Alaska

Alaska is a State of Denial

Kate Klonick | October 31, 2008, 2:30PM

Sen. Ted Stevens: Convicted or not convicted? That is the question.

And apparently one whose answer changes depending on who you ask.

In most people's minds, there's little to argue. On Monday, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on all seven counts of false statements. The charges against Stevens were felonies, making the senator -- by most counts -- a convicted felon.

But Stevens, back in Alaska campaigning for his eighth term in the Senate, met his opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, in a debate last night and denied that he had been convicted at all.

"I'm not gonna step down. I have not been convicted," the 84 year-old senator stammered. "I have got a case pending against me. And probably the worst case of prosecutorial. . . misconduct by the prosecutors."

It might be worth noting that Stevens has a history of denial.

Alaska

Stevens Does the 'Convicted Felon' Shuffle In Welcome Home Celebration in AK

Kate Klonick | October 30, 2008, 4:35PM

Even though he's now a convicted felon, Sen. Ted Stevens is not without friends.

The so called "Lion of Alaska," returned home yesterday to a rally in his honor in the airport that bears his name.

Approximately 500 supporters greeted Stevens with the chant "We trust you," Anchorage Daily News reported.

Some attendees wore shirts bearing the slogan, "F*#@ the feds, vote for Ted."

"Anyone who thinks you can get a fair trial in the heart of liberalism, Washington, D.C., is smoking dope. He was railroaded," Mark Kelliher, a retired engineer told the ADN expressing the distrust many Alaskans place in "outsiders," or non-Alaskans.

Members of Alaska's political elite also attended, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who urged the crowd to get friends to work and vote for Stevens and joined the elder senator in a little jig on stage.

We're not sure, but we think this might rival the biker gang escort Stevens got when he returned to Alaska after his indictment this August.

More pictures from the rally after the jump.

Read more »

Alaska

Stevens Asks for Probe Into Prosecution

Kate Klonick | October 29, 2008, 10:54AM

On the tail of Sen. Ted Stevens' conviction, the senator's defense team -- clearly in withdrawal that they can't seek mistrials anymore -- requested an investigation into "numerous, serious constitutional violations" by the prosecution.

From the AP:

In the letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, [Steven's attorney Brendan] Sullivan asked that immediate steps be taken to preserve all Justice Department information related to its investigation and prosecution of Stevens. He also asked Mukasey to pull the prosecution team from any further involvement with the case.

"We believe that an impartial investigator looking at this case with an eye toward the administration of justice would be shocked at the conduct of this prosecution team," the letter says.

The attorney alleges in the request that prosecutors knowingly presented false evidence to the jury in Washington, which found Stevens guilty Monday of seven felony counts.

"Senator Stevens' trial was irretrievably tainted by the prosecution team's zeal to convict a high-profile but innocent defendant," the letter says.

The letter was delivered to the attorney general Tuesday morning. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department would have no comment. Sullivan's office did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens' First Day As a Convicted Felon

Kate Klonick | October 28, 2008, 1:40PM

Yesterday, in an unanimous decision, the jury in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens found the seven-term senator guilty on seven count of false statements. The verdict made Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, a convicted felon and one of only five in all of history to be convicted of a crime, and the first since 1981.

This morning, presidential hopeful and fellow Senator John McCain called for Stevens, embroiled in a close election of his own, to step down.

Fox News caught up with the Senator leaving his office today to return home to Alaska to campaign, and it appeared that becoming a convicted felon hadn't chastened Stevens legendary ornery attitude. At the end of the interview, Trish Turner, the Fox News Senate producer asked the senator, "What is the formula for winning," to which he replied, "Not answering you right now." Take a look.

Also release this morning were scanned versions of all of the notes passed between the jury and Judge Emmet Sullivan, which we've collected here along with the historical official verdict.

Alaska

Stevens Found Guilty on All Counts

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 3:59PM

CNN reporting that Sen. Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms.

We'll have more coming, so check back for updates.

Something to think about from the AP:

Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count but, under federal sentencing guidelines, will likely receive much less prison time, if any.

More detail on the seven-term senator's reaction to the news from Bloomberg:

Stevens's lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, had his arm around the senator's shoulders and shook his head as the verdict was being read. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed setting a sentencing date at the defense's request.

Late update . . . 4:21pm: Stevens' sentencing will be January 26, 2009, AP is reporting.

Stevens was indicted July 29 for accepting $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from VECO and failing to report them on his Senate disclosure forms. Stevens pleaded not-guilty to all seven counts of false statements and requested a speedy trial in order to accommodate his re-election campaign. Stevens' attorneys attempted to move the trial from D.C. to Alaska and submit evidence to smear one of the prosecutions key witnesses, Bill Allen, former VECO CEO and friend of Stevens.

The trial began on September 25, and included testimony from Allen, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ted Stevens himself.

Jury deliberations which began last Wednesday, October 22, were immediately plagued by setbacks. The jury attempted to remove one of the jurors who was prone to "violent outbursts" and another juror was excused to return home after her father died and was replaced this morning by an alternate.

Late update . . . 4:35pm: A full description from the AP of each count again Sen. Stevens and the jury's related guilty verdict can be found here.

Late update . . . 4:49pm: Ted Stevens: obstinate and feisty even after conviction. . . also, repeats himself.

From the ADN:

As Stevens exited the courtroom, his wife, Catherine, kissed him on the cheek.

Moments earlier, he told her, "It's not over yet." She responded, "You got that right."

And then he added, "Not over yet."

Stevens and his lawyers, who rarely speak to the media, exited the courthouse without making a statement.

Late update . . . 4:50pm: Ted Stevens' prosecutors hold a press conference cum "victory lap" outside the courthouse.

Late update. . .5:01pm: Bloomberg has more follow-up on what will happen to Ted Stevens, noting that the seven-term senator doesn't need to relinquish his seat unless removed by a full Senate vote.

Stevens will remain free on personal recognizance until sentencing.

Late update. . . Putting It In Context Edition: It's really worth taking a moment to reflect on how historic this decision is.

Sen. Stevens is a sitting senator, one of only five in all of history to be convicted of a crime, and the first since 1981, the Wall Street Journal notes.

Stevens is 84 years old -- soon to be 85 on Nov. 15 -- and is the longest-serving Republican with almost 40 years in the Senate representing Alaska.

Late update. . . 5:42pm: The AP expounds on Stevens' reaction as the verdict was read:

Visibly shaken after the verdicts were read -- the jury foreman declaring "guilty" seven times -- Stevens tried to intertwine his fingers but quickly put his hands down to his side after noticing they were trembling.

Late update. . . Palin Comments edition: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has commented on Stevens' conviction:

This is a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight, and that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service. As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully now monitor the situation and I'll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system and I'm confident that Senator Stevens from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska

CNN also notes that Palin wouldn't respond when asked if she would vote for Stevens in one week.

Late update . . .Stevens' Statement Edition: Stevens was quick to release a statement following his conviction today, blaming prosecutorial misconduct and foreshadowing his appeals.

From the ADN:

I am obviously disappointed in the verdict but not surprised given the repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct in this case. The prosecutors had to report themselves to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility during the trial for ethical violations. Exculpatory evidence was hidden from my lawyers. A witness was kept from us and then sent back to Alaska. The Government lawyers allowed evidence to be introduced that they knew was false. I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have.

I am innocent. This verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which the Justice Department lawyers conducted this trial. I ask that Alaskans and my Senate colleagues stand with me as I pursue my rights. I remain a candidate for the United States Senate.

Late update . . . FAQ Edition: Kathleen Hunter at CQ Politics has a handy little guide to the questions swirling around Stevens' conviction.

Alaska

Possible Verdict in Ted Stevens Trial

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 3:49PM

The AP is reporting the possibility of a verdict this afternoon in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens.

From the AP:

Jurors in Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial passed a note with "a potential verdict" to a federal judge Monday, a courthouse spokesman said.

The jury has been beset by problems since deliberations began Wednesday. Courthouse spokesman Sheldon Snook said the panel sent a note Monday. Attorneys for both sides were called back to court Monday for a reading of the note.

The ambiguity of the note's description, though, apparently leaves open the possibility that jurors have been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. If so, the judge likely would send them back to continue deliberating.

Alaska

Stevens' Jury Spots Errors in Government's Indictment

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 1:38PM

The prosecution has had serious bungles of their case against Sen. Ted Stevens -- one of which led to the exclusion of key evidence from consideration by the jury.

Now, it's not the defense but the jury that are calling the government on their missteps, pointing out an error in the indictment of the sitting senator.

