Bill Allen, the government’s star witness in its case against Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, told jurors Monday that he believed the senator would have paid for costly renovations to his chalet had Allen billed him.
Stevens, 84, is charged with failing to report more than $240,000 in renovations and other gifts in his Senate financial disclosure forms. Allen, the former chief executive of VECO, financed much of the work through his company, prosecutors say. Stevens' lawyers at Williams & Connolly say Stevens could not report what he didn’t know he owed.
During cross examination, the former oil executive said Stevens wanted to pay for everything he got, but only at fair prices. Allen said he didn't think Stevens would pony up for the renovation costs because "they were higher than they needed to be."
“If there had been an invoice that was fair, I think Ted would have paid it,” Allen said.
A self-made millionaire and Stevens' longtime drinking buddy, Allen said he never sent bills because he wanted to do something nice for his friend, and because he never "had the numbers" to support a formal invoice.
“Yeah, I wished that I could have just done it, and I didn’t want to…” Allen said, trailing off. “Because I really like him.”
Allen previously testified that he ignored Stevens' requests for bills because a friend told him that the senator was just trying to "cover his ass," a point lead defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan Jr. was pressing him on when the jurors were dismissed for the day.
In another combustible moment in a trial that has had many, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan interrupted Allen’s testimony to admonish a man sitting in the front row for making hand gestures to the witness. After the jury had left, the man identified himself as Allen’s lawyer, Bob Bundy, based in Anchorage, Alaska.
Sullivan, furious, told Bundy he wanted him to “show cause why you shouldn’t be held in contempt of court.” Bundy denied he was trying to influence his client’s testimony, but Sullivan cut him off and ordered him out of the courtroom. The judge then dismissed Allen, warning him not to take signals from the stand.
“That’s really disturbing,” the judge said once they had both left.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers said they did not see Bundy’s gesturing, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Bottini, from Alaska, said he has known Bundy for many years and would be “quite surprised” if he were trying to influence his client’s testimony.
Allen's cross-examination will resume tomorrow morning. Judge Sullivan said he could hear arguments as early as Tuesday afternoon on whether the case should be dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct, following his finding last week that prosecutors withheld Brady material. The judge last Thursday declined to dismiss the case or declare a mistrial, but defense lawyers filed a motion over the weekend alleging that they had uncovered more evidence of misconduct. The government's response is due by 8 p.m.
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