershine submitted a report that the 2000-2001renovations amounted to a $188,929 gift by Veco to Stevens. Among her backup documentssubmitted for jury consideration were timecards from Williams showing he worked as much as 60or 70 hours a week. She applied all those hours when calculating Veco's cost on the house.
When the government sent Williams home, they told him to call the defense after he arrived. Hedid just that on Friday, lawyers for both sides told the judge. The call led to his first interview by the
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POSTED: 04:56 PM ET, 10/ 2/2008 by Derek KravitzTAGS: Ted Stevens, congress, corruption trial
A federal judge is deciding whether he should throw out corruptioncharges against Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens after the Republicanlawmaker's attorneys accused government prosecutors of hiding FBIreports favorable to Stevens.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan suspended thetwo-week-long trial for the day after Stevens's lead attorney, BrendanV. Sullivan Jr., accused prosecutors of hiding an FBI report thatappeared to show Stevens did not willingly approve $250,000 inremodeling on his home near Anchorage.
Stevens, 84, is fighting for his political life in a corruption trial overpotentially improper gifts and home renovations he received from hislongtime friend, former Veco Corp. oil executive Bill Allen.
At one point, the judge said Stevens "would not be getting a fair trial if itwere up to the government," The Post's Del Quentin Wilber and CarolD. Leonnig report.
Erika Bolstad and Richard Mauer, writing for the Anchorage DailyNews, described a heated exchange between Stevens's attorney,Sullivan, and the government's chief prosecutor, Brenda Morris. Fromtheir article:
"This can't be undone," Sullivan thundered, speaking
directly up to the judge from a podium less than 10 feet
away. Then, clutching his chest, he said, "My heart's
beating twice as fast as it should be for a 66-year-old
man. This can't happen in court."
As he accused the prosecution of misconduct, the chiefprosecutor, Brenda Morris, leaped to her feet and gotwithin inches of Stevens' lawyer, her voiced raised as well.
"He called me out," she told the judge as he tried to calmthe situation.
Walking back to the defense table, Sullivan said, "I calledher up, not out."
Morris admitted she violated the judge's orders in notturning over the document, but not Stevens' rights. Shesaid the defense was told Allen had said that very thing ina letter on Sept. 9.
By Derek Kravitz | October 2, 2008; 4:56 PM ETPrevious: Bridge to Somewhere: FDA Uses Alaska Corp. in QuestionedContract |
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October 3, 2008 9:30 AM
The Am Law Litigation Daily: October 3, 2008
Posted by Dimitra Kessenides
Edited by Andrew Longstreth
Litigator of the Week: David Harvin of Vinson & ElkinsIf you were reading Dealbook's early coverage of the Delaware Chancery Court showdown between Hexion Specialty Chemicals and Huntsman, you might have concluded--as weconfess we did--that Huntsman's lawyers from Vinson & Elkins were being schooled by Hexion's high-powered Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz team. The case, as you'll recall, wasabout Hexion's attempt to get out of the multibillion deal it signed with Huntsman back in July 2007, before the credit markets froze up. In the first days of the trial, the New YorkTimes's Deal Professor wrote that he had been "underwhelmed" by the performance of V&E senior statesman Harry Reasoner. And when Vinson & Elkins partner David Harvinconcluded his cross-examination of Hexion CEO Craig Morrison, the Deal Professor (aka Steven Davidoff, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law) wrote that,on the whole, the Hexion CEO "got the better" of Harvin.
Ahem. You know that old saying about he who laughs last?
As we all know, trials are not decided by bloggers. And in fairness to the Deal Professor, he eventually predicted that Huntsman would win the case. On that point, he was absolutelyright: Vice Chancellor Stephen Lamb ruled on Monday that Hexion must fulfill its obligations to V&E's client. Lamb's 89-page opinion was pretty much all that V&E and Huntsmancould have hoped for. He concluded that Hexion had knowingly and intentionally violated the terms of the merger agreement, exposing Hexion to potential damages far in excess ofthe deal's $325 million breakup fee if the merger doesn't go through. We should note that Lamb cited the very testimony that Dealbook originally dismissed: Harvin's cross-examination of Hexion CEO Morrison.
And so we've chose Harvin, who was Huntsman's lead trial lawyer, as our Litigator of the Week. When we spoke to the 63-year-old Houstonian yesterday, he was quick to heappraise on his team, including Reasoner, James Reeder, John Taurman, and Michael Holmes. Harvin told us that he thought Vice Chancellor Lamb was most impressed byHuntsman's evidence that Hexion and its investors at Apollo had schemed to create a situation that would keep the deal from closing. In particular, Harvin said, Lamb seemed to beswayed by Hexion's engagement of Duff & Phelps to provide it with an opinion that declared the combined company would be insolvent. Lamb found the opinion letter "undulypessimistic," Harvin told us.
Harvin was a true Texas gentleman when we asked him about Dealbook's critiques of his team, offering a polite demurral. We did our own two-step and asked him if at any timeduring the six-day trial or the two-week wait for Lamb's ruling he thought things weren't going Huntman's way.
"Every trial has its ups and its downs," Harvin said. "But on balance I thought frankly we had more ups than downs."
WHITE-COLLARStevens's Trial Judge Blasts Prosecutors, But Does Not Declare MistrialThe government's public corruption prosecution of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens teetered on the brink of disaster yesterday after the federal judge overseeing the case harshlycriticized prosecutors for failing to turn over critical evidence to the defense until Wednesday night. Washington, D.C., federal district court judge Emmet Sullivan went so far as tosuspend the trial yesterday morning as he pondered whether to grant a motion by Stevens's Williams & Connolly lawyers to either dismiss the case or declare a mistrial.
Yesterday evening, Judge Sullivan denied both requests. But not before lambasting the prosecutors and questioning their integrity. "It's difficult for the court to believe thegovernment overlooked this exculpatory information," he said, according to Legal Times's account of the late-afternoon hearing. "I find it unbelievable that this was just an error."
The document that prosecutors failed to turn over was an unredacted FBI report of an interview with key government witness Bill Allen, whose company renovated the senator'shome without receiving payment for its work. The unredacted version of the report says that Allen believed Stevens would have paid for the improvements if he had received a bill.
Williams & Connolly partner Brendan Sullivan will be able to make full use of the report when he cross-examines Allen, which will likely be on Monday when the trial is scheduledto resume.
