Stevens unplugged: a defiant, salty health nut

[October 07, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even when he thought no one was listening but his old friend Bill Allen, Sen. Ted Stevens repeatedly proclaimed his innocence in an Alaskan corruption investigation in between lectures on staying healthy and keeping out of prison on obstruction of justice charges.

But it turned out that Allen had already turned state's evidence and was helping the Justice Department by secretly taping telephone calls with the Republican icon, part of the featured evidence in Stevens' corruption trial in the nation's capital.

Stevens, 84, is charged with lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in cabin renovations and other gifts from Allen and his oil pipeline firm, VECO Corp. The patriarch of Alaska politics hopes to clear his name with an acquittal before voters go to the polls next month to vote on whether to return him to a seat he's held for 40 years.

Allen, who pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers and agreed to testify against Stevens in exchange for immunity for his family and a possible break at sentencing, will return to the stand on Tuesday. During cross-examination, Allen said Monday that Stevens was never one of his targets.

"You never sought to bribe Sen. Stevens, did you, sir?" defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan said.

"No," Allen replied.

Earlier Monday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the government to file a formal response at the end of the day to repeated defense claims that prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence favorable to their client. In a late Monday night filing, prosecutors said they had done nothing wrong and called the defense claims "the latest salvo in their effort to derail the trial."

All throughout the taped conversations between the two fishing and drinking buddies, Stevens proclaimed his innocence to his friend while pleading with the VECO founder to take better care of his health.

"I don't think we've done anything wrong, Bill," Stevens said. "I tell you right now, I've told my lawyer I can't think of a thing we've done that's wrong."

Stevens also showed flashes of being a sometimes salty, always defiant health nut. "I hope you do yourself a favor and get yourself a trainer and come over to the house there and get yourself some workout every day. Keep yourself going now, my friend," Stevens said in one of the taped conversations.

"I will," Allen replied halfheartedly.

"I've never been up against a bunch like this before, and I hope you'll really take care of yourself," Stevens pressed him before describing investigators with a couple of profanities.

A former district attorney himself, Stevens warned Allen repeatedly in one conversation not to stand in the way of investigators and end up facing an obstruction of justice charge.

"As far as I'm concerned, they can look. I don't have any problem," Stevens said. "It may be what we've done leaves the impression we've done something wrong, but you have to make up your mind you're doing something wrong, you have to have an intention to do something wrong to really be guilty of a crime. So it's a long way before we're going to be in front of a jury. I hope to God neither one of us is, but we don't want to get ourselves there by trying to do something that leads to a different kind of charge."

While the senator exudes defiance on tape, Allen sounds downtrodden.

"I'm sorry this whole thing is happening," he tells Stevens at one point.

Trying to make Allen feel better, Stevens mapped out a worst-case scenario for him.

"These guys can't really hurt us. They're not going to shoot us," Stevens told Allen. "Hell, the worst that can happen to us is that we run up a bunch of legal fees, and might lose and might have to pay a fine and might have to serve a little time in jail -- I hope to Christ it never gets to that -- and I don't think it will. I'm developing the attitude that I don't think I did anything wrong so I'm going to go right through my life and keep doing what I think is right."

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On the Net:

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

[Associated Press; By JESSE J. HOLLAND]

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