Attorneys for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) won a motion to restrict a key witness from identifying the lawmakers son, former state Sen. Ben Stevens, in expected testimony about corruption in the Alaska Legislature.
The senior Stevens is charged with seven counts of filing false statements over an eight-year period to conceal the receipt of more than $250,000 in gifts primarily in renovations to his Girdwood, Alaska, home from the now-defunct VECO oil services firm and its executive Bill Allen.
Allen is set to testify Tuesday afternoon. He pleaded guilty in a separate trial to bribing Alaska state legislators and is one of eight people convicted to date as the result of a federal investigation into state and federal corruption in Alaska.
The former VECO head admitted to providing benefits, and seeking official state action from a number of Alaska state Senators and representatives, including one individual identified only as State Senator B, Stevens defense attorneys stated in their motion.
State Senator B is Alaska State Senator Ben Stevens, the defendants son, and the government obviously wishes to tar the defendant with unproven allegations about his son, attorney Rob Cary wrote.
Federal prosecutors did not object to the motion, which Judge Emmet Sullivan approved from the bench Tuesday afternoon.
