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Inouye calls Stevens 'trustworthy'

By Tom Ramstack | Friday, October 10, 2008

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Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii described Sen. Ted Stevens as a trustworthy friend in testimony during the Alaska Republican´s financial corruption trial Thursday in federal court in Washington.

Mr. Inouye, a Democrat, was the first witness as defense attorneys opened their case on behalf of Mr. Stevens, who is charged with lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about gifts he received from a corporate donor.

"Would you trust him with your life?" defense attorney Brendan Sullivan asked Mr. Inouye.

"Absolutely," Mr. Inouye replied.

In his testimony, the senator from Hawaii described a long friendship with Mr. Stevens after the two lawmakers were elected to Congress in the 1960s.

"As veterans, we shared common values," said Mr. Inouye, a Medal of Honor recipient for his Army service during World War II. Mr. Stevens, 84, was a pilot in World War II.

More recently, the men served on the same two Senate committees, in which they were some of the highest ranking members. They both have been chairmen of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee.

"I can assure you his word is good as far as I´m concerned," Mr. Inouye said. "It´s good enough to take to the bank."

He said he "can't imagine" Mr. Stevens lying.

Prosecutors rested their case earlier Thursday after presenting evidence that Mr. Stevens lied on Senate forms to conceal more than $250,000 in renovations on his cabin in Alaska and other gifts from Bill Allen, his close friend and former chief of a major Alaska oil services and construction company, VECO Corp.

It was not clear whether Mr. Stevens, the straight-talking, longest-serving Senate Republican and patriarch of Alaska politics for generations, would take the stand. He has languished in U.S. District Court while a Democratic opponent in Alaska mounts a strong challenge to the seat he has held for 40 years.

Mr. Stevens has temporarily stepped down from his Senate positions while he is on trial. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on each of seven charges, though under federal sentencing guidelines, he probably would receive much less prison time, if any.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is scheduled to testify for Mr. Stevens as a character witness Friday.

Defense attorneys tried to portray Mr. Stevens as being too busy in Washington to pay close attention to the renovation of his cabin near Anchorage, which his wife oversaw. They also said their client assumed that the $160,000 they paid to another contractor covered everything.

The prosecution relied on testimony by several VECO workers who, starting in 2000, labored for months to transform a modest A-frame cabin into a two-story home with wraparound decks, new electrical and plumbing systems, a sauna and a master-bedroom balcony. Prosecutors called as their star witness Allen, who has pleaded guilty to bribery in a corruption investigation resulting in convictions of several Alaska legislators.

Some of the evidence against Mr. Stevens was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who said prosecutors improperly withheld it from the defense until it was too late for them to prepare a response for trial.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.