WASHINGTON — FBI agents spent years investigating Sen. Ted Stevens. They read his e-mails, searched his home and taped his phone conversations with his friends.
Last week, the Justice Department offered its first public glimpse at what it uncovered: a direct line of communication from a corrupt Alaska oil contractor to one of the nation’s most powerful senators.
When VECO Corp. executives needed help securing business, winning grants or navigating the bureaucracy, they called Stevens.
And when Stevens needed a generator for his house, a car for his daughter or a job for his son, prosecutors say he called VECO, the same company that oversaw an extensive renovation project on his home.
The Justice Department didn’t bring charges against Stevens for any of that, but it wants jurors to see the evidence. Stevens goes on trial next month, not for bribery, but for concealing the renovation project and other gifts on Senate financial disclosure forms.
Stevens is in the midst of an unusually contentious re-election campaign. He says the Justice Department is using innuendo to accuse him of bribery without having to charge it.
Prosecutors argue that with each transaction and conversation, they add to a mosaic that reveals a senator working behind the scenes with friends and favored contractors and hiding his deals from Congress.
In court documents filed Thursday night, prosecutors laid out a series of things they want to discuss at trial, including the senator’s help pushing oil-friendly legislation in Alaska and a 2001 condo deal in which Stevens allegedly parlayed a $5,000 investment into a $103,000 profit in a matter of months.
Stevens has denied any wrongdoing and hopes an unusually speedy trial will clear his name before Election Day. His supporters say he has backed Alaska development and championed pro-oil legislation for years, long before VECO came on the scene.