From the AP:

Among the seven charges in the indictment, prosecutors said that Stevens checked "no" on financial documents when asked whether he received any gifts in 2001. Actually, he checked "yes," -- and jurors asked the judge what they should do about that.

Prosecutors insisted it was merely a typographical error that didn't affect the overall charge. Stevens did disclose one gift in 2001, but it was not related to the case. He didn't disclose any gifts from oil contractor Bill Allen or his company, VECO Corp.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he would instruct jurors to consider only the evidence, not the indictment, when deciding whether to convict Stevens. He rejected the Justice Department's claim that it was merely a typo.

"Presumably somebody reads these indictments before they return them?" Sullivan said.

Alaska

Ted Stevens' Jury Plays Musical Chairs

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 11:40AM

Between the "stressful" first day, "violent" juror and sudden adjournment, it was an exciting first week in Sen. Ted Stevens' trial and the second promises to be no different -- especially since deliberations are starting from square one.

On Friday, juror No. 4 was excused to return home after the death of her father. Judge Emmet Sullivan announced that he would check in with the juror over the weekend to determine whether or not she would be able to return.

But in the days following the adjournment juror No. 4 has been unreachable, and on Sunday, Sullivan decided to go ahead with deliberations replacing her with an alternate.

"We have four alternates for this reason," Judge Sullivan at the hearing Sunday according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The addition of an alternate juror means that deliberations -- which have been riddled with distractions -- will start anew.

This morning, after a brief vetting of the new juror, deliberations began again. Here at TPM we're not holding our breath that this is the last we hear from this drama-laden jury before a verdict.

Alaska

Stevens' Jury Gets Friday Off For Juror's Family Emergency

Kate Klonick | October 24, 2008, 10:16AM

The deliberations in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens have been suspended for Friday after a juror had a family emergency, the AP reports.

Jurors will be excused from deliberations today and possibly Monday, so that Juror No. 4 can travel home to attend to the death of her father in California.

Today would be the third day of deliberations for the jury, which has already experienced a number of issues. On Wednesday, jurors asked to be excused early after things became "stressful." Yesterday, the foreman wrote a note to the judge requesting the removal of a juror who had become 'rude, disrespectful and unreasonable" and had "violent outbursts."

Alaska

Attorneys in Stevens' Trial Called Back to Court Over Jury Questions

Kate Klonick | October 23, 2008, 1:32PM

The jury in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens sent three more notes to Judge Emmet Sullivan today, one of which specifically asked the judge to "please clarify the liability cost as it is not readily clear in Senate regulations," The Hill reports.

After receiving the notes, Sullivan sent the jurors to lunch early and asked attorneys from the case to return to court this afternoon for a bench conference to discuss how to instruct the jury.

From The Hill:

Sullivan proposed telling the jurors that the financial disclosure forms require "the filer to disclose the amount of liabilities in excess of $10,000 that were owed by the filer in any point in time during the calendar year." But Robert Cary, Stevens's defense lawyer, called the statement an "oversimplification" and asked to give the jurors a more elaborate explanation.

Today is only the first full day of deliberations for the jury, who were given instructions yesterday morning.

Late update: It looks like one of the jurors may be dismissed for "disruptive, rude and violent" behavior, the AP reports. We'll keep you updated as we hear more.

Late update. . . 2:33 pm: More details are emerging on the "violent" juror. The Hill describes her as a "middle-aged. . bookkeeper for the D.C. National Guard." According to Politico, one of the jury's notes to Sullivan says the woman "has had violent outbursts with other jurors and that's not helping anyone. She is not following the laws and rules that were stipulated."

Late update. . . 2:56pm: After discussing with attorneys from both sides, it doesn't look like the "violent" juror won't be going anywhere.

From the AP:

Worried about disrupting the process, Sullivan opted not to remove the woman. He spoke with jurors, told them how important their job was, urged them to be civil and sent them back to continue deliberating.

Late update. . .6:29pm: The Washington Post has a copy of the note sent from the jury to Sullivan requestion that juror #9 be removed. Read it here.

Alaska

Stressed Out Stevens' Jury Heads Home Early

Kate Klonick | October 22, 2008, 5:05PM

The jurors in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens have just sent a note to the judge asking to go home early, after just four hours of deliberations.

"It's kind of stressful right now, can we leave a little early? We need a moment of clarity," the juror's note read according to MSNBC.

As we reported earlier, today is the first day of deliberations in the historic trial of Stevens, who is the first sitting senator to ever be indicted.

Judge Emmet Sullivan acquiesced, letting the jurors leave early, the AP reports.

Ted Stevens

Stevens' Fight For Political Life Rests in Hands of Jury

Kate Klonick | October 22, 2008, 11:42AM

With closing arguments finished, all that's left in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, is jury instructions and deliberation. Those will start this morning, and depending on how long the jury deliberates, we could have a decision in the historic trial of the only sitting senator ever indicted as early as this afternoon.

So let's take this time to look back at some of the highs and lows from the four week long trial.

One of the biggest lows, for the prosecution anyway, was Judge Emmet Sullivan's exclusion of key evidence after the government failed to provide the defense with copies of evidence and never provided promised testimony.

The prosecution semi-recovered from the ruling, calling a late witness, Dave Anderson -- who worked for VECO and on Stevens' renovations -- to testify in order to compensate for some of the excluded evidence.

While it looked like this blow against the government's case seemed devastating, that was before Stevens took the stand. The seven-term senator's two days of testimony (which we blogged here and here) added a new variable to the trial and it's difficult to tell if Stevens' curmudgeonly answers on cross-examination helped or hindered his cause.

An un-related moment in the trial, but a favorite at TPM, was the possibility of Martha Stewart's attorney being called as a witness. The judge excluded his testimony, but gave this wonderful quote, captured by the Blog of Legal Times:

"The words 'Martha Stewart' mean different things to different people," Judge Sullivan said. "There is no universal meaning of 'Martha Stewart.'"

Yesterday's closing arguments, were predictably theatrical especially from the defense -- sometimes too theatrical. Stevens' attorney Brendan Sullivan was apparently modulating his voice so widely between shouts and whispers that the jury had to stop Sullivan's closing to ask him to repeat words he intimately breathed to the jurors, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The prosecution spent much of the time incredulously recalling Stevens' testimony and "growling" answers on cross-examination.

"Maybe since the defendant lives so close to the North Pole, maybe Santa and his elves came down and did this work and completed it. He had no idea," said prosecutor Brenda Morris.

And with that, we wait -- like expectant children on Christmas Eve -- for the jury to reach a decision on the fate of Sen. Stevens

Alaska

Blogging Sen. Stevens Testimony: Part II

Kate Klonick | October 20, 2008, 10:31AM

Picking up from where we left off on Friday, Sen. Ted Stevens is back on the stand this morning, in the midst of cross-examination.

The AP reports that Stevens is "dour" and "sparring curtly" with the prosecutor, in what is expected to be the last day of testimony in the historic trial.

We'll be bringing you more throughout the day, so stayed tuned as we continue our round up.

Trying to fire up the Senator Edition . . . 11:30am: The AP expands their story with some direct quotes from the cross. Perhaps most notably, he's outright denied that VECO had any involvement at all in the renovation of his house.

Morris pressed Stevens to acknowledge that he knew the foreman and other workers were VECO employees. But Stevens said that's not how he viewed it.

"He did work for VECO, yes, but when working at my house, he's working for me," Stevens said. "VECO was not involved in renovating my house."

The Politico reports that Stevens is less "combative" than he was on Friday, though the prosecutor keeps trying to bring out the Senator's famed temper.

Re-Gifting Edition. . . 12:23pm: We wonder what exactly Sen. Ted Stevens thinks he's on trial for, if it's not for his failure to disclose things on his financial disclosure forms. Roll Call has the exchange:

[Stevens] argued that there is a distinction between Allen as the personal friend who provided laborers for the house and Allen as the CEO of VECO.

That led Morris to ask, "You don't have to disclose gifts from a human?"

Stevens replied, "This has nothing to do with disclosure."

And back when Stevens' wife, Catherine, was on the stand, she spent a great deal of time lamenting the $250,00 worth of free upgrades that Bill Allen made to the house, especially furniture that he replaced. The prosecution brought the furniture back up, reading from an e-mail that Stevens had sent to Allen, saying that he was planning to re-gift the furniture to his son, The Hill reports. Stevens didn't respond well to this line of questioning:

Morris questioned why the senator kept that leather furniture set for more than seven years. She pulled out a Sept. 2005 e-mail where Stevens indicated to Allen that he would give the gift to his son.

