When he heard he was under investigation by federal authorities last year, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska decided it was time to lawyer up.
Not surprisingly, he hired Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., an attorney who has made his reputation on high-profile cases involving public officials.
Ollie North of the Iran-Contra affair, former Clinton cabinet member Henry Cisneros and Richard Grasso, the former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, are just a few names on Sullivan’s list of former clients.
A partner in the high-powered Washington firm of Williams & Connelly, Sullivan, 66, is known as an active, aggressive and cagey defense attorney, someone who can erupt when needed.
(”I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as a lawyer. That’s my job,” he famously proclaimed during the Iran-Contra hearings.)
Stevens, a Republican who is running for re-election, was indicted in July on charges that he failed to report more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other items from William J. Allen.
The former head of Veco Corp., an Alaskan oil services company, Allen is now the government’s key witness in the case against Stevens.
Steven’s trail began in Washington on Sept. 22, with opening statements on the 25th.
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote that Sullivan used his opening statement to shift blame from Stevens to Stevens’ wife, Catherine, saying that she handled the family finances.
Sullivan also attempted to portray his client, a member of the Senate for 40 years, as an ordinary guy, the sort of person who doesn’t hang out in art galleries on his days off.
“He’ll put on his boots and go out in the woods,” Sullivan said.
The trial - and Sullivan - became more dramatic on Thursday when it was revealed that the prosecution had been slow in turning over to the defense some evidence that might strengthen Stevens’ case.
The evidence - which the defense received Wednesday evening - consisted of statements made by Allen in an interview with FBI agents.
Allen told the agents that Stevens and his wife would have paid for the renovations if he had given them invoices. Allen said a mutual friend of Stevens and himself told him not to send the invoices.
In court Thursday morning, Sullivan asked federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to either declare a mistrial or throw out the charges. (The lawyer and the judge are not related.)
If he had known of the late-arriving evidence earlier he would have changed his opening statement, Sullivan argued.
According to a report by McClatchy newspapers, the lawyer at one moment seemed nearly done in by his outrage.
“My heart’s beating twice as fast as it should be for a 66-year-old man,” Sullivan said, clutching his chest. “This can’t happen in court.”
Lead prosecutor Brenda Morris argued that, while the withholding of Allen’s statements was a “gross error,” it wasn’t intentional.
Later on Thursday, Judge Sullivan ruled that the trial would go forward. However, he ordered the government to give the defense more undisclosed documents.
Judge Sullivan also suggested that the defense could redo its opening argument, but Robert M. Carey, a co-defense counsel with Brendan Sullivan, declined the offer.
“The trial is broken and it can’t be fixed,” he said. “It’s been played on an uneven playing field.”
The trial resumes on Monday.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment