FBI releases 3,600-page file on late Ted Stevens

[WestVirginiaRebel]

TBO.com:

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- The FBI file of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens adds colorful detail to the life of the longtime Alaska lawmaker, but reveals few new facts about the 2008 corruption case that ended his political career.

Friday's release of a roughly 3,600-page file comes six months after Stevens' death in a plane crash in Alaska, the state he represented for 40 years in the U.S. Senate.

It includes documents detailing threats made against Stevens during his time in office, complaints against Stevens that seemingly went nowhere and requests from the senator that his office be swept for listening devices amid the Watergate scandal.

It had been expected to shed greater light on the circumstances surrounding Stevens' indictment and trial. But aside from the copious amount of news clippings, there's little mention of the case.

Stevens was convicted on counts of lying on financial disclosure forms about gifts, including renovations of his Alaska home, which was investigated by the FBI. But a federal judge later tossed the case, finding prosecutors withheld evidence at trial.

The agency's public records' officer did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press. Efforts to reach Stevens' widow were not immediately successful; a recording for the phone number listed said it had been disconnected.

The FBI often releases the files of high-profile public figures after they die.

The file also detailed a boozy night on the town with a federal judge in the 1950s, when Stevens was a U.S. attorney, as well as official correspondence - sometimes cordial - between the former senator and the FBI.

The records offer a glimpse into Stevens' legislative style and colorful personality, and signs of an at-times rocky relationship with the FBI dating to his days as a U.S. attorney. It also underscores Stevens' staying power on the political scene spanning from the rough-and-tumble days when Alaska was a territory to his days as one of the nation's most powerful senators.
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For Ted Stevens, life was a series of tubes...