Stevens grew agitated and tried to dodge the question.

"Just answer her question, sir," directed Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

"You are actually trying to re-gift the furniture that is so hideous to your son. Is that correct?" Morris asked.

"No," Stevens shot back.

There's no universal meaning of gift Edition . . . 1:07pm: Was it a gift? Was it a loan? In the Stevens' trial, it all depends on who you talk to.

Stevens talked his way around the fancy massage chair he received from Allen, reported the AP:

He said he considered that chair a loan.

"And the chair is still at your house?" prosecutor Brenda Morris asked.

"Yes," Stevens said.

"How is that not a gift?"

"He bought that chair as a gift, but I refused it as a gift," Stevens said. "He put it there and said it was my chair. I told him I would not accept it as a gift. We have lots of things in our house that don't belong to us."

Playing to the jury, Morris appeared confused.

"So, if you say it's not a gift, it's not a gift?" she said.

"I refused it as a gift," Stevens replied. "I let him put it in our basement at his request."

And that was it for the Stevens' testimony. The defense rested and closing arguments are scheduled for tomorrow.

Food for thought Edition . . . 4:15pm: TPM Reader BK points out that under the Senate Disclosure Rules, claiming something was just "a loan" isn't much of an excuse:

Uh, someone should remind Senator Stevens that the Senate Rules define the term "gift" to mean "any gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance or other item having monetary value."

Senate Rule 35, Paragraph 2(b)(1).
Or, to put it another way, Senator Stevens just incriminated himself.

Alaska

Blogging Sen. Stevens Testimony

Kate Klonick | October 17, 2008, 12:05PM

Sen. Ted Stevens took the stand yesterday, along with his wife Catherine, to testify in his trial on seven counts of false statements.

He continues that testimony today, so we'll be bringing you context on relevant facts, quotes and happenings from what looks like it will be the final day of this historic trial of a sitting senator.

Morning testimony. . .12:01: One might call Uncle Ted a "traditionalist" after reading this quote on the power dynamic in his household.

From RollCall:

Ted Stevens testified that when Catherine agreed to take charge of the project, "I was happy about that" because she is generally much more concerned than he is about the maintenance and decoration of their homes.

"What goes on in the house is Catherine's business; what goes on outside is my business," he said.

Politico says Stevens read the jury an e-mail he sent to the man who produced architectural drawings for the renovation project in August 2000.

"Now I want you to give us a bill for your work," Stevens wrote to John Hess -- a VECO employee and one of the first witnesses for the defense, but never received a bill. "Under our Senate rules, I must pay you for what you have done," he added.

Direct continues . . .12:44 pm : Well the Stevens' defense has made it pretty clear -- their primary defense is throwing Mrs. Stevens under the bus:

"Who had the check book?" Sullivan asked his client.

"Catherine," Stevens said.

"Who got the bills?"

"Catherine," Stevens responded.

"Catherine maintained the checkbook?"

"She did," Stevens said. "She got all the bills and paid all the bills."

As you can see from the focus of the defense questions, they're looking to defend the senator on two fronts: 1) that he tried to pay his bills, even asking for them from the architect while citing Senate rules; and 2) that he didn't even know what was going on in the house anyway! That was women's work!

No Free Lunch Edition . . . 1:13 pm: This just in from the AP, Stevens wouldn't even let his buddies pick up the tab on lunch! Let alone hundreds of thousands in home renovations.

"I pay my bills wherever I am," Stevens said. "I don't let people buy my lunch or buy my dinner. Wherever I am, I pay my bills."

Sadly, Stevens also turned on the testimony of former VECO CEO Bill Allen -- who was one of his best friends until he decided to testify against Ted.

Stevens blames Allen, his one-time friend and drinking buddy, for adding freebies to the project without telling him. Stevens sat stonefaced Friday as he accused Allen of lying on the witness stand. Allen testified that Stevens knew he wasn't getting billed for everything and just wanted invoices to protect himself.

"That's just an absolute lie," Stevens said. "I heard it. It's an absolute lie."

Flashback to Catherine's testimony Edition . . .1:43pm: TPM Reader ML points out an interesting moment in Catherine's testimony yesterday:

Morris also questioned Mrs. Stevens about her husband's Senate staff walking their dogs, paying their credit card bills, cutting their grass and doing other personal work for her family.

"Sometimes," said Mrs. Stevens, who added that if they did, the staffers were paid. [emphasis ours.]

Hmmm . . . who does that remind you of?

Cross examination is coming Edition. . . 3:13pm: Roll Call is reporting that direct questioning will be wrapping up this afternoon and cross examination will probably start before they recess for the weekend. Disappointing that this won't be wrapped up by the end of the day.

Crocodile Tears Edition. . . 5:13pm : Apparently, even though Sen. Stevens and his attorneys haven't hesitated to sacrifice Catherine Stevens to the DOJ wolves, the seven-term senator still gets misty-eyed over her, Roll Call reports.

"I was happy that she was going to get a chance to be home" and to spend time with their daughter, Stevens said, referring to his wife's decision to leave work and its impact on their household finances. Fighting back tears, Stevens said that his wife had been traveling a great deal for her job with a foundation, and "she had worked awful hard. ... She deserved the rest."

Politico has some great color on the senators' cross examination, in which the prosecutor sharply questions Stevens' ignorance and passivity when it came to the home renovations.

"You were a lion of the Senate but you didn't know how to prevent another man from putting items in your house?" Morris asked.

"You're making a lot of assumptions that are unwarranted. There are no gifts there, ma'am," Stevens said.

Stevens is known for his temper and has even embraced that reputation, wearing Incredible Hulk ties on the Senate floor when he knows he has a tough debate ahead. He's not wearing any Hulk garb today.

Stevens, a former U.S. attorney before he served 35+ years in the Senate, got a little testy as questioning continued, deigning to offer his expertise.

"I think you better rephrase your question," he told Morris as she continued her questioning. "That question is tautological."

Things broke up around 4:45 pm. We'll be back on Monday bringing you the best in reporting on the final days of the Stevens' trial.

Alaska

Sen. Ted Stevens Takes Stand Briefly Today

Kate Klonick | October 16, 2008, 4:41PM

It's about time.

From the AP:

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has taken the stand in his own defense at his corruption trial in the nation's capital.

The Republican icon is the last defense witness. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told him late Thursday he didn't have to testify. But Stevens replied, "It's a privilege and a duty."

Late update: In his time on the stand -- of which there was only 20 minutes before the court recessed for the day -- Stevens answered questions from his attorney on the charges he faces and spoke of his life and career in Alaska.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

"Senator, when you signed those forms, did you believe they were accurate and truthful?" asked his lawyer, Brendan Sullivan.

"Yes sir," Stevens said.

"Did you ever intentionally file false disclosure forms?" his lawyer asked.

"No, I did not," Stevens said.

"Did you ever engage in any scheme to conceal anything from the Senate?" Sullivan asked.

"No sir," Stevens said.

Ted Stevens

Stevens Likely to Testify Tomorrow

Kate Klonick | October 15, 2008, 7:05PM

We know that we've strung you along telling you that Sen. Ted Stevens was testifying on Tuesday. . . and then today, so maybe we should hedge our words a bit when we tell you that Ted Stevens will likely testify tomorrow.

As soon as the owner of the Double Musky Inn is finished testifying, Catherine Stevens, Ted's wife, will take the stand. And then it's time for Ted, the final witness for the defense.

Given Stevens past tendencies to inaccurately wax poetic, we're pretty excited.

Alaska

Second Trooper-Gate Probe Expanding

Zachary Roth | October 14, 2008, 2:15PM

There's further evidence that the investigation into Trooper-Gate being conducted by the state Personnel Board could have real teeth.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the probe has broadened to include other ethics complaints against Sarah Palin, and actions by other state employees.

That's according to the investigator hired by the board, Timothy Petumenos, who conveyed the information in two recent letters sent to an Anchorage attorney who had threated a lawsuit over Palin's effort to waive confidentiality in the matter.

Petumenos, a Democrat with a reputation for aggressive prosecutions, plans to sit down with the governor, who is cooperating with his investigation, next week.

It's not clear which other ethics complaints about the governor Petumenos is now looking into, but two have been previously reported. One relates somewhat to Trooper-Gate: the state troopers' union alleges that state officials illegally examined the personnel file of Mike Wooten, seeking damaging information on him. Wooten's feud with the Palin family was at the center of Trooper-Gate.

