Corruption Trial 4 Ted Stevens of Alaska

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Registered: 09-08-2008
Corruption Trial 4 Ted Stevens of Alaska
4
Tue, 09-23-2008 - 12:47am

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-stevens23-2008sep23,0,5873128.story

Phone conversation may speak to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' state of mind


Prosecutors hope jurors in his corruption trial will get to hear one associate tell another: 'Ted gets hysterical when he has to spend his own money.'

By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The telephone conversation between the two businessmen concerned an old friend, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, and the subject was money -- or at least Stevens' feelings about it.

"Ted gets hysterical when he has to spend his own money," said one of the callers.

"I know," replied the other.

In a corruption case where the core issue is whether Stevens knowingly accepted gifts in violation of federal law, the conversation, secretly recorded by federal investigators, could be crucial evidence.

On one end was a restaurateur who oversaw the remodeling of Stevens' Alaska home. Prosecutors contend the senator never paid for the improvements.

On the other end was an oil executive accused of helping bankroll the home makeover and showering Stevens and his family with other gifts in violation of federal law.

The recording is part of the evidence that prosecutors hope jurors will hear as Stevens goes to trial this week in federal court in Washington. Jury selection began Monday.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican was indicted in July on charges of failing to disclose in financial reports $250,000 in improvements at his home in Girdwood, Alaska, and other gifts, including a Viking gas grill and a bargain price on a new Land Rover.

Stevens, 84, has said that he never intentionally violated the Senate reporting requirement and that in the case of the home improvements, he paid every invoice he ever received.

Beyond questions of guilt or innocence, the trial could open a window onto the backroom dealings and politics of a state that has come under scrutiny since Sen. John McCain selected its virtually unknown governor, Sarah Palin, as his running mate.

The verdict could also decide Stevens' political future. He sought a speedy trial so it would be over before Alaskans vote Nov. 4 on his bid for a seventh term. The senator remains popular; he easily defeated six challengers in last month's GOP primary despite his indictment four weeks before.

But polls show his race against Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, to be far closer, and he will likely be sitting in a courtroom while Begich campaigns. Perhaps hoping to free up some time for electioneering, his lawyers, citing a need for Stevens "to fulfill his Senate duties," asked Monday that he be excused from a rule requiring a defendant's presence every day a federal trial is in session.

Prosecutors hope to show that Stevens regularly received gifts and other considerations without adequate disclosure, and that his actions in failing to report the improvements on his home were neither isolated nor innocent events.

The government has signaled, for example, that it intends to show how Stevens made a questionable $100,000 six-month profit in 2001 in a Florida condo deal in which he put up just $5,000. Prosecutors may also raise whether he failed to properly disclose receipt of a $29,000 bronzed sculpture of migrating salmon that they say has been sitting on the front porch of his Girdwood home.

Stevens' lawyers have objected, arguing that such evidence, which was not part of the indictment, is prejudicial.

Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia University's law school, said that although it may seem unfair to force a defendant to explain such actions, federal evidence rules are more liberal when the defense is based on lack of criminal intent, as is the case here.

The rules permit courts to "expand the frame of evidence . . . to get a better sense of what was going through his head," Richman said.

So far, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has sided with prosecutors in pretrial rulings on such issues, although he has deferred action on some of their requests.

The bulk of the gifts in question came from a now-defunct oil services company, VECO Corp., and its former chief executive, Bill J. Allen, prosecutors contend. VECO employees led the renovation of the senator's home, and invoices for the work were processed through Allen before being sent to Stevens.

Allen pleaded guilty last year to providing more than $400,000 in corrupt payments to Alaska state officials. He has been cooperating with federal authorities and is expected to be the prosecution's star witness.

Stevens' lawyers are expected to attack Allen's credibility on a number of grounds. Among other things, they have subpoenaed his medical records from a 2001 motorcycle accident in an attempt to determine whether the crash, which caused head injuries, affected his memory. They have also asked for records of a 2004 investigation into an accusation -- which Allen denies and for which he was never charged -- that he had sex with an underage girl in the 1990s.

