![OPINION: Let’s set the record straight: Ted Stevens was framed. | Keynote USA OPINION: Let’s set the record straight: Ted Stevens was framed. | Keynote USA](https://i0.wp.com/local.keynoteusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/VGN5VFHI45EPLCRGRBNZRX35UU.jpeg?resize=1170%2C614&ssl=1)
I was unfair to Ted Stevens. I think a lot of us were.
In 2008, after 40 years in the U.S. Senate, a jury found him guilty of a felony for failing to disclose gifts he received. Eight days later, he narrowly lost re-election. The following year, the verdict was annulled because the prosecution had not turned over evidence to the defense.
This sounded like a technicality. Stevens received remodeling work for free and did not report it, and the donor, Bill Allen, was seen on video bribing other Alaska politicians. The impression left was that Stevens came out okay, not that he was innocent.
The judge in the case ordered an investigation of the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted Stevens. That investigation was not complete when Stevens died in a plane crash in 2010 or when Allen was released from prison in 2011. When the 500-page report finally came out in 2012, this was already old news.
But I recently had the opportunity to read that special counsel report and another 500-page report on the case. I realized that I had been wrong all these years.
Stevens was innocent. From my reading of the evidence, Bill Allen framed him and the prosecutors agreed.
That made me think about the excessive power of prosecutors. Your individual integrity and lack of bias are the only real protection against the criminal justice system destroying our lives.
So what does that tell us about the prosecutions of Donald Trump? I’ll write about that in my next column.
Let me take you back to the year 2002. A remodel of Senator Stevens’ Girdwood ski lodge had gone off track. Stevens was too busy to deal with that. He almost never used the cabin. His friend Bill Allen, who used it the most, stepped in to finish the job with his own guys from Veco, his huge oilfield services company.
Senator Bob Torricelli of New Jersey had just gotten into trouble for receiving gifts (a watch, a rug, an Italian suit) and Stevens mentioned that case when he wrote to Allen twice that fall to make sure he submitted invoices for all his work. . He said to give the bills to a friend of Girdwood’s who was managing the project.
Stevens also emailed his assistant to explain this arrangement to pay for the work. Bill Allen’s foreman at work believed the bills had also been filed. Stevens’ wife, Catherine, paid all the bills the couple received.
But Bill Allen didn’t send the invoices.
In 2003, the FBI opened the Polar Pen investigation into corruption in the Alaska Legislature. In 2006, agents caught Bill Allen on video in a Juneau hotel room bribing Republican lawmakers to stop an oil tax increase. He then changed his mind and agreed to testify against those he had corrupted in exchange for leniency in sentencing and immunity for her family and his company, which would allow her to keep his enormous fortune.
Allen offered to testify that he performed free work on the Girdwood house, a gift that Stevens had not reported. But Allen was a questionable witness. In addition to his numerous political crimes, he was a pedophile. He gave gifts and money to a 15-year-old girl and her family to repeatedly have sexual relations with her. He then got the girl to lie about it in a sworn statement.
Federal prosecutors knew about that induced perjury in 2004, but covered it up and denied it to protect Allen’s credibility as a witness. They also asked the Anchorage Police Department to drop its investigation of Allen for sexual abuse of a minor in 2004 because of another case.
In 2008, prosecutors were preparing to charge Stevens when they received copies of his 2002 notes to Allen mentioning Torricelli and requesting invoices, and his email to his assistant. The lawyers’ internal emails show their alarm about how this evidence could damage her case. He supported Stevens’ explanation that he had requested invoices, thought he received them, and paid all invoices he received.
Lawyers and an FBI agent met with Allen and asked him about Torricelli’s notes. He said he didn’t remember them. Conveniently, the agent and attorneys forgot about that meeting and lost its record, so it was never revealed. They would also keep the foreman’s testimony about the invoices secret.
Allen had not yet been sentenced for his numerous crimes and knew that his own prison sentence would depend on his cooperation with prosecutors. The FBI agent made it clear to him that the lawyers were upset because he did not remember Stevens’ notes. He said she told him, “You better find out or remember what you did with this Torricelli note from Ted.”
Allen changed his story just in time for the trial. He now “remembered” that Stevens had told him to ignore the notes, saying they were just a “cover your ass” message.
When Allen testified about it on the stand, the defense was surprised. They had never heard this version of the story before. On cross-examination, Stevens’ attorney asked Allen when he had first told this “cover your ass” story to prosecutors. Allen said that had always been his story. The prosecutors who knew that was a lie said nothing. In fact, they repeated it in their final argument.
Once they caught the government lawyers, they came up with many elaborate excuses about how they had made so many mistakes that turned out to go against Stevens (there were many, many more than I’ve mentioned here). Their excuses are much less credible than the explanations Stevens gave them for not reporting the gifts. The special counsel concluded that the prosecutors’ misconduct was intentional.
But his motive was not political. Republican George W. Bush was president during Stevens’ prosecution. It was President Barack Obama’s attorney general who acquitted Stevens.
Allen had become one of the richest and most powerful men in Alaska by lying, cheating and bribing. When he was caught, he made a deal to avoid punishment. I imagine he had intentionally withheld the invoices to tarnish Stevens.
This turned out to be an effective strategy: Allen received less than two years in prison. He was never prosecuted at all for his sexual crimes. And after prison, he lived for more than a decade enjoying his riches.
The only remedy left is to correct our memories of Ted Stevens. And remember that police and prosecutors, if they lack integrity, can convict almost anyone.
Next: Donald Trump’s prosecution is much bigger than Trump.
• • •
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which accepts a wide range of views. To submit an article for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions of less than 200 words to cards@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and comments here.
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow @Keynote USA Local on Twitter.