Ted Stevens

Indicted pork barreler Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. Sen. Stevens was the ranking Republican member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee until his indictment in July 2008. Stevens was indicted on seven counts of false statements related to his involvement with the now defunct Alaskan oil company VECO and its CEO Bill Allen. In October, a jury found Stevens guilty on all charges. On Ted Stevens 85th birthday on November 18, Stevens officially lost his bid for a seventh Senate term to Democrat Mark Begich.

Key Points:

Indictment

Sen. Ted Stevens was indicted on July 29, 2008 on seven counts of false statements relating to gifts he received from VECO and its former CEO Bill Allen. The indictment charges that Stevens accepted over $250,000 in renovations and repairs for his Girdwood, Alaska home. The indictment came almost exactly one year after the FBI raided the Girdwood home.

VECO is alleged to have overseen renovations on Stevens' home without ever charging Stevens. In addition to renovations, Stevens is accused of accepting gifts for the home, such as a Viking Grill and a generator system installed in 1999 in preparation for the Y2K scare. None of these gifts were reported on Stevens' financial disclosure forms, which is the crux of the indictment.

Outside of the indictment, the government has filed court documents detailing what Stevens has done in return for these gifts, from securing money to promising to help get approval for a pipeline. The details come in part from over one hundred phone conversations Stevens had that federal agents tapped.

Stevens, who has called the charges against him "not some extreme felony", immediately plead not guilty.

Federal Corruption Trial

Sen. Ted Stevens' federal corruption trial began on September 25, 2008 due to Stevens' request for a speedy trial. Sen. Stevens had attempted to have the trial moved from Washington, D.C. to his home state of Alaska, but the motion was denied by the U.S. District judge overseeing the case, Judge Emmet Sullivan.

The key witness for the government in the case is former VECO CEO Bill Allen. Allen, along with VECO's vice president, pleaded guilty in May 2007 to bribing at least five Alaskan state legislatures, including Ted's son State Sen. Ben Stevens. Ted Stevens' defense team has been trying to discredit Allen's testimony by claiming that he is being paid $40 million to cooperate, digging through Allen's medical records, and bringing up past shady sexual allegations.

Sen. Stevens has unsuccessfully tried to have the charges and trial thrown out multiple times. Stevens came closest to having the trial declared a mistrial on October 2, 2008 when the prosecutors failed to turn over evidence to the defense until late the night before it was to be presented. Despite being extremely unhappy with the prosecutors, Judge Emmet Sullivan refused the defense's motion to throw out the case.

Stevens concluded the trial with his own testimony, taking two days to face questions from the defense and prosecution. The testimony, which in parts exhibited Stevens' infamously grumpy behavior, led into closing statements on October 21, 2008. On October 27, the jury convicted Stevens on all seven counts.

The verdict wound up badly hurting Stevens in his competitive fight to retain his seat in the Senate. Stevens, despite looking like a surprise winner for several days, lost election to a seventh term to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich two weeks after election day.

Pork Barreling

Sen. Stevens is notorious in the Senate for his huge earmarks. Just in the 2008 congressional session, Stevens got more money for his state than any other congressman - over a whooping $238.5 million.

Stevens has also run into trouble with some of these earmarks, especially those for the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward. The FBI and the Department of Interior looked into at least $50 million in earmarks Stevens gave the Alaska SeaLife Center since 1998. Federal investigators became particularly interested in these earmarks because large amounts of that money went to former Stevens aide Trevor McCabe. McCabe was given $558,000 of that money for a piece of land adjacent to the facility.

Written and researched by Matt Berman