In addition, a good-government activist has alleged that Palin circumvented state hiring practices in giving a job to a supporter.

Petumenos has also requested a copy of the Branchflower report, released Friday.

Many observers have questioned the ability of the personnel board to come to independent conclusions on Trooper-Gate, largely because its three members are appointed by the governor, and it conducts its deliberations largely in secret.

It's unclear when Petumenos' investigation will wrap up, but the ADN also reports that the personnel board has meetings scheduled for Oct. 20 and Nov. 3. Adds the paper: "The agendas for those meetings mention confidential ethics matters to be handled in executive session."

Separately, ADN reports that Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner whose firing by Palin is at the heart of Trooper-Gate, has asked the personnel board to hold a hearing, then issue public findings, on whether he was a "rogue" employee and demonstrated "insubordination", as the Palin camp has publicly alleged in an effort to discredit him.

Palin has given several apparently contradictory explanations for why she fired Monegan. Branchflower's report concluded that Monegan's reluctance to fire Wooten was a contributing factor in his own dismissal.

Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens to Take Stand Today in Own Trial?

Kate Klonick | October 14, 2008, 9:48AM

In a filing today with the U.S. District Court, Sen. Ted Stevens' defense team listed four witnesses that it may call today. Among them, Orrin Hatch, Martha Stewart and the seven term senator himself.

Senator Stevens hereby gives notice of the witnesses he intends to call on the fourth day of his case-in-chief, and the exhibits that he may seek to introduce during testimony.
1. Orrin Hatch
    Exhibits: None
2. Donna DeVarona
    Exhibits: None
3. Martha A. Stewart
    Exhibits: None
4. Theodore F. Stevens

It's a good thing.

Late update: It looks like we can expect the 84 year-old senator to take the stand tomorrow. According to Reuters, Stevens is scheduled to testify Wednesday. Today in court, he told the judge he was aware that he's not required to testify in his own defense.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate: Where Do We Go From Here?

Zachary Roth | October 13, 2008, 11:22AM

The Trooper-Gate report found that Sarah Palin violated a state ethics law and abused her power by pressuring subordinates in trying to get Mike Wooten fired. So what happens next?

In terms of official actions, maybe nothing, at least in the three weeks between now and November 4th.

If Palin were to be prosecuted for violating state law, the state attorney general would likely take the lead. But Attorney General Talis Colberg -- who until Palin plucked him from obscurity to make him the state's top lawyer was a Matanuska Valley assemblyman and private-practice lawyer -- has been criticized for appearing to represent the governor's interests in Trooper-Gate, rather than the public interest. So a prosecution led by the AG's office seems unlikely.

Of course, the state personnel board is continuing its own probe of the affair, with which Palin has been cooperating. The board has the authority to impose fines or even recommend impeachment for violations of the ethics act. But the board's members are appointed by the governor, calling into question its ability to draw independent conclusions.

Still, it has hired Timothy Petumenos -- an aggressive Anchorage lawyer, and a Democrat -- to investigate. Newsweek reports that Palin is scheduled to sit down with Petumenos next week, and his findings could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the ethics board," a McCain aide told the magazine.

Before the report was released, the idea had been floated that the legislature could institute impeachment proceedings. But since Friday night, that possibility appears to have receded. According to a TPM source who attended Friday's session of the legislative council, State Senate President Lyda Green, an outspoken Palin critic, replied with a flat 'no' when asked, after the report's release, whether impeachment was being considered.

And Green told the Christian Science Monitor over the weekend that even a censure motion is unlikely, since the legislature is not currently in session.

Walt Monegan, whose firing as public safety commissioner was at the center of the affair, declined to say whether he was considering filing suit against the administration, when asked this morning on NBC's The Today Show. But the report concluded that Palin was within her rights in firing him, since, as governor, she can fire any executive branch official for any reason.

So it may be that whatever impact Trooper-Gate has on the presidential race will be based on the findings released Friday. If nothing else, the fact that Palin was found by a legislative investigation to have broken a state ethics law will only further complicate the McCain campaign's flagging effort to present her as reform-minded advocate for a more open, honest approach to governing.

Ted Stevens

Stevens' Wife's Emails Subpoeaned

Kate Klonick | October 13, 2008, 9:34AM

Prosecutors in the case against Sen. Ted Stevens are leaving no stone unturned, subpoenaing emails sent from his wife Catherine which may have discussed the home renovations which are at the center of the charges against Stevens, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Though the subpoena was sent Sept. 15 to Catherine Stevens' law firm, it was made public over the weekend when the defense asked a judge to intervene, calling it a "fishing expedition." The law firm had already turned over 26,000 pages of documents, but declined to turn over communications between Catherine and her husband Ted, citing spousal privilege.

On the subpoena, the government seeks the correspondence between Catherine Stevens and 34 other people. Some of those names are new, and related to evidence not yet discussed in the trial -- like the name of Anchorage jeweler George Walton and his Alaska Gold and Diamond, Co. Any documents relating to diamond earrings are also requested in the government's subpoena.

So as we head into the fourth (and possibly final) week of Stevens' trial it seems like we may have more to look forward to besides the possibility of Stevens' himself testifying and the defense's parade of illustrious character witnesses.

Alaska

Palin Falsely Claimed Report Cleared Her of Legal Wrong-Doing

Zachary Roth | October 13, 2008, 9:08AM

It's fair to say that Trooper-Gate hasn't exactly burnished Sarah Palin's reputation for honesty. And in a conference call she gave Saturday to respond to the legislature's report on the affair released Friday night, that reputation took another hit.

Palin opened her remarks by declaring:

I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there.

Steve Branchflower did conclude that Palin was within her rights to fire Walt Monegan -- since, as governor, she can fire any executive branch official for any reason.

But he also concluded, just as definitively, that Palin pressured and intimidated subordinates in trying to force the firing of Mike Wooten. In doing so, Branchflower wrote, she violated a state ethics law which says that "any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action" is a violation of the public trust.

When an Anchorage Daily News reporter followed up by reminding the governor of this finding, she did not respond directly.

(Below is the audio from the call, preceded by some video footage from over the weekend of Palin calling the Trooper-Gate inquiry "a partisan kind of process.")

In the call, Palin also asserted that the inquiry "did turn into a partisan circus" -- perhaps forgetting that it had been launched through a unanimous vote of the bipartisan legislative council, and that the council voted unanimously again on Friday to release the report to the public.

And asked how she felt about having called Walt Monegan, a widely respected public servant, a "rogue", she replied: "'Rogue' isn't a negative term."

Alaska

Monegan: Palin Aide Knew Of Top Cop's Sexual Harassment Rap

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 4:18PM

Aside from what it says about Sarah and Todd Palin, the Trooper-Gate report also appears to paint Mike Tibbles -- the governor's former chief of staff, who's now running Ted Stevens' Senate re-election campaign -- as shockingly incompetent. And that's the best case scenario for Sarah Palin.

To explain: Steve Branchflower writes on page 113 of the report that Walt Monegan told him about a conversation between Monegan and Tibbles, shortly after Palin was inaugurated as governor in January 2007. According to Monegan, Tibbles asked Monegan to consider hiring Chuck Kopp, formerly the police chief of Kenai, for a job in the public safety department.

As a result, said Monegan, he met with Kopp. When Monegan asked Kopp whether there was anything in Kopp's background that Monegan should be aware of before hiring him, Kopp revealed that, as Kenai police chief, he had been reprimanded over a sexual harassment allegation, though he maintained that it was bogus.

Monegan told Branchflower that the next day, he talked to Tibbles. "I disclosed what Chuck had told me," said Monegan. Tibbles responded that, in that case, they had "better steer clear from [Kopp] for a while."

But in a separate part of the report (page 43) that we noted earlier, Branchflower writes that in July 2008, Kopp was hired as public safety commissioner -- replacing Monegan -- after being interviewed for the job by two Palin aides for just 30 minutes, and without speaking directly to the governor about it at all.

Just two weeks later, Branchflower writes, Kopp resigned the post, when the sexual harrassment reprimand surfaced. Adds Branchflower: "Apparently, that was a fact that the governor's office did not know about when Mr. Kopp was offered the commissioner's job."

Indeed, at the time, the governor's office said publicly that at the time Kopp was hired, the governor knew of the allegation but understood it to be baseless, and was unaware of the letter of reprimand.

But the report suggests that Tibbles -- who, just four days before Kopp's hiring, was announced as Stevens' campaign manager -- did know about the reprimand, because Monegan had told him about it back in January 2007.