W&C's Sullivan, who is famous for his deadpan style, was, by most accounts, uncharacteristically theatrical yesterday. The New York Times reported that he began the day bythrowing down papers and declaring that he had never seen such incompetence from the government in his 40 years of practice. According to the Anchorage Daily News, he said:"My heart's beating twice as fast as it should be for a 66-year-old man." The Williams & Connolly partner also had a run-in with the government's lead prosector, Brenda Morris.
The Am Law Litigation Daily: October 3, 2008 http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/200... 10/3/2008 12:15
After Sullivan repeated his line about 40 years of experience, Morris reportedly got up from her seat and and came within inches of him.
"He called me out," she told the judge.
Sullivan, walking back to the defense table, said, "I called her up, not out."
CONSUMERWiley Rein Wins Dismissal of Class Action Against VerizonAt the Litigation Daily, we're routinely annoyed with our phone bill's many obscure itemized costs, so we're somewhat sympathetic to plaintiffs who filed a class action againstVerizon Wireless. In that case, filed in New Jersey federal district court, the plaintiffs alleged that Verizon had deceived them about their bills. They claimed that Verizon made itseem as though one administrative fee that showed up on its bills was a government-imposed surcharge when, in fact, the fee was used to defray Verizon's own costs.
But earlier this week, Judge Freda Wolfson granted Verizon's motion to compel arbitration and dismissed the case. The plaintiffs had argued that the arbitration provisions inVerizon's customer agreements were unconscionable under New Jersey law. Judge Wolfson disagreed, holding that the Federal Arbitration Act, which requires enforcement of thearbitration clause, preempted New Jersey state law.
Wiley Rein partner Andrew McBride called Wolfson's decision a "landmark ruling." He said that the Ninth Circuit came out on the opposite side of Judge Wolfson on the same issue,which makes the Federal Arbitration Act and preemption of state law a potentially attractive issue for the Supreme Court. (McBride should know; he's a former clerk for JusticeSandra Day O'Connor.) McBride also told us that if Judge Wolfson's ruling is upheld by the Third Circuit, it will spell trouble for the plaintiffs bar.
"Individual arbitration is like kryptonite for plaintiffs lawyers," he said.
William Weinstein of Sanford Wittels & Heisler, who represents the plaintiffs, told us he filed a notice of appeal yesterday. "We thought that we had given the judge sufficientreasons why the class waiver should not have been enforced in this case and why the enforcement of the class waiver would not run afoul of the Federal Arbitration Act," he said.
IPEMI Gets Split Ruling From New York Judge in MP3tunes Copyright CaseHas there ever been a better time to be an IP entertainment lawyer? We told you earlier this week about the Hollywood studios filing a copyright suit against RealNetworks to blockits new DVD software, but that's just one example of technology that threatens the entertainment biz ending up as the subject of litigation. Today we have news from another suchcase, in which 14 record labels and publishers affiliated with EMI filed a copyright suit against MP3tunes and its CEO, Michael Robertson, for allegedly enabling its users to listen toinfringing music. In a decision issued this week, Manhattan federal district court judge William Pauley III dismissed the claims against Robertson on procedural grounds--butpermitted the case against the company to proceed.
MP3tunes, located in San Diego, operates two websites: mp3tunes.com and sideload.com. According to Judge Pauley's opinion, "Plaintiffs allege that MP3tunes [enables] users tolisten to infringing music through sideload.com, to make copies of infringing music to store in a 'locker,' and to download copies to multiple locations and to multiple individuals."
Judge Pauley didn't make any determinations about the validity of the claims of the record labels, which are represented by Jenner & Block. He dismissed their claims againstRobertson on personal jurisdiction grounds but denied MP3tunes's motion to dismiss. Both Robertson and his company are represented by Duane Morris partner Gregory Gulia.
Robertson issued a fiery statement following the ruling: "Suing CEOs personally is a nasty tactic media companies are engaging in to intimidate individuals, forcing them to eitherenter into a settlement or face the possibility of losing their homes, cars, and all their personal belongings," he said. "I chose to fight instead of run, because I believe consumersshould be able to listen to their music everywhere. We look forward to explaining what we do, and we do it in a responsible and legal manner." Well, okay. We look forward to theexplanation, too.
Duane Morris's Gulia did not immediately return a call for comment. Neither did plaintiffs counsel Andrew Bart of Jenner & Block.
PRO BONOU.S. Concedes Bingham Clients Not Enemy CombatantsBingham McCutchen is putting together an impressive run in cases against the Bush administration on behalf of Chinese Muslims held as prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In June itwon a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that its client Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur, had been improperly designated as an enemy combatant. In August,a Washington, D.C., federal district court judge ruled that four additional Uighurs were also not enemy combatants. This week the firm won its biggest Guantanamo victory yet. TheAm Law Daily reports that on Tuesday, in anticipation of an October 7 hearing on the status of all 17 Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, the government has conceded that none ofthe Uighurs is considered an enemy combatant.
At next week's hearing, Bingham's P. Sabin Willett now intends to argue that the Uighurs should be paroled in the U.S. while they await the outcome of their habeas cases. "Given[that] these men have never been charged with any crime, and they are not enemy combatants, there is simply no reason for their continued confinement," Willett told The Am LawDaily's David Bario.
Willett also said that by last night the government had transferred six Uighurs from solitary confinement to a lower-security facility after Bingham lawyers complained that thesolitary conditions created "a regimen of psychological cruelty."
"We're obviously gratified that they're out today," he said. Working with Willett on the cases have been partners Neil McGaraghan and Susan Baker Manning, of counsel RhebaRutkowski, and associates Francesca Miceli, Jason Pinney, Sam Rowley, and Catherine Murphy.
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Reporter's Notebook: Jury Hears Opening Statementsin Corruption Trial of Senator Ted StevensThursday, September 25, 2008
By Ian McCaleb
FOX News' Ian McCaleb was on hand Thursday for opening statements in the corruption trial ofAlaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
WASHINGTON — Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens stands accused of seven counts of falsestatements in an alleged "conspiracy" to cover up hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts andservices received from the Alaska-based oil services firm VECO from 1999 through 2006.
