Legal News

Ted Stevens?s Lawyer: Mustang-for-Land-Rover Swap Was Fair

By Dan Slater

If a trial is supposed to be a truth-finding exercise, the jury hearing the corruption trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has its work cut out. As the big event opened today, before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the prosecutor and defense lawyer, Beltway Bigwig Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly, offered sharply different takes. Here are Day One reports from the WaPo, the L.A. Times and the WSJ.

At trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, prosecutor Brenda Morris addresses the jury in federal court in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008.

In her opening, the DOJ’s Brenda Morris explained: “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 right to know that information.” Morris ticked off examples of the gifts, including what the government alleges were more than $240,000 in improvements to Stevens’ home, an Alaskan sled dog, a $2,700 massage chair and a “sweetheart trade” in which Stevens got a $44,000 Land Rover in exchange for a 34-year-old Mustang and $5,000. (The Law Blog would’ve held on to the ‘74 Mustang for dear life, though we admit we’ve never lived through an Alaska winter.)

Morris also reportedly described the relationship between Stevens, 84, and a now-defunct Alaska-based oilfield services company, VECO, which oversaw the home renovations, and whose former CEO, Bill Allen, is alleged to have showered Stevens with gifts. (For some color on the Stevens-Allen connection, see this recent New Yorker article by Philip Gourevitch.) Allen is expected to be a key government witness in the case. “VECO acted as his own personal handyman service,” Morris said. “If the defendant needed an electrician, he would contact VECO. If he needed a plumber, he would contact VECO.” She added:”We reach for the Yellow Pages. He reached for VECO.”

In response, Williams & Connolly’s Sullivan (pictured, right), reportedly said it was illogical for a man of Stevens’ stature and experience to start violating the law. “Why all of a sudden, in his 75th year, did he decide to go out and become a criminal?” Sullivan said, alluding to the start of the alleged illegal conduct in 1999. Sullivan said Stevens paid fair value for the home improvements, which he said ended up approximating the assessed value of the home.

The lawyer also attempted to distance the lawmaker from the details of the transaction. He said that Stevens’ wife, Catherine, was in charge of paying the bills, and that it was hard for the couple to keep close track of the project. Sullivan said that the Stevenses promptly paid a series of five bills they received for work on the project. He said that Allen, who oversaw the work and billed the Stevenses, withheld bills not out of an attempt to enrich Stevens but because the bills were excessive or because they were for work that was not done properly.

Sullivan said there were innocent explanations for the other items that Stevens received as well. “He believed the trade was absolutely fair for that car,” Sullivan said, alluding to the Mustang-for-Land Rover swap. “You don’t have to report a trade that you believe is fair,” and Stevens “certainly had no intent to violate the law.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).