In other words, if Branchflower is correct, Tibbles failed to pass on to his colleagues in the governor's office his knowledge of Kopp's reprimand, setting them up to hire for a high-profile position a man with a significant black mark on his record.

It's also possible, of course, that Branchflower has erred in writing that the governor's office didn't know about Kopp's reprimand when it hired him. Perhaps Tibbles did pass along the information, but Palin and her aides, in their haste to find a replacement for Monegan, decided to overlook it and hire Kopp anyway, trusting that the issue would not resurface.

Tibbles did not immediately respond to a detailed request for comment.

So either Palin's chief of staff was jaw-droppingly incompetent, or she knowingly hired as the state's top law enforcement official a man who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, then lied to the press about it. Neither alternative is flattering.

Alaska

Report: Firing Wooten Wouldn't Have Made Palins Safer

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 2:29PM

As we noted last night, the Trooper-Gate report found that Sarah Palin's claims that she feared Mike Wooten were unfounded. But the subject of Palin's alleged concern for her own and her family's safety deserves more attention.

The McCain-Palin campaign has argued that the Palins were acting merely to "protect their family" in going after Wooten.

But in the report, Branchflower disposes of that argument:

Assuming that Trooper Wooten was ever inclined to attack Governor Palin or a family member, logic dictates that getting him fired would accomplish nothing to eliminate the potential for harm to her or her family. On the contrary, it might just precipitate some retaliatory conduct on his part. Causing Wooten to loose (sic) his job would not have de-escalated the situation, or provided her or her family with greater security.

Alaska

Palin Never Interviewed Monegan's Replacement

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 1:25PM

Here's some evidence from the Trooper-Gate report about just how eager Sarah Palin was to get rid of Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

Steve Branchflower found that Palin never interviewed Monegan's replacement, the appropriately named Chuck Kopp, for the job of top law enforcement officer in the state. Rather, she left the task to deputies, who conducted just one 30-minute interview.

Writes Branchflower: "Governor Palin did not speak to Mr. Kopp before he was appointed to his new job."

And as we already knew, Kopp served just two weeks in the job, before resigning after news reports surfaced showing that he had been reprimanded in connection with a past sexual harassment complaint.

Of course, the report found that Palin was within her rights to fire Monegan, since, as a legal matter, the governor can fire state officials for any reason, or none at all.

But that doesn't mean that, as a question of governance, it wasn't a rash, poorly thought-out move, done for reasons of personal pique rather than a concern for the public interest.

Alaska

For Palin, A Picture of Wooten Is Worth A Thousand Words

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 12:36PM

Here's a funny note from the report that brings home the depths of Sarah Palin's antipathy toward Mike Wooten:

Shortly before the annual celebration of Police Memorial Day on May 15, 2008, Commissioner Monegan had dropped off a color photograph at Governor Palin's Anchorage office with a request that she sign and present it at the ceremony. The photograph was of an Alaska State Trooper who was dressed in a formal uniform, saluting. He was standing in front of the police memorial located in front of the crime lab at AST headquarters in Anchorage, partially obscured by a flagpole. The picture to be signed by the Governor was to be used as a poster to be displayed in various Trooper Detachments around the state.

Shortly after he returned to his office from dropping off the photograph, he received a call from Kris Perry, Governor Palin's Director of her Anchorage office who asked [according to Walt Monegan's testimony] "Why did you send a poster over here that has a picture of Mike Wooten on it?" Until that moment, Commissioner Monegan never realized it was indeed a photograph of Trooper Wooten. Governor Palin cancelled her appearance and sent Lieutenant Governor Parnell in her place.

Monegan's eventual replacement as Public Safety Commissioner, Charles Kopp, testified that Palin aide Frank Bailey later called him and told him the administration was thinking about replacing Monegan as commissioner. When Kopp asked why, Bailey cited the incident with the Wooten photograph as one reason, among several, for the governor's displeasure with Monegan.

Alaska

Monegan's "Ominous Feeling" After Meeting With Todd

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 12:16PM

Walt Monegan told Steve Branchflower about what he was thinking directly after a meeting with Todd Palin, in which the "First Gentleman" had given him a stack of files about Mike Wooten's record, and had asked Monegan to look into whether Wooten had been appropriately disciplined:

Well, on the drive back as i was reflecting on the meeting -- drive back to the office, I was thinking that in essence they certainly didn't like the idea that Wooten was still employed. And they wanted severe discipline, probably termination, and that -- and if this was going to build, I had this kind of ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I -- if I didn't somehow respond accordingly.

Alaska

Stonewalling By Key Witnesses Proved Effective

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 11:37AM

The Trooper-Gate report provides an answer to something we were asking ourselves earlier this week.

It was announced, just days before Steve Branchflower was scheduled to wrap things up, that several top Palin aides would reverse course and honor subpoenas issued in the investigation, after resisting them for weeks. But would Branchflower, we wondered, have enough time to depose those key witnesses and include their testimony in his report?

The answer: no.

Branchflower writes:

On October 6, 2008 Attorney General Talis Coberg announced that some of the ... employees have decided they wish to honor their subpoenas and provide information about this case to the Legislative Council. Given that last minute decision, and in view of the publication date of October 10, 2008 for this report, it has not been possible to inculde any such information herein. It is anticipated that the additional information will be submitted to the Legislative Council in a separate report prepared by the employees and/or the Attorney General.

Still, it's certainly plausible that with input from Palin's top lieutenants about the pressure they may have been under to pursue the Wooten matter, the report would have been even more damning.

In that limited regard, the Palin camp's stonewalling appears to have worked.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report Came In Under Budget

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 10:39AM

From the start, the McCain-Palin camp's major strategy in defending Sarah Palin on Trooper-Gate has been to argue that the investigation is a partisan witch-hunt run by supporters of Barack Obama, designed to inflict maximum political damage on the governor.

But most partisan witch-hunts don't end up spending only 75 percent of their allotted budget.

Sen. Hollis French, who was overseeing the probe, told the Anchorage Daily News last night that the investigation ended up costing only $75,000. When legislators voted to launch it in July, they had authorized spending up to $100,000.

The paper reports that Steve Branchflower, the investigator, will be paid $45,000, and the additional $30,000 went to "expenses such as copying, court reporting and transcribing, and managing computer files."

Of course, the fact that the report's release date was moved up by three weeks, to ensure it didn't appear on the eve of the election, may have been one reason why it came in under budget.

Still, Branchflower left $25,000 on the table. That's not exactly the move of 21st-century Ken Starr, a comparison made by Palin's lawyer.

Alaska

Palin "Failed To Act"

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 10:23AM

Here's a key excerpt from the Trooper-Gate report about the nature of Sarah Palin's abuse of power, in regard to her failure to rein in her husband's efforts to pressure state employees to fire Mike Wooten:

[Sarah Palin] had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act.

Such impermissible and repeated contacts create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees, who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior's displeasure and the possible consequences of such displeasure. This was one of the very reasons the Ethics Act was promulgated by the Legislature.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report: McCain Campaign Statement

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 10:06PM

Here's a statement from the McCain-Palin camp on the report.

"Today's report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan," said Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapelton. "The report also illustrates what we've known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country."

Sarah Palin

Palin's Claims She Feared Wooten Were Bogus

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:46PM

Here's another interesting finding, that belies a key claim made by Governor Palin in her defense against the Trooper-Gate allegations.

"Governor Palin has stated publically that she and her family feared Trooper Wooten. Yet the evidence presented has been inconsistent with such claims of fear."
...

"I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palin's real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons."

Alaska

Sarah Palin Pursued "Personal Agenda" in Seeking To Get Trooper Fired

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:42PM

Here's another of the report's key conclusions:

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in "official action" by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation]. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees, in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired."

...

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: To get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.''

In other words, the investigators appear to have concluded that Palin's improper conduct was not the firing of Monegan, which, as governor, she had a right to do for essentially any reason. Rather, it was the improper pressure placed on subordinates in her effort, conducted largely through her husband, to get Mike Wooten fired.

Alaska

Monegan: Todd Palin Was "Venting"

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:22PM

About that meeting between Todd Palin and Walt Monegan, arranged by Todd Palin:

Monegan described to investgators that Todd Palin recounted to him the evidence against Wooten that had came out in the 2005 internal trooper probe -- including that Wooten tasered his stepson and drank while driving a patrol car.

Said Monegan: "He told me ... this guy shouldn't be a trooper."

Monegan added:

"My impression initially was that he's venting. I mean, there was a complaint, the troopers investigated it and they came up with a conclusion, and that he was not happy with he conclusion.