The jury of 12, with 4 alternates, was seated at 9:25 a.m., and was read a list of specific instructionsby Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan. The instructions phase lasted some 30 minutes, and governmentprosecutor Brenda K. Morris launched into her opening remarks, which she ripped through in forceful,street-wise tones, finishing 30 minutes short of her allotted time.
Morris told the D.C.-based jury that this case is "simple," in that Senator Stevens is a "public officialwho took hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial benefits, and took away the people's right toknow this information."
"He did these things so the free financial benefits he received wouldn't stop, and the public wouldn'thave to know," Morris said.
Stevens is a "career politician," she said. "You don't survive in this town without being very smart,very deliberate, very forceful, and without knowing how to fly under the radar."
"He knows how to get things done without saying much," Morris added.
Continuing, she said Stevens "personally signed" his yearly Senate financial disclosure forms, andin doing so, "he decided to violate the law."
Stevens, she said, has had to fill those forms out every year for at least 30 years, and knows whatthey entail.
The bulk of the government's case focuses on the alleged "near-doubling" of the size of Stevens'Girdwood, Ark., residence, which was once a small A-frame ski chalet but following two rounds ofextensive renovations is now much larger.
The government contends that Stevens did not pay $188,000 for the work done by VECOconstruction workers, though work on the home that had been subcontracted to a local constructioncompany was paid by the senator and his wife, Catherine.
"The cost is always good when the price is free," Morris said of that allegedly unpaid $188,000. "Hewas obligated to disclose it. Instead, he chose not to."
"VECO spent thousands of [labor] hours on this project," Morris said. "There was no accident oraccounting error here," she added. "The defendant was meticulous with his money."
Morris also pledged to look further at other items of value Stevens is accused of receiving, including:
• A $2700 massage chair that was shipped to his Washington, D.C., home
• A $6000 generator for the Girdwood chalet
• A $20,000 worth of decorative rope lighting at the chalet
• A champion bloodline Huskey puppy
• Several pieces of furniture
• A tool chest w/tools
• A Viking gas grill
• A stained glass window for the chalet
• A "sweetheart deal" where he traded a beat-up 1964 Mustang for a new Land Rover Discovery,valued at $44,000. The Land Rover was for his daughter, who had just gotten her license. Stevensthrew in an extra $5000 with the Mustang, but the government contends the car was still worth manythousands less than the Land Rover.
"The single, simple issue of this case," Morris concluded, "is knowledge. What did the defendantknow."
Lead Defense Attorney Brendan Sullivan, a soft-spoken man who has a reputation for viciousnesswhen he is in the courtroom, chose a measured tact today that subtly focused on Stevens' wifeCatherine and former VECO CEO and Stevens' friend, Bill Allen. Those two, intentionally or not,appear to be the source of the trouble here, Sullivan told the jury.
"He had no intent to violate the law," Sullivan said of Sen. Stevens. "He had no intent to concealanything."
Catherine Stevens, Sullivan said, was in charge of the financing of the renovation, and made designrecommendations that upped the cost. Stevens had arranged for a mortgage on the chalet to cover theconstruction costs, but that mortgage only amounted to some $100,000. All bills from the previouslymentioned local construction contractor were paid, Sullivan asserted, save for the last one (amounting
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to $19,000), which VECO told the contractor to "eat."
"We have to look, somewhat uncomfortably, at the relationship between Stevens and Catherine,because it is at the heart of what happened here," Sullivan cryptically told the members of the jury."Catherine was the one who decided what should be done."
In addition, Sullivan said, VECO never billed Stevens for the $188,000 additional, choosing instead toabsorb that figure into its own books. Stevens, he said, could not pay what he did not know he owed.The money he did pay out of his mortgage looked, on the surface, to be sufficient to cover the costs ofthe job, Sullivan said
And, he said, Stevens could not possibly have been fully apprised of what was going on the with therenovation, because he lived in Washington.
"It is hard to do things so far away from the renovation site," he said. "There was no [formal] contract."
Bill Allen's intent, Sullivan said, will have to be looked at in-depth, because Stevens asked for billsseveral times, but never received any from VECO.
As for the other items of value, Sullivan claims Stevens did not want or was not interested in nor did heask for the $2700 massage chair, the $20,000 worth of decorative rope lighting at the chalet, thefurniture, the tool chest or the Viking gas grill, an item his wife reportedly feared would blow up thehouse.
Sullivan also said that the champion Huskey puppy's value was based on his own purchase of the dogssibling, that he was unaware of the stained-glass window provided for the chalet and that the trade ofthe Mustang car for the new Land Rover was an "even deal."
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CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Oct. 2, 2008 – 9:33 a.m.
Jury to Hear Sen. Stevens, in His Own WordsBy Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Prosecutors plan to play audiotapes for jurors Thursday of conversations between Sen. Ted Stevens and the executive whodramatically upgraded the senator’s Alaska home.
The three recordings are expected to be the highlight of the remaining part of the prosecution’s direct examination of formerVECO Corp. CEO Bill Allen, the star witness in the federal case against Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican.
Prosecutors want to play segments of the tapes — about 16 minutes in total — rather than full conversations, but the defense isasking U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to require that the tapes are played in their entirety.
“What they want to do is to cut it right off at the point they want to emphasize,” said defense attorney Robert Cary, arguing thatthe uncut tapes would take up only about 30 minutes of court time and tell a different story than the redacted versions.
Once prosecutors finish their direct examination, Stevens’ lawyers are expected to spend several hours cross-examining Allen inan attempt to poke holes in his account of events.
Stevens is accused of concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts, much of it in the form of a full-story addition to his Girdwood,Alaska home.
CQ © 2007 All Rights Reserved | Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1255 22nd Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 | 202-419-8500
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Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, arrives at the U.S. District Courtin Washington Thursday Oct. 2, 2008.(Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)
Key Govt.Witness'Wanted toHelp'Stevens
Stevens'Drinking,Fishing PalTakes Stand
Judge BlastsProsecutorsin StevensCase
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Home > The Law
Judge Mulling Mistrial Request in StevensCaseDefense Makes Second Claim This Week That Prosecutors Withheld Evidence
Defense attorneys have demanded a mistrial in the government corruption
case against Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, claiming that federal
prosecutors withheld information about their star witness in the case against
the lawmaker.
Stevens' attorneys
made the request after
they learned that Justice Department
prosecutors had failed to provide them
with FBI interview paperwork on Bill Allen,
the government's key witness.
