Stevens sets up fund to pay for legal bills

Sen. Ted Stevens is creating a legal defense fund to fight federal charges that he concealed more than $250,000 worth of gifts.

The Alaska Republican has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to approve the fund, which would be administered by a trustee who could solicit donations to help the senator with his court fees, according to Stevens’s spokesman.

{mosads}Stevens said Tuesday during an Alaska Public Radio interview that the fund was already established, but his spokesman indicated Wednesday that Stevens misspoke and that he was "now seeking approval … to establish such a fund.”

Senate rules require legal defense funds to be approved by the Select Committee on Ethics before any money can be raised. So far, no paperwork is on file with the Senate’s Office of Public Records. Once it is approved and the appropriate paperwork is submitted, Stevens can use the fund to pay his legal bills.

Stevens is charged with seven counts of concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts and home renovations from an oil-services company. Stevens has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

On Wednesday, he lost a court battle to move his criminal trial to Alaska. It will begin on Sept. 22 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He has won an expedited trial that he hopes will conclude before Alaskan voters decide to send him back to the Senate for a seventh full term.

On Alaska Public Radio on Tuesday, Stevens said he did have a legal defense fund, and would disclose the donors to that fund at a "specific time" as required by Senate rules.

"It's a rule of the Senate regarding legal defense funds that we are complying with," Stevens said on the program Talk of Alaska. "We do have a legal defense fund.

"Again, I tell you, I pay some out of my own pocket, but there is a legal defense fund and it will be reported when the time comes," Stevens said.

Democrats questioned whether Stevens was prematurely raising money for the fund before filing the necessary paperwork and getting approval.

"It's amazing that Sen. Stevens is under criminal indictment for failing to disclose illegal gifts he received from special interests, and now he hasn't even filed the required paperwork and refuses to disclose which special interests are contributing to his legal defense," said Bethany Lesser, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Democratic Party.

Stevens insisted that he was abiding by the rules of the Senate in paying his legal bills.

For Senate legal defense funds, contributions are limited to $10,000 per year, and lobbyists, foreign nationals, corporations, unions and any lawmaker's campaign committee are prohibited from making donations. Quarterly reports on the fund and its contributors are required after it has been established. Contributors can make donations to both the campaign and the legal fund.

"We will abide by those rules," Stevens said.

Before he was indicted last month, Stevens reported on his June financial disclosure statements that he had amassed between $15,000 and $50,000 in legal bills.