Stevens passing the blame for not passing the bill

[September 26, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Ted Stevens had a generous friend. Generous to a fault. In fact, the Alaska senator says, it's his friend's fault he's on trial for corruption.

Charged with lying about receiving more than $250,000 in home renovations and gifts, the Senate's longest-serving Republican cast himself as having been in the dark about the renovations project and blamed his friend, a wealthy oil contractor, for "devious" gift-giving.

Stevens, 84, has been a Senate powerhouse and Alaska benefactor for generations but he has been weakened by a lengthy FBI investigation. He faces an unusually tight re-election battle and the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has not endorsed the man who helped bring her to power.

"Ted Stevens' trial started a couple of days ago," Palin said Thursday. "We'll see where that goes."

Over his lengthy career, prosecutors say Stevens became a crafty lawmaker who learned how to accept gifts without drawing attention to himself. The focus of their case is a complicated 2000 home remodeling project that greatly increased the size of Stevens' hillside chalet in Girdwood, Alaska.

Rather than hiring a home contractor, Stevens relied on his friend Bill Allen, the chairman of oil services firm VECO Corp., to manage the project, hire the carpenters and review the bills.

"We reach for the yellow pages, he reached for VECO," prosecutor Brenda Morris told jurors, "and the defendant never paid a dime."

Stevens said he was clueless about the cost and scope of the project, saying his wife controlled the checkbook. Defense attorney Brendan Sullivan said that when Stevens had a message for her, he communicated through his Senate aides.

"They have a saying in their house that when it comes to things in and out of the teepee, the wife controls," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Catherine Stevens paid every bill received for the project, $160,000 in all. He said the couple was adamant that all the bills be paid. But the senator was in Washington, 3,300 miles away from the job site, and Sullivan said Stevens can't be held responsible for any freebies or work done by Allen that wasn't billed.

"You cannot report what you don't know," Sullivan said. "You can't fill out a form and say what's been kept from you by the deviousness of someone like Bill Allen."

Prosecutors, however, say the senator was well aware that those bills didn't include work done by VECO employees. For instance, Stevens offered to pay a VECO architect for drawing up the house plans, but when the architect referred him to VECO for any bills, prosecutors say Stevens never followed up and never paid.

Former VECO employees were scheduled to take the stand Friday to talk about other gifts bestowed upon the senator such as a gas grill, a generator, an elaborate rope lighting system, a sled dog and a sweetheart deal on a car.

Sullivan told jurors Thursday that Stevens "didn't want these things, he didn't need these things and he didn't ask for these things."

Just as Stevens accepted gifts from Allen, prosecutors say Allen tapped the senator for help winning government grants and navigating Washington's bureaucracy. Citing Stevens' reputation for steering 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 employees could continue to work, they're right," Sullivan said. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. He's proud of it. Bring it on."

Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers and is the government's star witness against Stevens. He is expected to testify soon but was not due to take the stand Friday.

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On the Web:

Justice Department documents: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/us-v-stevens/

[Associated Press; By MATT APUZZO and TOM HAYS]

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