Blog | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
The Alaska Politics Blog at the Anchorage Daily News has been live blogging the latest corruption trial involving Veco Corp. It's quite fascinating. The defendant is former state representative Vic Kohring. On the stand today, a former Veco executive Rick Smith testified about wearing a wire for federal investigators. And, of interest to us, Smith wasn't wearing the wire with state level officials:
Check out this vague exchange between Kohring lawyer John Henry Browne and government witness/former Veco honcho Rick Smith:
Browne asks if Smith wore a wire as part of his “undercover” work for the feds. True, says Smith.
Were some of the people he talked to while wearing a wire, Browne asks, state legislators?
“Uh. I don’t recall wearing a wire with state legislators,” Smith replies.
Browne asks if some of the people Smith talked to while wearing a wire were federal elected officials.
This drew an immediate objection from the federal prosecutors.
The testimony was fairly confusing, but Smith appeared to say he made 20 to 40 calls for the FBI.
At one point Judge John Sedwick asked Smith directly: Who did he conspire with?
“The conspiracy is those five legislators and certain other public officials,” Smith said.
The five legislators are Kott, Kohring, Weyhrauch and – as Smith said yesterday - Cowdery and Ben Stevens.
Who are the “certain other public officials?”
