Government probes Catherine Stevens’s records

Federal prosecutors are trying to obtain scores of documents from Sen. Ted Stevens's wife, Catherine, to bolster their case that the Alaska Republican lied about gifts he received from long-time friends. 

The Justice Department said the spousal privilege between the senator and his wife does not apply, ordering Catherine Stevens and her Washington law firm, Mayer Brown, to turn over e-mail correspondence with 37 people, including some who arranged elaborate renovations at the couple’s home in Girdwood, Alaska.

{mosads}In letters released publicly over the weekend, the government also ordered Catherine Stevens to produce all e-mails between herself and the senator to and from his "senate.gov" e-mail address, as well as documents about their daughter Lily's diamond earrings.

In a Friday night e-mail to David Krakoff, an attorney at Mayer Brown, Edward Sullivan of the Justice Department said "three disks" with relevant documents must be turned over by 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Otherwise, he warned the government would enforce the subpoena issued last month.

Stevens's attorneys are pushing back, saying the government ignored their previous attempts to resolve the issue without the intervention of the court. Following the Friday e-mail, Stevens's attorneys filed a motion Saturday asking Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to quash the subpoenas.

"Especially at this late date with the government's case concluded and the defense case already well underway, the government should not be permitted to engage in a last-minute fishing expedition to obtain broad, new discovery," wrote Joseph M. Terry, one of Stevens's defense attorneys from the firm Williams & Connolly.

Stevens has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of felony for not reporting more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations, mainly from his former friend Bill Allen, the former head of the now-defunct Veco oil-services firm. After the government concluded its case last week, the defense could rest by week's end.

Stevens's lawyers say the senator paid every bill he was given, including $160,000 which he believed was a fair price for renovations that transformed his modest cabin into a home with two decks, new lighting and plumbing, a whirlpool and the addition of a brand-new ground floor.

Catherine Stevens, a registered Washington lobbyist, was in charge of the remodeling project while the senator was busy with his legislative work, according to defense attorneys.

The Justice Department is seeking documents that may try to rebut that theory, including e-mails with Allen and several people who carried out the renovations. The prosecutors could use the e-mails in cross-examination this week, especially if either the senator or his wife takes the witness stand.

But in the court filing, defense lawyers say Mayer Brown has already provided the government with 26,000 pages of documents. They say the new request is overly broad and seeks only irrelevant documents.

Also in a filing over the weekend, the government asked the judge to prevent a high-profile attorney, William "Billy" Martin from testifying that Allen seemed to reap a financial windfall for his testimony this month against Stevens. The government argues that Martin, a criminal defense lawyer who was also retained by Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and former NFL star Michael Vick, would not be able to provide expert testimony on a financial transaction over the sale of Veco.