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Jurors to Get Stevens' Case Wednesday
Legal Times
October 21, 2008
The fate of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, will be in the hands of a federal jury on Wednesday.
The defense team from Williams & Connolly wrapped up its case Monday with Stevens testifying under cross-examination for two hours. The senator, charged in July with filing false financial disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations, took the stand in his own defense. Closing arguments -- each side is allotted three hours -- are set for Tuesday with jury deliberation beginning Wednesday.
But there are still two key unresolved motions. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has not yet ruled on whether to grant a defense motion for judgment of acquittal, and he has not heard argument on the latest defense motion to dismiss the indictment.
Stevens' lawyers argue that prosecutors with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section presented false evidence to the grand jury that indicted Stevens. The prosecution team, which calls the allegation baseless, has struggled to maintain its credibility in the eyes of the court ever since Sullivan determined earlier this month that government lawyers did present false evidence to the trial jurors and withheld evidence from the defense.
In that context, white-collar lawyers in D.C. question whether Williams & Connolly took too big a gamble in putting Stevens -- known for his irritability in the Senate -- on the stand.
The hostility Stevens showed Friday during cross-examination -- repeatedly challenging the government's lead prosecutor, Brenda Morris, principal deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section -- was muted on Monday. When Stevens avoided directly answering, Sullivan prompted the senator several times to "just answer her question, sir."
Testifying in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Stevens told jurors he did not intentionally conceal the gifts and home renovations that prosecutors say were not reported on disclosure forms between 2000 and 2006. Justice Department lawyers argue Stevens sought to keep secret the extent of his relationship with a wealthy Alaska businessman, Bill Allen, and Allen's now-defunct oil services company, VECO.
Stevens told jurors during cross-examination Monday that he repeatedly asked for bills for renovation work at his house in Girdwood, Alaska. When a friend bought Stevens a $2,700 Brookstone chair as a gift, Stevens called it a loaner -- although he has kept it in his home in D.C. ever since.
"If you say it's not a gift, it's not a gift?" Morris asked.
The prosecutor went line by line through a series of e-mails to try to convince jurors that Stevens knew VECO and its employees were part of the renovation project in 2000 and 2001.
Stevens testified that individuals working at his house did not work for VECO but for "us" -- that is, Stevens and his wife Catherine Stevens, a Mayer Brown partner in D.C. The senator drew a distinction between Allen the friend and Allen the multimillionaire former owner of VECO. "One's human and one's a corporation, ma'am," Stevens told Morris.
Stevens said he asked Allen to install a small generator at the Stevens home in Alaska before New Year's Eve in 1999 in the event Y2K fears were realized. Stevens ended up with a giant, expensive generator. "I requested a generator," he testified, "not that generator." Stevens recalled telling Allen to remove the generator, but it was never unhooked and carted away.
"We have lots of stuff in our house that doesn't belong to us, ma'am," Stevens said Monday. Morris was taken aback and asked Stevens to rattle off the other things in his home that he does not own. Stevens said his wife would be better able to answer that question.
Morris also questioned why Stevens did not report a sculpture of fish he was given in Alaska. Stevens said the sculpture was given to his foundation and is bound for the Stevens library, which does not have a permanent location yet.
"Ms. Morris," Stevens said, "I have not died yet."