"This is a gross error," lead prosecutor
Brenda Morris admitted in court. "We are
all human. … We are all career
prosecutors."
Stevens' defense team claims key details
from Allen's interview were redacted in the
paperwork the prosecutors handed over to
the defense, but Morris said the defense
received the missing information through
other memos.
Lead defense attorney Brendan Sullivan challenged the prosecutors on their claims, saying, "Their
argument is disingenuous and possibly dishonest. ... I can't believe this is rectifiable." He went on
to demand that the government dismiss the case.
"I find this unbelievable," said U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. "This is the
government's chief witness."
The court is in recess until 4:30 p.m., when Sullivan could announce his decision on the mistrial
request.
Morris insisted Stevens is getting "a very fair trial," a statement that apparently infuriated the
judge.
"It's because of me he's getting a fair trial. Thank goodness we don't have to rely on the United
States for giving him a fair trial," the judge said.
Stevens, 84, was indicted for allegedly lying on financial
disclosure forms required by the U.S. Senate. Prosecutors
claim Stevens omitted $250,000 in gifts, including a massive renovation project carried out at his
Girdwood, Alaska, home, which they say Allen and his company funded.
Allen, the former CEO of now-defunct oil services firm Veco, took the stand Tuesday and
Wednesday and testified that he had never sent the senator a bill for the extensive home
renovations.
Payment for the renovation project is at the heart of the case; prosecutors say that Stevens
never paid a dime and that Allen and Veco footed the bill, but the defense says the lawmaker's
family paid every bill it received.
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ABC News: Judge Mulling Mistrial Request in ... http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id... 10/2/2008 13:42
Stevens Defense Alleges U.S. Withheld Evidence... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122270778906... 9/30/2008 00:37
Stevens Defense Alleges U.S. Withheld Evidence... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122270778906... 9/30/2008 00:37
Charges against Alaska senatorcould be dismissed
STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Judge accuses prosecutors of "gross negligence" in not sharing documentsSen. Ted Stevens pleads not guilty to failing to report substantial gifts, servicesOil contractor did building work on home of Republican senatorDefense says Stevens paid all bills he knew of
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Sen. Ted Stevens did not disclose to the U.S. Senate workdone on his Alaska home, prosecutors say.
Don't MissStar witness testifies insenator's trial
Senator didn't know aboutpayments, lawyer says
Stevens' political future on lineat trial
Stevens asks that case bedismissed
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Government prosecutors in the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens waiteduntil Wednesday night to give the defense documents that could help the senator's case, drawing a sternrebuke from the trial judge.
A hearing set for 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday couldresult in the dismissal of charges against theSenate's longest serving Republican in the firstweek of his corruption trial.
Stevens has pleaded not guilty to a seven-countindictment for filing false statements on mandatoryfinancial disclosure forms.
Prosecutors say the annual forms should haveincluded hundreds of thousands of dollars in giftsfrom Bill Allen, founder of the Veco Corp. -- an oilfield contractor and at that time Alaska's biggestemployer.
Although the company was not known forresidential construction, former employees havetestified Allen and top aides directly asked them towork on Stevens' home in Girdwood, a ski town
outside Anchorage, Alaska.
Allen himself is the government's star witness, and has been on the stand since Tuesday.
But Stevens' defense attorneys said prosecutors waited till Wednesday night to turn over crucial FBI notes onAllen. Those indicate that Allen believed that, had Stevens received invoices from the foreman or others forthe Veco work, Stevens would have paid them.
Allen has testified he did not bill Stevens for some of the work.
The notes from the investigator indicate Allen did not fully bill for Veco's work because he felt the costs werehigher than they need to be, and "partly because he did not want the defendant to have to pay."
On Wednesday, Allen acknowledged in testimony he failed to ask Stevens to pay for some work simply"because I like Ted."
The defense cried foul at getting the new information so late in the trial.
A visibly angry federal Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed, saying, "It wasgross negligence on the part of the government."
Prosecutors acknowledged the error but said it was unintentional.
"It was a human error," said prosecutor Brenda Morris. But "by the luck ofGod, Mr. Allen is still on the stand and they can cross-examine him."
"It shouldn't have to be lucky," Sullivan replied.
Defense attorney Brendan Sullivan told the judge that the prosecution's argument is "disingenuous andperhaps dishonest."
The judge said he found the mistake unbelievable. "I told the government what to do, and it didn't do it," hethundered. "Why shouldn't I dismiss the indictment?"
Morris maintained that Stevens is still receiving a fair trial, but the judge said, "the only reason he's (Stevens)getting a fair trial is because I'm here to see to it he's getting a fair trial. Thank goodness we don't have to relyon the United States to give him a fair trial."
The judge told jurors the trial would not proceed Thursday because "the attorneys and I need to address someissues that have come up. It has nothing to do with your job ... just go enjoy your day."
Prosecutors did not speak to reporters as they left the courthouse.
The government's attorneys have been in trouble with the judge three times during the trial.
The first time, the judge threatened to declare the government's case concluded when they ran out ofavailable witnesses before the court's day was done.
The second time was over the unresolved decision by prosecutors to send a subpoenaed witness back toAlaska without telling the judge or defense attorneys.
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Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
Brenda Morris, the chief prosecutor,apologized for what she said was aserious error.
Judge in Stevens Case Weighs MistrialBy NEIL A. LEWISPublished: October 2, 2008
WASHINGTON — The trial of Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska,
teetered on the verge of a mistrial or even a dismissal of the charges on
Thursday because of the discovery that Justice Department prosecutors had
withheld information that they were supposed to turn over to defense
lawyers.
Judge Emmit G. Sullivan dismissed for the
day the jurors in the trial, in its second
week, and hurriedly scheduled an
afternoon hearing on whether he should dismiss the seven
felony counts Mr. Stevens faces.
“It’s very troubling,” said a clearly angry Judge Sullivan, who
questioned whether someone in the department deliberately
concealed the information. “If it wasn’t deliberate, it was gross
negligence.”
The surprise development came after prosecutors late
Wednesday sent to the defense team a copy of an F.B.I. report of
an agent’s interview with Bill Allen, an Alaska oil services
magnate. Mr. Allen, who is the prosecution’s chief witness, has
been on the stand this week.
In addition to the scolding of the government by the judge, the
revelation produced a heated and sometimes personal confrontation between the chief defense
lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, and the chief prosecutor, Brenda Morris, outside the presence of the
jury.
