FBI Raids Stevens.... Again

The net is closing in on Ted Stevens. Newest information after this brief review:

On August 31, Federal agents begin serving 20 search warrants in Juneau, Anchorage, Wasilla, Eagle River and Girdwood, including in the State Capitol and the legislative offices in Anchorage. The offices of six Alaska state legislators are raided (including Ben Stevens, son of Ted Stevens), with warrants seeking materials showing contact with executives from the oil field services firm Veco and documents concerning proposed natural gas pipeline and petroleum production tax.

A list of past diaries for informative purposes:

The Corrupt Bastards Club is what was known as Sept 2.

What You Need To Know About The Alaska FBI Raids is a compilation of information about the warrants and politicians/companies involved.

What Else You Need To Know... tells the story of past Steven's corruption involving fisheries and special interest projects that may be a part of the current investigation.


Wave Goodbye To The Alaskan Republican Party examines the Veco raids and their effect on the political climate in Alaska.  


This Article from the Anchorage Daily News makes me all giddy inside. It confirms some of what I've written about here on dkos in my past diaries, that to my knowledge, nobody else was writing about elsewhere. Heres some of the article:

FBI agents returned last week to the legislative office of Senate President Ben Stevens and seized more evidence, including a copy of a sworn statement that implicated Stevens in an alleged payment scheme involving fisheries legislation brought by his father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

In This Diary, I branched from the VECO scandal, and examined the possibility that investigators where also focusing in on a Fisheries Scandal. Now that I've patted myself on the back here more from the article:

Word of the second search, and what was taken by the FBI, came from Ben Stevens himself, who disclosed the information in a letter to the Daily News dated Sept. 22. In his letter, Stevens denied a request by the newspaper for a copy of any FBI search warrants which may have been served on him or his office, and the government's receipts for items seized. But Stevens provided what he said was a "complete listing of what was obtained from my legislative offices" on Aug. 31 and Sept. 18.

Interesting that Stevens denied a request for a copy of the warrant. The only warrant information released to the public, happened to come from the only Democrat being investigated in the scandals. This being the warrant where the infamous 'Corrupt Bastards Club' items where listed as possible evidence to seize. Stevens obviously will not release his warrants, as it open up all avenues of the investigation to the public, and he definately doesnt want that. From information I've obtained, its not just Oil and Fish either, but until I can confirm that I wont go into that much here, and I may discuss it in the comments if anybody is interested. However sorry to go on and on, heres more from ADN:

Among the material hauled off by agents, Stevens said, were binders on the proposed natural gas pipeline and revised oil taxes, as well as information on a board that doled out federal marketing money to fisheries companies, some of which paid him as a consultant. Stevens was chairman of that board until about six months ago.

The vast majority of items on Stevens' list were public records that could have been obtained by anyone, sometimes under a formal public information request, sometimes just for asking. For instance, the FBI seized the 2006 Legislative directory, the 2003 Legislative Ethics Training Manual, federal and state laws governing North Slope gas, and a "piece of paper" with the tax identification number for Stevens' consulting firm, Stevens and Associates.

Though much has been made of the FBI's apparent interest in the relationship between legislators and the politically active oil field service and construction company Veco -- the company itself was searched, and it was mentioned in other search warrants -- Stevens listed only a single Veco document taken by the FBI: an undated memo to Veco president Pete Leathard.

The government also seized Stevens' Rolodex containing business cards and a phone log, made a copy of the hard drive of a Gateway computer, and took an 80-gigabyte hard drive, an untitled compact disc and something described as an "e-mail found on printer."

Some of the material goes beyond issues known to be important to Veco like the gas pipeline and touch on fishery subjects that involve Ben's father, long-time U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Since 2005, Ted Stevens has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, through which all fisheries legislation passes. Before that, he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful seats in Congress.

Among fishery-related items, Ben Stevens reported that in the second search, the FBI seized "Victor Smith affidavit" and a 2004 "UFA" letter -- United Fishermen of Alaska. Agents also took two April 2006 letters he wrote to the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, which he headed from its creation by Ted Stevens in 2003 until his resignation earlier this year.

The second search also yielded a Jan. 23 fax to Ted Stevens along with "unknown documents of Ted Stevens with a cover page dated 6/5/06 bearing the United States Senate seal."

Ive previously reported that a staff member of Stevens has been working with investigators for months before the raids. That made this quote jump out at me:

"They don't know what phones are tapped. Nor do they know who is wired"