Stevens was found guilty of all seven counts of lying on his financial disclosures by omitting more than $250,000 in gifts, most of them from Bill Allen, the former head of an Alaska oilfield services company, Veco Corp.
Each of the counts against Stevens carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but federal judges have broad leeway in sentencing.
The gifts included extensive renovations and additions to Stevens' home in Alaska as well as other items including a $2,700 vibrating massage chair, a $3,200 piece of stained-glass artwork and a $30,000 sculpture of salmon. Stevens insisted on the witness stand that his wife, Catherine, paid all the bills she received for the renovation work and he believed the $162,000 they paid covered all of the costs. He said the chair was on loan from a friend, the stained-glass art was a gift for his wife and the sculpture was to be placed in a library housing his papers after his death.
Annual financial disclosure statements are required of all members of Congress and are made public. Prosecutors sought to show that Stevens didn't disclose gifts from Allen to avoid drawing attention to his work on behalf of VECO, which included urging the State Department to allow the company to train Russian workers in Alaska.
Stevens appeared visibly shaken as the verdicts were read and his defense attorney, Brandon Sullivan, patted him on the back to comfort him. As he left the courtroom, the senator got a quick kiss on the cheek from his wife, Catherine, who testified on his behalf during the trial.
Looking grim, Stevens stayed tight-lipped and declined to talk to reporters on his way out of the courthouse.He remains free until sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
Prosecutors had attacked Stevens' credibility during cross-examination and in their closing arguments, calling the senator's explanations "nonsense."
"This trial has exposed the truth about one of the longest-serving senators, the gifts he received and what he tried to conceal and the lengths he would go to keep his secrets hidden," prosecutor Brenda Morris told jurors.
Prosecutors had several high-profile missteps while presenting their case, including several instances of belatedly turning over potentially helpful information to the defense during the trial. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out some of the prosecution's evidence because of those lapses.
The defense relied heavily on the senator's testimony. Stevens contradicted some of the testimony of Allen, calling his former friend a liar for saying that Stevens' requests to be billed for the work on his house were a ruse. He also insisted Veco played no part in his home renovations, despite testimony to the contrary from Allen, Veco employees and the home remodeling contractor, Augie Paone, who said Allen and Veco were "running the show."
"Veco was not involved in renovating my house," Stevens said.
The month-long trial has kept Stevens in Washington, while the state Democratic party has hammered him from afar on its website retireted.com. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also has blanketed Alaska with radio and television ads attacking Stevens. One ad uses an excerpt from an FBI-recorded phone call in which Stevens tells Allen that they would "maybe spend a little time in jail" if they were charged with crimes.
The national party has targeted Stevens as it tries to gain the 60 votes needed for a filibuster-proof majority that would prevent the Republicans from blocking Democratic bills.
Polls during the trial have shown Stevens essentially in a dead heat with Begich.
"I think it's all over," said Ivan Moore, an independent pollster in Alaska. Moore said his poll last week showed Democratic challenger Mark Begich with a one-point lead. "This is going to blow it open," he predicted.
Shortly after the verdict, the Alaska Democratic Party called for Stevens' immediate resignation. "He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyway and lied to Alaskans about it," Patti Higgins, the chairwoman of the state Democrats, said in a statement.
Stevens schemed "to hide for the public and his consituents that he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars of freebies," said Matt Friedrich acting head of the criminal division of the Justice Department.
"The department is proud of this team, not only for this trial, but for the investigation that led to it," he said.
Stevens is a legendary figure in Alaska. He worked on the legislation granting Alaska's statehood in 1959 as a top lawyer for the Interior Department in Washington. Less than a decade later, he was appointed to the Senate and has won re-election ever since.
A former chairman of the influential appropriations and commerce committees, Stevens has bragged of his prowess in sending federal tax dollars to his home state and has been deeply involved in drafting major federal laws affecting Alaska, such as the act creating regional corporations to own the land and resources of Alaska Native groups.
"He's been extremely effective," says Gerald McBeath, a political science professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. "He's figured in each and every issue Alaska's had with the federal government almost since statehood. He's delivered more federal dollars to Alaska than any senator or congressman has delivered to his or her state in history."
Stevens was the first sitting senator in 27 years to face a criminal trial. The last one was Democrat Harrison Williams of New Jersey, who was convicted on corruption charges in 1981 after Abscam ? an FBI sting where agents posing as Arab sheiks offered bribes to members of Congress. Williams, who did not resign from the Senate until 10 months after his conviction, spent three years in prison
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I think all politicians are crooks and thieves.
why do we allow them to stay in the Senate at 84 yrs old.
Thats just asking for good old boy crimes.
Come on George W . pardon his ass
we know you are going to