Mr. Stevens is charged with failing to list on Senate disclosure forms some $250,000 in gifts and
services he received from Mr. Allen and his company, Veco, for renovations of the senator’s home
in Girdwood, Alaska.
At the heart of the trial is the issue of whether Mr. Stevens knowingly failed to list the gifts and
services. Mr. Allen has already testified that he did not send bills to Mr. Stevens because he was
explicitly told not to do so by the senator’s personally designated liaison to him.
The belatedly disclosed document is the agent’s handwritten report of an interview of Mr. Allen in
which Mr. Allen said he believed that Mr. Stevens would have paid the bills had they been sent to
him.
Mr. Sullivan offered a theatrical protest, throwing down papers at the lectern and saying that in
his 40 years of practice he had never encountered such blatant government ineptitude.
“The integrity of this process has been breached,” he asserted in asking for a dismissal. “I’ve
never seen anything like it.”
Mr. Sullivan’s argument is that had he known of the agent’s report of the interview it would have
fundamentally altered his approach to the case and would have figured in his opening statement.
It could buttress the principal defense argument that Mr. Stevens thought had always fully
intended to pay any bills for home renovation and thus did not conceal any gifts.
Judge Sullivan seemed persuaded that the offense was grave but remained uncertain as to the
remedy. He asked Mr. Sullivan if he would accept partial solutions like new instructions to the
jury about the document.
But Mr. Sullivan held out for a sanction like a mistrial or dismissal. “I can’t believe this is
rectifiable,” he said, arguing that he could not go back and redo his opening statement.
Ms. Morris, the chief prosecutor, apologized for what she acknowledged was a serious mistake by
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someone on her team but said that Mr. Sullivan had exaggerated the damage. She said the
information about Mr. Allen’s views was relayed to the defense lawyers in a Sept. 9 letter.
“It was an error,” Ms. Morris said. “I’m not going to conceal that.” But she added that it
amounted to “nothing; it is form over substance.” The revelation, she said, “doesn’t make the
defense case any better or the government’s case any worse.”
Underlying the dispute is a 1963 Supreme Court ruling, Brady v. Maryland, that requires
prosecutors to make available to the accused any information it has that may help in the defense.
The dispute involves the prosecution’s second mistake during the trial; Judge Sullivan had earlier
admonished the government for its handling of a witness. The judge declined a defense request
for a mistrial in that matter but said prosecutors had behaved badly in sending home to Alaska a
witness who might have helped the defense.
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Past Coverage
Witness at Alaska Senator’s Trial Describes Gifts to Family (October 1, 2008)In Trial of Alaska Senator, a Story of Oil, Money and Politics (September 22, 2008)Court Records Detail Link From Contractor to Senator (August 16, 2008)Executive Describes Work on Senator's Home (September 16, 2007)
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Judge in Stevens Trial Weighs Dismissing Charg... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/us/03steve... 10/2/2008 13:51
Judge Blasts Prosecutors in Ted Stevens CaseDefense Claimed Prosecutors Withheld a Key Witness Who Might Help Case
By JASON RYAN
Sept. 29, 2008 —
A federal judge blasted prosecutors in the corruption case of Sen. Ted Stevens Monday and said he will consider sanctions against them if warranted, after defense attorneys saidthat the government withheld information about a possible witness who they say could bolster the Alaska Republican's claim of innocence.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan denied a request filed overnight by Stevens' attorneys to declare a mistrial and dismiss the indictment against the lawmaker, but hecautioned that "[t]he government is treading in very shallow water here."
Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican senator. He is accused of lying on financial disclosure forms required by the U.S. Senate and concealing $250,000 worth of giftsincluding a massive renovation project carried out at his Girdwood, Alaska, home. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
This weekend the Stevens defense team discovered that Robert "Rocky" Williams, who reportedly worked as the supervisor on the home renovation, had returned to Alaska lastweek after speaking with prosecutors.
The defense has suggested that he has critical information about payments Stevens made for the renovations of his home.
The home renovation project is key to the prosecution's case, as government lawyers have claimed in court that Stevens worked with now-defunct oil services firm Veco to carry thework out off the books so he wouldn't have to pay the full cost of the project.
After speaking with Williams by phone this weekend, the defense says that he was prepared to testify that he did not spend as much time working on the house as the governmenthas asserted at trial. The defense has argued in opening statements that Stevens paid $160,000 for the home renovations and did nothing wrong.
"I'm not suggesting misconduct by the government, but I want briefs on this issue," Sullivan told the lawyers after a lunch break. Earlier Monday, Sullivan had scolded prosecutorsfor "unilaterally" making the decision to send Williams home.
"If it is sanctionable, I will impose sanctions," Sullivan said of the situation.
Before the trial started Monday morning, Prosecutor Nicholas Marsh told the judge that Williams' testimony was not central to the case because it "is about the financial disclosureforms."
But defense attorney Robert Cary told the judge if the defense had the information before trial, its ability to cross-examine witnesses and opening statement would have beendifferent. "Our defense is that he [Sen. Stevens] paid a fair price," he said.
Cary said that Williams initially did not want to speak with the defense and told the judge, "We got lucky that we were able to speak with him."
The fact prosecutors had allowed Williams to return to Alaska without informing the defense or the judge apparently infuriated Sullivan.
"I'm flabbergasted why you'd do this. ... Get on a plane and call the defense attorneys when you get back to Alaska," Sullivan said. "Why wasn't I consulted? I'm peeved now. It's afederal subpoena to appear in my court."
Marsh told Sullivan that Williams was not under subpoena until Oct. 6, but that "[l]ooking back on it, we understand where the court's coming from."
The judge ruled to allow the defense to reexamine several witnesses that have already testified. The defense has been able to recall former Veco accountant Cheryl Boomershine so itcan address invoices and documents submitted by Williams.
After a two-hour delay, the jury reentered the courtroom, ready to hear defense attorneys reexamine several prosecution witnesses.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
Judge Blasts Prosecutors in Stevens Case http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=5909449 9/29/2008 18:35
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Prosecutor: Sen. Stevens did not reportstatueThu Sep 18, 2008 3:57pm EDT
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska,facing trial next week on corruption charges for leaving out more than$250,000 in gifts from his financial disclosure forms, also failed to report a$29,000 statue of a fish, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
Justice Department prosecutor Edward Sullivan told a hearing the bronzed,sculpted statue "is sitting on his front porch," an apparent reference toStevens' home in Alaska. A defense lawyer said the statue depictedmigrating salmon.
