Today Sen Stevens was indicted by an Alaska Grand Jury (CNN). The indictment is here. Stevens, 84, is the man who once memorably described the internet as 'a series of tubes,' poor thing. Almost one year ago today, Deb Cupples wrote:
In 2000, Sen. Stevens' house underwent major remodeling, turning the one-story structure into a two-story structure and roughly doubling its size. The building contractor reportedly was paid by a Veco executive (Anchorage Daily News). Perhaps coincidentally, Veco has received $30 million in federal contracts since 2000 (WaPo citing FedSpending.org).
In May, two Veco executives pled guilty to bribery and other charges (Justice Dept.). One Veco exec admitted to laundering campaign donations by illegally reimbursing the employees who actually gave them (WaPo). (BN-Politics)
CNN has information on the indictment:
...Stevens was charged with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
The indictment says Stevens "schemed to conceal" the fact that Alaska's Veco Energy paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his home.... At the time, he urged constituents "not to form conclusions based upon incomplete and sometimes incorrect reports in the media."
The 84-year-old senator is a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is renowned for his prowess in steering federal funds to his vast, sparsely populated state. (More)
Emptywheel writes:
Acting AAG, Criminal Division Matt Friedrich (he replaced Alice Fisher) said they didn't go for bribery here bc they didn't have a clear quid pro quo for VECO. It was more like Stevens was just VECO's Senator.
Friedrich said they didn't charge a tax violation bc these were gifts, and you don't have to declare gifts on your taxes.
Instead, they charged him generally for false statements, and then with one tied to each yearly financial disclosure from 2001 to 2006. (More)
As CNN notes above, Stevens has a history of getting federal funds for his state. Deb Cupples has previously commented on this:
Stevens, who joined the U.S. Senate in 1968, is known for getting impressive earmarks for Alaska. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, Stevens got $646 million in earmarks in 2006, alone, and got more than $1 billion from 1991-2000. (BN-Politics)
And elsewhere, she states:
For 9 years straight, Citizens Against Government Waste gave Stevens its dubious "Oinker Awards." (BN-Politics)
Other blogger reactions are at Memeorandum here.
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