FBI Recorded More Than 100 Stevens Phone Calls

(The Politico)  The FBI revealed this afternoon that it recorded 105 phone calls made by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and Stevens' lawyers want the evidence suppressed before his corruption trial gets under way later this month.

According to legal documents filed with the Department of Justice, the FBI recorded over 2,800 calls as part of a larger investigation, with over 400 hours of audio and video surveillance.

Of that, the 105 calls involving Stevens are part of the case against him. Stevens is scheduled to stand trial on seven felony counts of failure to file financial reports detailing  $250,000 in gifts and services from Veco Corp., an Alaska oil services firm.

The FBI did not tap Stevens' phones, but listened in on the phones of contractors who did business with Stevens in Alaska.

Stevens' attorney Brendan Sullivan filed several motions Tuesday that, if successful, would have this evidence tossed out before the trial begins in late September or early October. Stevens has maintained that he wants to have a quick and speedy trial completed before the Nov. 4 election, but the legal motions are piling up, making it much more difficult to schedule a trial that would be done before the election.

Sullivan is arguing that the phone call recordings were outside the scope of the government investigation.