Opening arguments in criminal trial show conflicting portrait of Stevens

Conflicting portraits of Sen. Ted Stevens were painted Thursday, with government prosecutors calling the Alaska Republican a crafty politician who skirted the law and his defense characterizing him as a man of integrity.

Despite having served in the Senate for four decades, longer than any Republican in history, 12 jurors and four alternates hearing his criminal case have acknowledged knowing little about Stevens. That gives both sides a chance, in the four-week trial, to shape the jurors’ impression of the senator, who is trying to get his name cleared in time for his reelection bid in November.

{mosads}Stevens is charged with failing to report on Senate forms more than $250,000 in gifts and extensive home renovations from the former head of Veco Corp., Bill Allen, and other longtime friends.

Stevens has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.

“This is a simple case about a public official who took hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of free financial benefits and then took away the public’s right to know that information,” Justice Department attorney Brenda Morris told jurors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“You do not survive politics in this town for that long without being very, very smart, very, very deliberate, very forceful and, at the same time, knowing how to fly under the radar,” Morris said.

Brendan Sullivan, Stevens’s lawyer — who represented Oliver North during the Iran-Contra scandal — refuted the allegations. He called the senator a “workhorse” and a man of character and honesty. He highlighted Stevens’s long career in public service, including helping Alaska win statehood in the late 1950s, as well as episodes of his personal life, such as a 1978 plane crash that killed his first wife, Ann.

The court case will largely revolve around whether Stevens knew about the extensive home renovations and willfully avoided paying his bills and decided not to report them as gifts on the public disclosure forms. On Thursday, two former Veco employees testified about helping with the home renovations, which included the addition of an entire floor on the ground level, a backup power generator, new electrical wiring, roofs, a Viking gas grill, porches and flooring.

The government alleges that Stevens also failed to report several other expensive gifts, including a $44,000 Land Rover that Allen gave Stevens in 1999 in exchange for the senator’s 1965 Mustang and $5,000 in cash. Calling it a “sweetheart deal,” Morris said the Mustang was worth less than $10,000, but Sullivan argued that Allen wanted to get the car for a girlfriend.

Any errors on the financial disclosure forms, Sullivan said, were the result of miscommunication between Stevens, his second wife, Catherine, who deals with the couple’s financial matters and took the lead in handling details of the home renovation, and a staff member who helped as a liaison, ensuring bills were settled.

And Sullivan laid much of the blame on the part of Allen for making additions — like an expensive lighting system — to the senator’s home without permission, and later concealing bills that Stevens should have paid. He said Stevens paid every bill he was given for the renovations, which amounted to $160,000.

Allen, a longtime friend of Stevens’s who has already pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state lawmakers, will soon testify against the senator and is the government’s star witness.

{mospagebreak}“The evidence will show he didn’t want these things, he didn’t ask for these things,” Sullivan said of some of the renovations that were made to his home in the ski town of Girdwood, Alaska, about 45 minutes south of Anchorage.

In his opening remarks, Sullivan argued that the senator did not know he was receiving handsome renovations because he rarely stays in Girdwood. When he’s not in Washington, he typically travels the 590,000 square miles in Alaska and stays in hotels, Sullivan said.

“They are lucky to spend 20 days a year in that residence,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the defense was prepared to call other sitting senators, including Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to vouch for the senator’s character.

{mosads}Stevens repeatedly expressed his intentions of paying Allen, Sullivan said, citing an e-mail that referred to former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), who left the Senate in 2000 amid a campaign finance scandal.

“Thanks for the work. You owe me a bill,” Stevens’s e-mail said. “Remember Torricelli. Friendship is one thing, compliance with the ethics rules [is] entirely different.”

But government prosecutors say that Stevens was meticulous about his finances. And despite periodically asking for a bill, Stevens “never paid a dime,” Morris said.

“The defendant is well-aware of the purpose of the forms: transparency in government,” Morris said.

The trial comes at a critical point in the most senior GOP senator’s reelection bid.

After polls showed him down by double digits to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) immediately following his July indictment, the senator has rebounded after campaigning in August and the enthusiasm generated by the choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential candidate. A new poll released Thursday by a Democratic pollster, Ivan Moore, found Stevens trailing by just two percentage points in the race.

But with the government prepared to spend the next three weeks making its case, Stevens’s liabilities are likely to grow. Addressing reporters Thursday, Palin seemed to recognize those liabilities, and declined to endorse Stevens’s reelection bid.