The 'King Salmon' Senator's trial
Posted: Thursday, October 09, 2008 1:48 PM by Daily Nightly Editor
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Notes from the field
By Carl Sears, NBC News producer, Washington
The Government has gone fishing for a 'king salmon.' His name is Ted Stevens, longest-serving Republican Senator and at age 84, an Alaskan legend up for reelection. Stevens corruption trial has reached the half-way mark with the Government resting its case that he lied about $250,000 in home renovations and gifts that he failed to report on Senate financial disclosure forms.
At trial, Stevens has been as imposing and placid as a totem pole as his former close friend Bill Allen testified about extensive renovations performed by Allen's former oil pipeline company--Veco employees on Stevens' Alaskan home in Girdwood. Allen is a convicted felon having been 'hooked' last year in a separate federal investigation for bribing Alaskan state legislators, and is a cooperating witness in Stevens’ trial.
Whether the jury saw Allen as a tarnished titan or a rusty steel pipe is open to question, but his halting testimony was supported by numerous exhibits--showing the transformation of Stevens' modest A-frame cabin into an A-Z home with extra bedrooms, new kitchen and bathrooms, sauna, decks, garage, fire escape ladder and generator for power failure. Much of this work was performed by Allen's Veco employees totaling $180,000 on the company's internal accounting records, but Senator Stevens was never sent a bill.
At trial, Government witness testimony supported by emails and handwritten notes showed that on at least 3-4 occasions Stevens asked Allen or Veco workers for a bill, and even reminded Allen in a note that "friendship is one thing, but compliance with ethics rules is another." The defense argued that even Allen acknowledges that if Stevens had been sent a bill, he would have paid it. On the one hand, this suggests a willingness to pay for work done, but on the other it is potent evidence that Stevens knew the importance of reporting on the disclosure forms -- and even if he didn't have a bill to pay -- he knew that Bill Allen was doing work that needed to be paid for and that he needed to report it --- he neither paid nor reported any of Bill Allen's or Veco's renovation work.
On Thursday afternoon, Judge Emmet Sullivan has denied defense motion for acquittal. The defense is opening its case with character witness Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), and intends to follow perhaps tomorrow with Colin Powell, among others. In better days, Stevens and his fishing buddy Bill Allen used to catch their share of prized king salmon in Alaska's Kenai River. Now, the big fish is in the dock as the trial winds through its third week.
