FBI Searches Alaska Senator’s Home
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Federal agents searched the home of Senator Stevens yesterday, focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation, a law enforcement official said.
Mr. Stevens, 83, has been under a federal investigation for a 2000 renovation project that more than doubled the size of his home in Girdwood, which was overseen by a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators, Bill Allen.
Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.
Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service started their search at the Republican senator’s home yesterday afternoon, a FBI assistant special agent, Dave Heller, said. He said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation. About 15 agents took photos and video of various angles of the house and then entered it.
A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed the raid on Mr. Stevens’s home was focused on records related to the ongoing VECO investigation. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
An e-mail issued by Mr. Stevens through his Washington, D.C., spokesman said federal agents had alerted his attorneys that they wanted to search his home.
Mr. Stevens, who has been in office since 1968 and is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, said the interests of justice would be best served if he commented after the investigation.
“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome,” Mr. Stevens said. “The legal process should be allowed to proceed so that all the facts can be established and the truth determined.”
The Justice Department’s probe into Allen’s relationships has led to charges against state lawmakers and contractors. Last year, FBI raids on the offices of Alaska lawmakers included Mr. Stevens’s son, Ben Stevens, a former president of the Alaska state Senate.