Stevens is set to go on trial next week on seven counts of filing false Senatefinancial disclosure forms by leaving out extensive renovations to his housein the ski resort town of Girdwood and other gifts from an Alaska oilservices company, VECO Corp.
Sullivan did not give further details about who gave the statue or when itwas given. But defense lawyer Robert Cary said the statue was reallydestined for Stevens' official congressional library that has yet to be built bya foundation.
Stevens, 84, faces a close race for re-election in November against aDemocratic challenger in what has long been a safe Republican seat.Stevens has been in the Senate for 40 years and is the longest-servingRepublican senator in U.S. history.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said a group of potential jurors would fillout a questionnaire on Monday. Prosecutors and defense lawyers wouldbegin questioning potential jurors on Tuesday, a process that could take acouple of days. Opening arguments are expected later next week.
Sullivan also ruled that defense lawyers can get the medical records of theprosecutor's star witness in the case, Bill Allen, VECO's former chiefexecutive, involving his 2001 motorcycle accident.
Allen suffered some brain damage in the accident. The defense wants therecords in an effort to discredit Allen's testimony.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content fromthis website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution ofThomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without theprior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks ortrademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation anddisclosure of relevant interests.
Prosecutor: Sen. Stevens did not report statue | R... http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId... 9/18/2008 17:21
September 26, 2008
Prosecutor Says Senator Knowingly Hid Gifts
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department prosecutor told a jury Thursday that Ted Stevens, who has represented Alaska in the Senate for 40 years, engaged in “a
scheme to conceal from the public” a variety of gifts and home renovation services he received.
In her opening statement of what is expected to be a nearly monthlong trial, the prosecutor, Brenda Morris, said Mr. Stevens knowingly did not list on Senate
disclosure forms goods and services totaling $250,000 that he received from an Alaska contractor, Bill Allen. Mr. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in the
Senate’s history, has pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts of filing false statements.
Ms. Morris listed several items she said Mr. Stevens had received in recent years, including a sled dog and a massage chair, but at the heart of the case, she noted,
was the makeover of the Stevens family home in Girdwood, Alaska. She said Mr. Allen, a freewheeling oil services contractor and onetime friend of Mr. Stevens, paid
for most of the renovations, which included a new first floor built after jacking up the house, along with two new decks, a garage, lighting and a built-in gas grill.
In his opening statement, Mr. Stevens’s lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, told the jury that the senator did not “intentionally violate the law” and was misled by Mr. Allen
about the exact costs. But Mr. Sullivan also offered a new and striking assertion: that Mr. Stevens had not been familiar with the details of the project and could not
have knowingly concealed the costs, because Mr. Stevens’s wife of 28 years, Catherine Stevens, had the principal responsibility to look after the details of the
renovation.
Mr. Sullivan said that although it might be uncomfortable to talk about their relationship and how they divided chores, he would introduce evidence that Mrs.
Stevens, a prominent Washington lawyer, was the family’s designated overseer of the project.
“Catherine ran the financial part of the renovation,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Ted devoted all of his time and energy to what he had always done,” serving in the Senate.
Mr. Sullivan also said it had been Mrs. Stevens’s wish to have such an elaborate home expansion. Mr. Stevens, he said, had wanted to build only a room to serve as a
bunkhouse for his 11 grandchildren.
In addition to offering up Mrs. Stevens’s role as an explanation for the senator’s failing to list the goods and services on the disclosure forms, Mr. Sullivan laid out to
the jury an elaborate counternarrative. A “devious” Mr. Allen did lots of extra and unwanted work on the house, he said. Mr. Allen, who is awaiting sentencing on a
conviction for bribing Alaska state lawmakers, is expected to be the principal prosecution witness.
In all, Mr. Sullivan said, the Stevenses paid about $160,000 toward the home renovation, a figure they could have believed was an accurate cost.
Ms. Morris, the prosecutor, said that while Mr. Stevens paid some of the contractors who worked on the house, he never paid Mr. Allen or his company, Veco, which
she said performed $188,000 worth of work.
Mr. Stevens used Veco and its owner as “his own personal handyman service,” with a clear understanding that he would not have to pay for anything done by Veco,
the prosecutor told the jury.
“We reach for the Yellow Pages,” Ms. Morris said. “He reaches for Veco.”
Mr. Stevens, regarded as a formidable legislative player in the Senate, sat quietly at the defense table throughout the day.
The criminal case will turn heavily on the issue of intent, a question of whether Mr. Stevens knowingly omitted the receipt of the goods and services from his Senate
form.
Ms. Morris said testimony from Mr. Allen and secretly taped telephone conversations would demonstrate that Mr. Stevens fully understood he was getting “lots of
stuff for free.” She said that in one conversation, Mr. Stevens told Mr. Allen that if things went badly, “no one’s going to be killed, just some legal bills and a little jail
time.”
Mr. Sullivan said he would present e-mail messages Mr. Stevens sent to aides, Mr. Allen and others that stressed he wanted all bills to be sent to him.
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Prosecutor says Sen. Ted Stevens'decided' to break lawShe says he took thousands of dollars in gifts and services and knowingly hidevidence. Ted Stevens' lawyer counters that the senator paid for work on his homeand did not make false statements.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer12:14 PM PDT, September 25, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Lawyers offered sharply divergent portraits of Sen. Ted Stevens asthe corruption trial of the long-serving Alaska Republican began Thursday in federalcourt.
"This is a simple case about a public official who took hundreds of thousands ofdollars worth of free financial benefits, and then took away the public right to knowthat information," Brenda Morris, the lead Justice Department prosecutor, said in thegovernment's opening statement.
Stevens is accused of knowingly and repeatedly filing false financial reports with theSenate between 2000 and 2006 that understated or omitted gifts or other benefitsthat he got from an oil executive and others.
Addressing jurors, Morris ticked off examples of the largess, including what thegovernment alleges were more than $240,000 in improvements to Stevens' residencein Alaska.
Stevens hid an array of other things of value, she said, including an Alaskan sled dog,a $2,700 massage chair and a "sweetheart trade" in which he got a $44,000 LandRover in exchange for a 34-year-old Mustang and $5,000.