And often, having been a cop for a long time, that actually happens a lot in divorce cases."

Alaska

Todd Palin, First Gentleman

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:08PM

Here's a funny note on the airs that the Palin administration appears to have put on after coming into office.

Monegan's secretary told Branchflower that she received a call in December 2006 from a Palin aide, asking to set up a meeting between Monegan and "the First Gentleman."

"At that time." said the secretary, "I was not familar with the term 'First Gentleman'...so I kept asking her 'who?', and eventually she said, 'Todd Palin,' and I said, 'oh okay.'"

Alaska

Todd Palin Pressured Wasilla Police Chief Not To Hire Wooten

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:58PM

The report reveals that four days after Sarah Palin was elected governor in November 2006, Todd Palin called John Glass, who was then the chief of the Wasilla Police Department and shortly afterwards became a deputy public safety commissioner for the state, working under Walt Monegan.

There were two vacant spots on the Wasilla PD at the time. Todd Palin told Glass that he did not want Wooten hired as a Wasilla officer, and that he should be fired as a state trooper.

Wooten was not hired by Glass.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report Finds Palin Abused Power in Firing Monegan

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:42PM

The just-released Trooper-Gate report finds that Sarah Palin abused her power in the affair by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten, thereby violating an Alaska law holding that "each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust." *

It also finds that Monegan's "refusal to fire Trooper Mike Wooten" -- who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins -- "was not the sole reason [Monegan] by Governor Sarah Paln" but "it was likely a contributing factor". Still, the firing was a proper exercise of Palin's authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

In addition, the report found that the office of Attorney General Talis Colberg failed to substantially comply with the legislature's written request for information about the case in the form of emails.

* This sentence has been updated from an earlier version.

Alaska

Lawmakers To Release Trooper-Gate Report

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:22PM

The legislative council voted 12-0 to release the Trooper-Gate report, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Legislators had been in a closed door meeting all day.

We'll let you know about its findings once we have a copy.

Update: Here's the report.

Ted Stevens

Colin Powell Vouches for "Sterling" Sen. Stevens

Kate Klonick | October 10, 2008, 5:51PM

After nearly forty years in the Senate, there probably aren't many people in Washington that Ted Stevens doesn't know.

Sen. Dan Inouye of Hawaii testified yesterday, and today the defense continued its parade of character witnesses, calling former Secretary of State Colin Powell to the stand, who testified to Stevens' "sterling" character.

From The Hill:

On the stand, Powell called Stevens "a master appropriator" and "a great defender of Alaska's interests." He said the senator's reputation could be summed up in one word: "sterling."

"With Sen. Stevens, I always had a guy who could tell me when I was off-base, tell me when I had no clothes on -- figuratively," he said.

In the late 1980s, Powell said he worked long hours with Stevens, sometimes until "2 or 3 in the morning," as they worked with Democrats to find ways to support freedom fighters in Latin America. Powell described Stevens as a tough but practical appropriator who forced him to have his facts straight when making a request for more money, including in the late 1980s when the government was trying to build up the Army.

Alaska

Alaska Lawmakers Could be Meeting For A While

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 3:20PM

Sounds like the members of the Legislative Council in Alaska, who are meeting behind closed doors to vote on whether to release the Trooper-Gate report to the public, could be there a while.

A source who's at the state legislative building where the meeting is taking place reported moments ago that the lawmakers just ordered lunch.

And the Anchorage Daily News adds:

Two lawmakers who've stepped out of the meeting briefly say it could be hours.

Senate President Lyda Green, a Wasilla Republican, and Rep. Peggy Wilson of Wrangell said the session is moving slowly.

How slow? Wilson was asked.

"Slooowwww," she said.

During the public portion of the meeting, Wilson said that she had not yet had a chance to read the report -- which centers on the firing by Governor Sarah Palin of the state's former public safety commissioner -- and suggested that she would therefore be reluctant to release it publicly today.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Session Begins: GOP Legislator Sounds Reluctant To Release Report

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 1:30PM

The Alaska Legislative Council has been begun its meeting. It will soon go into a private executive session to hear a briefing from Steve Branchflower on his findings in the Trooper-Gate investigation, and to vote on whether to release his full report to the public.

At TPMmuckraker, we've been listening on streaming audio to the public portion of the session. And already it looks like it could be a struggle to get a yes vote on releasing the report.

A Republican member of the council, Rep. Peggy Wilson, said that the report -- which runs to 1000 pages, including evidence -- was so long that she hadn't yet had time to read it, and therefore didn't feel comfortable moving forward.

So it doesn't sound like Rep. Wilson will vote for releasing the report today. Whether her GOP colleagues feel similarly will determine what we find out today.

We'll keep you posted...

Alaska

Release Of Trooper-Gate Report Hangs On GOP Cooperation

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 11:41AM

So today's the day for Steve Branchflower to release his report into Trooper-Gate to the Alaska legislative council.

But it's worth pointing out that, thanks to GOP resistance, Branchflower's findings may not be made public today.

The legislative council will meet in private at 1pm EST to receive a briefing from Branchflower on his findings. The council will then vote on whether to make the 253-page report public. The legislators, who have already picked up copies of the report, have signed confidentiality agreements promising not to show anyone, including their staff, unless authorized to do so by a vote of the council.

It's by no means clear which way that vote will go. The council comprises 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats. It had voted unanimously in July to launch the investigation, but since Governor Palin was named as John McCain's running mate, many Republican members of the legislature have fallen into line behind the McCain camp's effort to quash the probe. Last month, Rep. John Coghill, a Republican from North Pole who is on the council, charged that the investigation had been inappropriately politicized and called for the removal of Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat running the probe. And shortly after, six GOP legislators filed suit to halt the investigation entirely. (The suit was dismissed yesterday by the state Supreme Court.)

The Anchorage Daily News also reports:

Branchflower also produced a separate volume, roughly twice as large as his report, that's expected to remain confidential because it contains exhibits with personnel information that cannot legally be released, according to legislative council staff.

Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, tried to preemptively discredit the report, telling the ADN that it won't be comprehensive because Branchflower didn't interview Palin or her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.

"They didn't even try to interview the governor. You want to know why she reassigned Monegan, it would be nice to talk to her. They didn't even try," Van Flein said. "It's a report that's going to be half-done at best. And anything that's half-done will likely be half-baked."

In response, Hollis French told the paper that he wrote a letter to Van Flein last month asking to set up the interview.

In addition, the New York Times has new details on the pressure that was brought by Palin's office on Walt Monegan in regard to Mike Wooten, the trooper who was embroiled in a bitter family dispute with the Palins.

It reports:

In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.

In one of those instances, Monegan received a call from an aide to Palin, who was concerned that Wooten was assigned to work at a state fair the governor planned to attend. Wooten, says the paper, "had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds -- in full costume as "Safety Bear," the troopers' child-friendly mascot."

Alaska

Palin Exonerated -- By McCain-Palin Campaign!

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:47AM

The McCain-Palin campaign, with an eye on the possible release today of the Alaska legislature's report on Trooper-Gate, last night unveiled its own "report" into the matter. And guess what? It clears Sarah Palin of any wrongdoing!

Campaign officials wrote:

The following document will prove Walt Monegan's dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administration. Trooper Wooten is a separate issue.

The use of the word "dismissal" is noteworthy. Lately, the campaign had seemed to settle on the story that Monegan was not dismissed, but rather was asked to take a new assignment, and quit instead of doing so. Todd Palin told the same thing in written answers to Steve Branchflower, the legislature's investigator, according to news reports yesterday.

The campaign's report blames Andrew Halcro, a blogger and political rival of Governor Palin, for conspiring with Jim Wooten -- the trooper whose ongoing dispute with the Palin family is at the center of the affair -- to make it appear that Palin fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan because Monegan refused to fire Wooten.

Sarah Palin

Palin on Personnel: Sometimes It Gets Personal, Sometimes It Gets Political

Kate Klonick | October 9, 2008, 7:28PM

Here at TPMmuckraker, we've been closely following Sarah Palin's various personnel decisions from her time as governor of Alaska for quite a while, but we had no idea how tough those decisions had been until we heard it from Sarah herself.

In an interview with Greta van Susteren, Palin called personnel decisions her most "agonizing" work as governor and quipped: "Sometimes it gets personal, sometimes it gets political."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Transcript after the jump.

Read more »

Ted Stevens

Inouye on Stevens: He'd Never Tell a Lie

Kate Klonick | October 9, 2008, 6:02PM

Sen. Ted Stevens' motion-to-dismiss prone attorneys kicked off their defense today calling Hawaiian Sen. Dan Inouye to the stand.

