Stevens arraignment set for Thursday

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will be arraigned Thursday in federal court, in the first proceeding of a corruption case that has ensnared the longest-serving Senate Republican in history.

{mosads}Stevens will be arraigned Thursday at 1 p.m. before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who was appointed to the  U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Sullivan had previously been appointed to other judgeships by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Stevens, who is seeking his seventh full term in November, is expected to plead not guilty to the seven felony counts he is facing for not disclosing more than $250,000 worth of gifts from an oil services company that did renovations on his Alaska home.