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| Al Grillo / The Associated Press |
 End of the day: Former Alaska state Rep. Pete Kott R-Eagle River, right, his daughter, Pam Kott, and Debora Stovern, left, walk from the federal court building Monday after closing arguments in Pete Kott's corruption trial in Anchorage. |
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ANCHORAGE - A former Alaska lawmaker on trial for bribery made drunken boasts about his legislative maneuvers on behalf of an oil field services company but did not sell his influence for bribes, his attorney said in closing arguments Monday.
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Secret recordings made by the FBI show former state Rep. Pete Kott bragging about his influence on a proposed crude oil tax bill, but they're contradicted by hard evidence - Kott's voting record, defense attorney Jim Wendt said.
"It's not in the record," Wendt said. "He may have puffed about it to his friends."
Kott worked with officials of VECO Corp. but did so because it would lead to construction of a natural gas pipeline, Wendt said.
Kott is charged with conspiracy to solicit financial benefits, extortion, bribery and wire fraud. The wire fraud charge stems from one phone call Kott made from Washington, D.C., in which prosecutors contend Kott advanced the conspiracy.
Kott, who represented Eagle River on Anchorage's north side, is accused of accepting $7,993 from VECO chief Bill Allen and company vice president Rick Smith so Kott could hire his son as campaign manager for his re-election effort in 2006. Prosecutors say Kott also accepted $1,000 from Allen after making a campaign donation to former Gov. Frank Murkowski, accepted a $2,750 political poll from VECO and solicited the promise of a job with the company.
The evidence in the case is unique, said prosecutor James Goeke, referring to nearly a year of surveillance through wiretaps and a video camera planted in a Juneau hotel room rented by VECO. Jurors had a ringside seat to a crime, he said.
"You've been able to watch as Pete Kott, along with Bill Allen and Rick Smith, commit the crimes charged in the indictment," Goeke said.
VECO stood to make millions from contracts if the natural gas pipeline were built. Both Allen and Smith have pleaded guilty to bribing Kott and other elected officials.
Wendt told jurors the tapes reinforced the notion that no one should ever watch the making of sausage or legislation.
"You saw it being made here," he said. "It maybe isn't pretty. But that's how it is made."
The recordings show Kott, Allen and Smith speaking in off-color language, often while drinking, tracking votes on the proposed oil tax and plotting strategy. Kott did nothing illegal by working closing with VECO on a common goal, said Wendt.
"He may have been drinking and he many have been a guy who, when he does, shoots his mouth off," he said.
Kott's claim that he was holding a state Senate abortion bill hostage until the sponsor "squared up" on the oil tax was simply not true, Wendt said. Kott eventually voted the Senate bill out of committee and backed it on the House floor.
Likewise, Wendt said, Kott claimed he had pushed a fellow Republican on the oil tax and misled House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz to release two Democrats to vote with him on a key amendment. The voting record and the other lawmakers say otherwise, Wendt said.
"We brought in these people to tell you that didn't happen," he said.
Wendt urged jurors to remember what the recordings did not say. In 17,500 recorded phone calls and at least 600 hours of video, the government played roughly 58 recordings. Despite Kott's close personal relationship with Allen, despite VECO hiring other lawmakers with consulting contracts, there was no evidence of Kott soliciting an actual job, Wendt said.
Instead, Kott was engaged in difficult manual labor - installing and repairing hardwood floors - between legislative sessions, Wendt said.
"Pete Kott is not a criminal," he said. "Pete Kott is a worker."
Federal authorities threatened to charge Allen's company or his children if he did not agree to substantial cooperation, Wendt said.
"Don't think for a second those men don't desperately hope to avoid prison time," Wendt said.
But prosecutors said the recordings show Kott speaking freely, in contrast to his court testimony. They show him asking for "instructions" with his benefactor, Allen, throughout the 2006 legislative session instead of representing his constituents, Goeke said.
The recordings show Kott stating his allegiance to Allen and taking action because he had to "answer to the big boy."
Prosecutors likewise scoffed at Wendt's notion that Kott received nothing of value from Allen and Smith, starting with the $1,000 for the Murkowski donation and the nearly $8,000 for his own campaign.
Nicholas Marsh said the promise of future employment for Kott was the ultimate prize.
"There was a pot at the end of the rainbow," he said.