Inouye testified as a character witness, telling the jury that he's "never heard of [Stevens] lying under oath."

Inouye, a senator for 45 years, has been a longtime friend of Stevens. He is apparently known as "Uncle Dan" to Stevens' children and called a "brother" by Stevens, the AP reports.

Whether or not Stevens will take the stand remains to be seen. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to testify tomorrow.

Alaska

Court Throws Out GOP Effort to Quash Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2008, 4:40PM

The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected the effort by Republican legislators to quash the Trooper-Gate investigation, affirming the decision of a lower court last week.

Details from the ruling to follow...

Update: The court wrote: "The order of the superior court issued on October 2, 2008 granting the Motion to Dismiss is AFFIRMED. An opinion will follow."

The ruling was provided to TPMmuckraker by Peter Maassen, the attorney for the legislators overseeing the investigation, who are named as defendants in the case.

Independent investigator Steve Branchflower is scheduled to release his report -- which centers on the firing by Governor Palin of former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan -- at a legislative hearing tomorrow.

Ted Stevens

Stevens' Prosecution To Call One More Witness

Kate Klonick | October 9, 2008, 11:14AM

Looks like the government has another chance to redeem its bungled prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens.

Judge Emmet Sullivan announced this morning that the prosecution will be able to call one more witness, Dave Anderson, a former VECO employee who worked on Stevens home renovations, the AP reports. The allowance should offset the judge's ruling yesterday that excluded a portion of VECO's records that reference Anderson work on Stevens' home. The judge also ruled he would be instructing the jury that the government knowingly used false evidence in its case.

The decision delays the defense's case, which was set to begin today. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye are expected to testify for the defense.

Late update: Anderson has been a character around Alaska scandal for a while.

According to Anchorage Daily News' coverage of his testimony, Anderson was working "10 hours a day, six days a week," on Stevens' renovations -- and so was contractor Robert Williams. Anderson's testimony compensates for the excluded evidence of VECO records.

Alaska

Todd Palin Waged Campaign To Get Trooper Fired

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2008, 10:07AM

Todd Palin spoke to over a dozen state officials, both before and after his wife became governor, in his effort to get state trooper Mike Wooten fired. But he says he never pressured Walt Monegan to remove Wooten.

That's what Todd Palin told independent investigator Steve Branchflower, according to a sworn affidavit released to reporters by the McCain campaign and Palins' lawyer.

In his statement, Todd Palin made clear that he carried a grudge against Wooten, a state trooper who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins, during and after a messy divorce from Sarah Palin's sister.

"I had hundreds of conversations and communications about Trooper Wooten over the last several years with my family, with friends, with colleagues, and with just about everyone I could -- including government officials," Palin said.

"I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her."

But he also said: "My concerns ... were not why Monegan was reassigned," adding that to the best of his knowledge, Monegan, the state's former public safety commissioner, incurred the governor's displeasure because of "budget issues and failure to fill trooper vacancies."

The move by the Palin camp to release the affidavit, in advance of the legislative hearing tomorrow at which Branchflower is scheduled to unveil his finished report, appears to have raised some eyebrows.

State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican but frequent Palin critic, told ABCNews.com: "The McCain campaign should not be releasing these documents."

The state's Supreme Court is scheduled to rule today on a GOP suit to quash the investigation, after a lower court threw out the effort last week.

Ted Stevens

Judge Throws Out Key Evidence in Stevens Trial

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2008, 6:46PM

The judge in the Ted Stevens trial today threw out two major pieces of evidence, after it was revealed that prosecutors failed to provide the defense with crucial information.

According to Politico:

Judge Sullivan is throwing out a portion of the business records from Veco Corp., whose former CEO, Bill Allen, allegedly spent $188,000 renovating Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska. Two former Veco employees, Rocky Williams and Dave Anderson, are on the company's records as having spent significant time working on Stevens' home in late 2000 and early 2001.

But prosecutors never presented testimony from Williams, who was suppose to be the foreman on the home project, and instead shepherded him out of Washington right before the trial started, all without informing Stevens' attorneys.

And Anderson told the grand jury that he was in Portland, Ore., not Alaska, in late 2000, when Veco's records have him as working on Stevens' home. Prosecutors knew that Anderson had told the grand jury that and did not tell the defense team.

So Judge Sullivan excluded the portion of Veco's records that reference Anderson and Williams' work on Stevens' home, and he will instruct the jury that the government knowingly used false evidence in its case.

Judge Sullivan will also exclude all evidence from a 1999 car swap between Allen and Stevens in which Stevens got a new Land Rover from Allen in return for a beat-up 1964 Mustang and some cash.

Prosecutors failed to turn over to Stevens' defense team a copy of the check which Allen used to pay for the Land Rover. Defense counsel alleged that they their case had been hurt when they cross-examined Allen over the transaction, which they only did because -- they asserted -- they didn't have Allen's original check.

Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate Probe Could Carry Weight, After All

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2008, 11:01AM

It looked a couple weeks ago as if the McCain campaign's effort to shut down Trooper-Gate had largely succeeded.

But not so fast. Steve Branchflower, the independent investigator on the case, will release his report Friday, and, as the Anchorage Daily News notes, he will have heard from almost every key witness -- with the important exception of Governor Palin herself. As a result, says the paper, Branchflower "appears to have the makings of a fairly complete account."

Over the weekend, a judge ruled that seven witnesses, all government employees, must comply with subpoenas to testify. Those witnesses have made plans to answer Branchflower's questions this week, under oath. And it was announced Monday night that Todd Palin will, through his lawyer, provide written answers to questions.

Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner whose firing by Governor Palin is at the center of the inquiry, told the ADN that he spent nearly a day answering Branchflower's questions, and also handed over some documents.

A legislative panel will meet at 1pm EST Friday, to receive Branchflower's report. But the GOP effort to resist the probe has one more lifeline. Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators will try at 7pm EST today to convince the state Supreme Court to halt the probe, after a lower court rejected their suit last week. Stay tuned...

Bill Allen

Bill Allen's Millions Focus of Cross Examination

Kate Klonick | October 7, 2008, 1:20PM

With the juicy audio recordings between Sen. Ted Stevens and former VECO CEO Bill Allen concluding Allen's direct testimony, the once-close-friend of the 84-year-old senator took the stand for cross examination.

From Roll Call:

Under cross-examination by Stevens' attorney Brendan Sullivan, Allen acknowledged that the week after he was first contacted by the FBI, he sold VECO for about $380 million to contracting giant CH2M Hill. He also acknowledged that his plea agreement with the government suggested that prosecutors would view his cooperation as VECO's cooperation.

About $70 million of the sale price was held back because of concerns about legal liability the company might have faced because of the ongoing investigation, as well as potential tax and environmental issues that are more routine in such sales, Allen said.

We already knew that the defense would be making this argument. Just a few weeks ago, they claimed that Allen's government cooperation would mean he received a windfall of $40 million from the company that bought Allen's oil pipeline company, VECO. The claim was disputed by the company itself in subsequent filings.

But, in general, Allen's soft fall from grace, despite guilty pleas on conspiracy and bribery have been well documented.

Alaska

Todd Palin To Answer Questions in Trooper-Gate Probe. Kind Of.

Zachary Roth | October 7, 2008, 10:28AM

So it looks like Todd Palin will answer questions in the Alaska legislature's Trooper-Gate investigation after all. But there's a catch.

According to representatives of the McCain-Palin campaign speaking at an Anchorage press conference last night, the First Dude will respond to questions from independent investigator Steve Branchflower, but only in writing, and with the answers funneled through his lawyer.

The campaign argued that his written responses would satisfy the subpoena issued by the legislature to Todd Palin. In response, Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker overseeing the probe, told the Anchorage Daily News that the full Senate would decide whether Todd Palin is really off the hook. Resisting a subpoena can be punished with jail time.

It was announced over the weekend that seven other subpoened witnesses, all of whom work for the Palin administration, will testify in person this week.

Branchflower is expected to wrap up his investigation late this week, and release a report shortly thereafter.

Ted Stevens

More in the Adventures of Bill and Ted

Kate Klonick | October 6, 2008, 3:49PM

Despite recent snafus, Sen. Ted Stevens' trial continues today, with tapes of phone conversations between Stevens and former VECO CEO Bill Allen being played for the jury.

"I think they're probably listening to this conversation right now," Stevens presciently says in one of the recordings.