Jurors may also hear from Robert Persons, owner of a Girdwood restaurant and a longtime friend of Stevens and his wife, Catherine. Persons reportedly filed the city permits for the remodeling of Stevens' home and monitored the project's progress when the couple was not around.

It was Persons who was recorded telling Allen that spending his own money made Stevens hysterical.

At a hearing last Thursday, prosecutors said jurors should hear that conversation because it was evidence that the men were engaged in a joint enterprise to enrich Stevens. Stevens' lawyers objected, saying the conversation pertained to an unrelated racehorse syndicate in which the three were investors.

Sullivan did not immediately rule.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Tue, 09-23-2008 - 12:49am

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/23/na-stevens-corruption-trial-begins/news-nationworld/

Stevens Corruption Trial Begins



Los Angeles Times

Published: September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - The telephone conversation between the two businessmen concerned an old friend, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and the subject was money - or at least Stevens' feeling about it.

"Ted gets hysterical when he has to spend his own money," said one of the callers.

"I know," replied the other.

In a corruption case where the core issue is whether Stevens knowingly accepted gifts in violation of federal law, the conversation, secretly recorded by federal investigators, could be crucial evidence.

On one end was a restaurateur who oversaw the remodeling of Stevens' Alaska home, which prosecutors contend the senator never paid for.

On the other was an oil executive accused of helping bankroll the home makeover and showering Stevens and his family with other gifts in violation of federal law.

The recording is part of the evidence that prosecutors hope jurors will hear as Stevens goes to trial this week in federal court in Washington. Jury selection began Monday.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican was indicted in July for failing to disclose in financial reports $250,000 in improvements at his home in Girdwood, Alaska, and other gifts, including a Viking gas grill and a bargain price on a new Land Rover.

Stevens, 84, has said that he never intentionally violated the Senate reporting requirement and that in the case of the home improvements, he paid every invoice that he had received.

Stevens sought a speedy trial so it would be over before Alaskans vote Nov. 4 on his bid for a seventh term.

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Registered: 09-21-2008
Tue, 09-23-2008 - 12:55am
McCain '08
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Registered: 07-16-2008
Tue, 09-23-2008 - 12:57am

Everyone has their right to post their opinion, but you aren't doing anyone any good by posting "McCain '08" over and over and OVER again.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 1:57am

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/unanswered-qu-2.html

Unanswered Question Watch, Day 14: Are McCain-Palin Endorsing Sen. Ted Stevens' Re-election?

September 23, 2008 10:10 AM

You may recall that, two weeks ago today, I asked the McCain-Palin campaign a very simple question.

To wit:

*

From: Jake Tapper
To: McCain-Palin Campaign
Tuesday, September 09, 2008 8:38 AM
Subject: Question

Are McCain/Palin endorsing Sen. Stevens' re-election?

*

A simple and fair question, right?

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is up for re-election this year. He's been indicted on corruption-related charges, and how McCain and Palin feel about whether the self-proclaimed King of Pork should return to the U.S. Senate would do a lot to say whether the two are reformers, or partisans, first.

The response from the McCain-Palin campaign was as simple as the question I'd asked:

*

From: McCain-Palin Campaign
To: Tapper, Jake
Sent: Tue Sep 09 09:02:41 2008
Subject: RE: Question

Will get back to you.

*

It has now been more than two weeks. I have re-sent the question several times. They do not want to answer the question.

Combine that with the facts that Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., has gone 41 days without taking questions from the press corps following him around, and that Gov. Palin, R-Alaska, has gone every one of the 25 days, since she was introduced to the nation as McCain's running mate, without holding a press conference.

It all adds up to a campaign that seems to think it should be handed over the keys to leadership of the Free World without having to answer straightforward, substantive, tough questions from the Fourth Estate.

That's called lack of accountability.

Which begs the question if a McCain-Palin administration would even hold press conferences.

- jpt