"The government will prove to you that over a seven-year period, the defendantreceived a lot of things," Morris said. "The public had a right to know this, but thedefendant said 'No," and instead he decided to violate the law."
Morris said Stevens' experience in government and familiarity with Senate rules andprocedures foreclosed the possibility that the omissions were innocent mistakes.
"The defendant is a career politician. He has been a member of the United StatesSenate for over 30 years," Morris said. "You do not survive as a politician in this townfor very long without being very, very smart, very, very deliberate, very, very forceful,and at the same time knowing how to fly under the radar."
Morris also described the relationship between Stevens and a now-defunctAlaska-based oilfield services concern, VECO Corp., which oversaw the homerenovations, and whose former chief executive, Bill J. Allen, is alleged to haveshowered Stevens with gifts. Allen is expected to be a key government witness in thecase.
"VECO acted as his own personal handyman service," Morris said. "If the defendantneeded an electrician, he would contact VECO. If he needed a plumber, he wouldcontact VECO."
"We reach for the Yellow Pages," Morris told the jury. "He reached for VECO."
Stevens' lawyer, Brendan V. Sullivan, said it was illogical for a man of Stevens'stature and experience to start violating the law.
"Why all of a sudden, in his 75th year, did he decide to go out and become acriminal?" Sullivan said, alluding to the start of the alleged illegal conduct in 1999."The evidence will show that he did not file false statements, and the evidence ofintent is found in many, many ways."
Sullivan said Stevens paid fair value for the home improvements, which he said endedup approximating the assessed value of the home.
The lawyer also attempted to distance the lawmaker from the details of thetransaction. He said that Stevens' wife, Catherine, was in charge of paying the bills,and that it was hard for the couple to keep close track of the project. With their mainresidence in Washington, they spent only a few days out of every year at the Alaskanresidence in Girdwood a resort town southeast of Anchorage
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Prosecutor says Sen. Stevens knowingly hid gifts
By Neil A. Lewis, New York TimesArticle Launched: 09/25/2008 08:03:12 PM PDT
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department prosecutor told a jury on Thursday that Ted Stevens, who has representedAlaska in the Senate for 40 years, engaged in "a scheme to conceal from the public" a variety of gifts and homerenovation services he received.
In her opening statement of what is expected to be a nearly monthlong trial, the prosecutor, Brenda Morris, saidStevens knowingly did not list on Senate disclosure forms goods and services totaling $250,000 that he received froman Alaska contractor, Bill Allen. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate's history, has pleaded notguilty to seven felony counts of filing false statements.
Morris listed several items she said Stevens had received in recent years, including a sled dog and a massage chair,but at the heart of the case, she noted, was the makeover of the Stevens family home in Girdwood, Alaska. She saidAllen, a freewheeling oil services contractor and one-time friend of Stevens, paid for most of the renovations, whichincluded a new first floor built after jacking up the house, along with two new decks, a garage, lighting and a built-ingas grill.
In his opening statement, Stevens' lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, told the jury that the senator did not "intentionally violatethe law" and was misled by Allen about the exact costs. But Sullivan also offered a new and striking assertion: thatStevens had not been familiar with the details of the project and could
not have knowingly concealed the costs, becauseStevens' wife of 28 years, Catherine Stevens, had theprincipal responsibility to look after the details of therenovation.
Sullivan said that although it might be uncomfortable to talk about their relationship and how they divided chores, hewould introduce evidence that Catherine Stevens, a prominent Washington lawyer, was the family's designatedoverseer of the project.
"Catherine ran the financial part of the renovation," Sullivan said. "Ted devoted all of his time and energy to what hehad always done," serving in the Senate.
Sullivan also said it had been Catherine Stevens' wish to have such an elaborate home expansion. Stevens, he said,had wanted to build only a room to serve as a bunkhouse for his 11 grandchildren.
In addition to offering up Catherine Stevens' role as an explanation for the senator's failing to list the goods andservices on the disclosure forms, Sullivan laid out to the jury an elaborate counternarrative. A "devious" Allen did lots ofextra and unwanted work on the house, he said. Allen, who is awaiting sentencing on a conviction for bribing Alaskastate lawmakers, is expected to be the principal prosecution witness.
In all, Sullivan said, the Stevenses paid about $160,000 toward the home renovation, a figure they could have believedwas an accurate cost.
Morris, the prosecutor, said that while Stevens paid some of the contractors who worked on the house, he never paidAllen or his company, Veco, which she said performed $188,000 worth of work.
Stevens used Veco and its owner as "his own personal handyman service," with a clear understanding that he wouldnot have to pay for anything done by Veco, the prosecutor told the jury.
"We reach for the Yellow Pages," Morris said. "He reaches for Veco."
Stevens, regarded as a formidable legislative player in the Senate, sat quietly at the defense table throughout the day.
The criminal case will turn heavily on the issue of intent, a question of whether Stevens knowingly omitted the receiptof the goods and services from his Senate form.
Morris said testimony from Allen and secretly taped telephone conversations would demonstrate that Stevens fullyunderstood he was getting "lots of stuff for free." She said that in one conversation, Stevens told Allen that if thingswent badly, "no one's going to be killed, just some legal bills and a little jail time."
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Prosecutor says Sen. Stevens knowingly hid gifts... http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_... 9/25/2008 23:28
Contractors describe work they didon Stevens' homeBy Richard Mauer and Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Tradesmen who renovated Sen. Ted Stevens' home in Alaskain 2000 testified Friday about their work, as prosecutors began building a casethat the Alaska Republican never paid a prominent oil services company forelectrical and carpentry work on the so-called "chalet."
In the second day of testimony, a series of electricians and carpentersdescribed in detail how they jacked up the home in Girdwood, Alaska, andinstalled a lower story, and redid all of the electrical wiring. In some cases,employees for Veco Corp. -- whose executives were for years the leadingcampaign contributors to many Alaska political candidates, including Stevens --spent hundreds of hours devoted to work on the senator's home.
Stevens faces seven felony counts of lying on his Senate financial-disclosureforms. The 84-year-old senator is accused of accepting more than $250,000 ingifts from the now-defunct oilfield services company and its former chiefexecutive officer, Bill Allen. Among the gifts he's accused of accepting arerenovations to his Girdwood home that lifted it from its foundation and added alower story, doubling it in size.