"We might have to pay a fine and spend a little time in jail," he continues in the recordings from the fall of 2006, the AP reports. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

The friendship between Stevens and the former VECO CEO was laid out in Allen's testimony against the seven-term senator from Alaska last week. Allen himself pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery and conspiracy in 2007.

"Ted, I love you, you know," Allen said in one of the tapes, illustrating how close the two once were.

"Let's get through this and get back to our boot camps again," Stevens said, referring to trips the friends would take together, The Hill recounts from the trial today.

While seeming to contradict the 84-year-old senator's defense -- that he was unaware that he was not being billed for over $250,000 in gifts and home renovations -- many of the recordings are tinged with pathos given Allen's testimony against Stevens.

"Let's stick this thing out together, OK?" Stevens says during one conversation mentioned by the AP.

"I don't think we've done anything wrong," Stevens told Allen in another recorded conversation where he tried to cheer up his longtime friend and encourage him to have a positive attitude and to get some exercise, according to McClatchy. "I can't think of a thing of anything we've done that's wrong."

Late update: More highlights from the Stevens' audio bonanza, include multiple F-Bombs from the geriatric incumbent senator; a rundown of his sleep schedule and the lessons learned from Martha Stewart.

But don't take our word for it! Listen for yourself:

Ted Stevens Talks with Bill Allen, Fall 2006
Audio Exhibit 1

Audio Exhibit 2

Audio Exhibit 3

Ted Stevens

Stevens' Lawyers Move to Throw Out Trial. . . Again

Kate Klonick | October 6, 2008, 9:10AM

If the headline seems familiar, it should. Just last week, Sen. Ted Stevens' attorneys lost a motion for a mistrial. By our count, this is the fourth attempt by the defense to toss out the case against the seven-term senator, but we could have missed a few along the way.

From the AP:

"Until today, defense counsel have refrained from alleging intentional misconduct by the government," [Stevens'] lawyers wrote in court papers. "We can no longer do so in good conscience."

. . .The latest mid-trial motion to end the trial says the newly disclosed documents show Allen originally told investigators that he believed Stevens would have paid for work on a mountain cabin if billed -- proof, the defense says, that the senator never intended to hide anything.

Rather than turn over the first statement to the defense as required by rules of evidence, the government "intentionally procured from Allen a contradictory statement" and then "concealed its actions" from the court, the defense papers say.

Late update: It's important to note that the prosecution is stepping up to make sure their "human error" that led to last week's defense attempt for a mistrial, is being properly investigated. The government requested an internal probe with the Justice Deparment's internal investigators (Office of Professional Responsibility) to look into their delay in turning over FBI reports to opposing counsel.

Late late update: Judge Emmet Sullivan said the trial would go on today as planned, with the jury hearing recorded phone calls between Stevens and Allen. Sullivan ordered the prosecution to file a formal response by the end of the day in response to the defense's motion, the AP reports.

Alaska

State Employees Will Honor Trooper-Gate Subpoenas

Kate Klonick | October 5, 2008, 9:12PM

On the heels of the dismissal of the Alaska attorney general's suit to quash subpoenas issued in the legislature's Trooper-Gate investigation, seven subpoenaed state employees who had previously said they would not cooperate with the probe have now agreed to testify.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

"Despite my initial concerns about the subpoenas, we respect the court's decision to defer to the Legislature," [Alaska Attorney General Talis] Colberg said. "We are working with Senator Hollis French to arrange for the testimony of the seven state employee plaintiffs."

French has said they still expect the investigation's report to be completed by this Friday.

Alaska

GOP Suit To Halt Trooper-Gate Probe Dismissed

Zachary Roth | October 2, 2008, 9:12PM

An Alaska judge dismissed a suit brought by state GOP legislators that aimed to stop the Trooper-Gate investigation.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski wrote in his decision that "it is legitimately within the scope of the legislature's investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances of surrounding the termination of a public officer the legislature had previously confirmed."

The Republican lawmakers had argued that the probe had been inappropriately politicized by the Democrats overseeing it, and that the legislature did not have the authority to pursue the investigation.

According to Peter Maassen, an attorney representing the Democratic lawmakers who were named as defendants in the case, lawyers for the plaintiffs appeared to be creating a transcript of the proceedings, suggesting an intention to be appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

But for now at least, the probe can continue. Independent investigator Steve Branchflower is scheduled to deliver a report on his findings around October 11.

Alaska

Stevens' Trial Still On, Judge Says

Kate Klonick | October 2, 2008, 6:34PM

Following up on the small debacle in the Stevens' trial earlier today, the judge has rejected the defense's motion for a mistrial. The show must go on!

From the AP:

After hearing heated arguments from lawyers Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan turned down motions from Stevens' lawyers to dismiss charges against the senator or to declare a mistrial.

The judge had sent the jury home for the day after the defense accused prosecutors of suppressing evidence that could help the veteran lawmaker prove he was innocent.

Stevens is charged with lying about more than $250,000 in home improvements and other gifts from a wealthy Alaska businessman.

Alaska

Stevens' Trial Suspended As Judge Considers Mistrial

Kate Klonick | October 2, 2008, 11:01AM

A judge suspended the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens today, while he considers the request of the defense for a mistrial.

The defense's motion stems from the prosecutions' failure to turn over FBI reports of interviews with their star witness, former VECO CEO Bill Allen, until late Wednesday night. Stevens' attorneys claimed the prosecutors were withholding evidence that would help the defense.

From the AP:

Judge Emmet Sullivan lashed out at prosecutors, asking them, "Why shouldn't I dismiss the indictment?" He then ordered a recess.

Prosecutors said it was an honest mistake when they waited until late Wednesday night to turn over FBI reports about interviews with the government's star witness, oil pipeline contractor Bill Allen.

Alaska

Ruling Expected Today on GOP Bid to Halt Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | October 2, 2008, 9:21AM

A judge may rule today on the effort by five Alaska Republican lawmakers to stop the Trooper-Gate investigation, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

The lawmakers, who are being aided by a conservative law firm affiliated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family, filed suit in mid September, arguing that the probe has been "tainted" by partisan politics. In a court filing, reports the ADN, a lawyer for the legislators overseeing the investigation asserted that the GOP lawmakers are "engaged in one of the most bizarre challenges to Alaska's separation of powers doctrine in the history of the state."

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski may also rule on the effort by state Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Palin appointee, to have subpoenas issued to witnesses by the investigative committee thrown out. Several top Palin aides, as well as Todd Palin, have refused to comply with the subpoenas and face possible jail time.

Steve Branchflower, the independent investigator hired by the legislature, is still expected to release his report -- which will center on allegations that Palin fired Walt Monegan, the state's former public safety commissioner, because he was unwilling to fire a trooper with whom the Palin family was embroiled in a bitter dispute -- around October 11th. Palin had initially welcomed the investigation, saying she had nothing to hide. But since being picked as John McCain's running mate, she has refused to cooperate.

We'll keep you posted on word from Alaska...

Ted Stevens

Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure Bogus Journey

Kate Klonick | October 1, 2008, 5:58PM

The 26 year friendship of indicted Sen. Ted Stevens and former VECO CEO Bill Allen has been on display while Allen testifies as the prosecution's key witness in the sitting senator's trial.

Allen described his annual fishing trips (pictured at left) and visits with the senator, where they would walk and smoke cigars and drink wine "now and then."

"We really liked each other, you know?" Allen reminisced, yesterday. "Ted really worked hard. Ted loved Alaska and I loved Alaska."

Besides recounting his history with Stevens in his testimony Tuesday, Allen spent much of the afternoon detailing a transaction where he traded a new Land Rover for Stevens' 1964 Mustang convertible. The Land Rover was worth approximately $44,000 while Stevens' Mustang -- including a $5000 payment to Allen -- was worth a little over $32,000.

In their decades of friendship, Allen gave Stevens over $250,000 worth of gifts -- everything from grills to home renovations -- gifts that Stevens failed to include on his Senate disclosure forms. Stevens claims that he was unaware of all of the work that Allen was doing on his home, and that he never asked Allen for free work or favors.

This morning, the prosecution submitted thank-you notes from Stevens to Allen, in an attempt to prove that Stevens knew that he was receiving favors from Allen.

"You continue to amaze me, the way you can keep so many balls in the air at one time," Stevens wrote in an August 2000 note, the AP reports. "It was great to see you at the Bogart movie and I thank you for all that you are doing on the house."

Allen's testimony was cut short this afternoon when the judge recessed early to accommodate a juror's schedule. The trial will resume tomorrow with the prosecution expected to wrap up its case before Friday.