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Lawyers for Sen. Ted Stevens are seeking to undermine the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness in the jury instructions for his corruption trial. Stevens’s defense team pressed the judge during a hearing Saturday to label Bill Allen a federal informant in the jury instructions. Allen was “more than a government witness” since he allowed federal investigators to tape his conversations with Stevens (R-Alaska), argued defense lawyer Craig Singer. After Allen was convicted last year on bribery charges, he cooperated with investigators in the corruption probe against Stevens and has testified against his former friend during the trial. “That to me is the definition of ‘informant,’” Singer said. Stevens faces seven felony counts of lying on his Senate disclosure forms about gifts he allegedly received. Prosecutors said most of those gifts, which amounted to approximately $250,000, came in the form of home renovations engineered by Allen, an Alaska oil executive who has pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers. Throughout the trial, Stevens’s lawyers have tried to sow doubts in jurors over Allen’s testimony. Allen told the court that a mutual friend urged him not to bill Stevens for construction services. The defense lawyers, during their cross-examination of Allen last week and the hearing Saturday, said that Allen cooperated with the federal probe of Stevens in order to protect his children from prosecution and the sale of his company, Veco Corporation, from government interference. Allen’s cooperation may also lead to a more lenient sentence in his own case, Singer suggested. Judge Emmet Sullivan said he would include in jury instructions Allen’s cooperation with the Stevens investigation and the protection his children have received. But Sullivan also voiced skepticism over calling Allen an “informant.” “There are certain sinister connotations to ‘informant,’ but he did wear a wire,” he said. The trial resumes Monday with Stevens, the trial’s final witness, still on the stand. His testimony will be followed by the closing arguments. The defense also filed a motion to acquit Stevens because of insufficient evidence. The motion accuses the prosecution of presenting false evidence to the grand jury that indicted Stevens. The prosecution had said that the hours worked by Veco employees on Stevens’s house were fewer than they actually were, the defense team wrote in the motion. Stevens’s lawyers, however, won't argue for the motion when the judge considers it Monday. An oral argument could hinder their appeal of a conviction, Singer said. |
