It’s not an investigation, it’s a series of charges. Huge story. Longest serving Republican senator Ted Stevens indicted on seven counts. More soon.

Seven counts of making false statements.

PDF of Stevens Indictment.

Lying on his personal financial disclosure forms.

Accepted gifts and labor from VECO in the renovation of his Girdwood, Alaska home and lied about it on his personal financial disclosure forms from 1999-2006.

A key paragraph in the indictment is paragraph 17. It appears to allege a quid pro quo in the exchange of gifts, for which he is being charged for lying about. The DOJ is saying that there is no allegation of quid pro quo in the indictment.

17. It was a part of the scheme that STEVENS, while during that same time period that he was concealing his continuing receipt of things of value from ALLEN and VECO from 1999 to 2006, received and accepted solicitations for multiple official actions from ALLEN and other VECO employees, and knowing that STEVENS could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period. These solicitations for official action, some of which were made directly to STEVENS, included the following topics: (a) funding requests and other assistance with certain international VECO projects and partnerships, including those in Pakistan and Russia; (b) requests for multiple federal grants and contracts to benefit VECO, its subsidiaries, and its business partners, including grants from the National Science Foundation to a VECO subsidiary; and (c) assistance on both federal and state issues in connection with the effort to construct a natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope Region.

For some background watch this video from Josh Marshall and TPMtv (only the first half matters, the rest has to do with Larry Craig):

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