Some Veco employees spent months at the Stevens home, according totestimony. Beginning in October 2000, Roy Dettmer of Littleton, Colo., spentfour months working six days a week, 10 hours a day, installing electric servicein the new sections of the house and rewiring much of the old.
Every morning, he'd drive to the Port of Anchorage, where he was assigned towork, sign in using his badge, then drive 45 miles to Girdwood. In the evening,he would have to "badge out" again back at the port before he could go to hishotel. Dettmer's pay at Veco at the time was between $27 and $29 an hour,plus overtime. Working a schedule of six weeks on, two off, Dettmer said hespent about 400 hours on the project.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini of Anchorage walked Dettmer through histasks. The service entrance had been at the rear of the original house, but thatwas now 15 feet in the air. Dettmer moved it to the other side of the house inthe new garage Veco built, requiring all the old circuits to be extended. Thatdoubled the electrical capacity from 100 amps to 200 amps. That meant thegenerator that had been installed by Veco only the year before had to berewired and moved as well.
Veco bought the material from an Anchorage supplier, Dettmer said. The newkitchen built by Veco on the second floor also had to be wired.
Dettmer said he never met Stevens, but Catherine Stevens, the senator's wife,came around once. The Veco supervisor, Rocky Williams, introduced him.
"We said 'Hi,' and that was it," Dettmer said.
Doug Alke, a Veco electrician, described installing a backup generator at theresidence in the fall of 1999, the year before the renovations that doubled theStevens home in size.
Alke estimated that he spent an estimated 20 to 24 hours on the job, includingcoming back a few days after he and another Veco worker installed thegenerator to check on whether it was cutting on automatically each week torecharge the batteries.
The journeyman electrician, who was paid about $19.50 an hour at the time,said he filled out an "overhead number" on his timesheet, a code that describedwhich client the work should be billed to. The number for the Stevens job wasn'tfor a specific client like other jobs were, Alke said. Instead, it was an internalcode used for what he assumed were accounting purposes, he said.
Catherine Stevens stopped by once to bring workers muffins, said anothercontractor, Mike Luther, a carpenter with Christensen Builders of Anchorage.He also saw Sen. Stevens once, saying he was friendly and "talked toeveryone."
On his way out of the courtroom Friday, Luther waved to Stevens as he walkedpast the senator at the defense table.
Friday, both prosecutors and Stevens' attorneys also made sure to familiarizethe jury with some terms that are second-nature to Alaskans, especially thosewho work on the North Slope oilfields. One of Stevens' lawyers, Robert Cary,asked Alke what was a "hitch" on the North Slope.
"A 'hitch' is just a rotation," Alke said. "It's slang. Six weeks on, two weeks off."
Alaska might be a very distant place for many of the jurors, but Gov. SarahPalin's vice presidential candidacy has made it more familiar than it once was.When Alke told the jury he was from her hometown of Wasilla, a murmur ofrecognition shot through the courtroom.
S ff
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advertisementPosted on Friday, September 26, 2008 email | print |
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 09/26/2008 | Co... http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/... 9/26/2008 15:19
October 2, 2008
Judge considers mistrial in Stevens caseBy TOM HAYSAssociated Press Writer
A federal judge angrily halted the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens on Thursday after the Alaska lawmaker's attorney accused prosecutors of withholding evidence that would helptheir case.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sent the jury home for the day so he could consider arguments about whether to declare a mistrial.
Earlier, with jurors out of the courtroom, he lashed out at prosecutors for not turning over FBI reports about their star witness, Bill Allen, until late Wednesday night.
"This is not about prosecution by any means necessary," he said. "It's not about hiding the ball. ... Why shouldn't I dismiss this indictment? I find it unbelievable that this was just anerror."
It was the second time Sullivan has scolded prosecutors over their case against Stevens, who's accused of lying on Senate forms about more than $250,000 in home renovations andother gifts from Allen's oil pipeline firm, VECO Corp.
Earlier this week, the judge rebuked prosecutors for sending another witness — the foreman of the renovation project — back to Alaska without notifying Stevens' lawyers.
The trial, now in its second week, was thrown into disarray Thursday morning when veteran defense attorney Brendan Sullivan demanded the judge either declare a mistrial or throw outthe charges. The lawyer argued that prosecutors violated evidence rules by not turning over the FBI reports far sooner.
The reports, the defense lawyer said, showed that Allen believed his longtime friend Stevens was willing to pay for the renovations — a point he would have made in his openingstatement if he had known.
"The integrity of this proceeding has been breached," Sullivan said, his voice rising.
Prosecutor Brenda Morris admitted her team had made a mistake, but insisted it was not serious enough to hurt the defense case or cause a mistrial.
"It wasn't done intentionally," she said. "It was human error."
The jury had been expected on Thursday to hear secretly recorded audiotapes of phone conversations between Allen and Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican.
Prosecutors say the tapes back up testimony earlier this week by Allen that he never billed Stevens for work by VECO employees that helped turn a modest A-frame into a two-storyhome with a garage, sauna, wine cellar and wraparound porches. Allen told the jury he didn't want his fishing and drinking buddy to pay "because I liked him."
On Wednesday, prosecutors introduced e-mails and handwritten thank-you notes from the Alaska senator, including one in 2002 telling Allen, "You owe me a bill," and citing ethics rules.
Stevens went on to say he'd asked a mutual friend to speak with Allen about the topic. But Allen said that when he spoke to the friend, Bob Persons, the message was quite different.
"Bill, don't worry about getting a bill," Allen claimed Persons said. "Ted's just covering his ass."
The senator acknowledges that, because he was working in Washington, he asked Allen to oversee the project. But Stevens says he was adamant that he pay all the bills and had noidea Allen was paying many of the costs himself.
Stevens, a patriarch of Alaska politics for generations, has been stuck in the courtroom as a Democratic opponent back home mounts a strong challenge to the seat Stevens, 84, hasheld for 40 years.
His opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, accused the senator on Thursday of ducking debates and challenged him to square off, "any day, any schedule."
___
On the Net:
Justice Department documents: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/us-v-stevens/ [http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/us-v-stevens/]
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Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, waves to the media as he leaves theU.S. District Court in Washington after his trial Wednesday Oct. 1,2008. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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