Stevens trial begins in Washington

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, hid money from the public, while defense attorneys said he was an honest man in opening arguments Thursday.

In detailing the government's case against the Stevens, Justice Department attorney Brenda Morris said he "knowingly and willfully" refused to disclose more than $250,000 on the Senate's annual financial disclosure forms, The Hill reported.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts of not reporting more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from a now-defunct oil-services company in Alaska.

"This is a simple case about a public official who took hundreds and thousands (of dollars') worth of free financial benefits and then took away the public's right to know that information," Morris told jurors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The biggest undisclosed gift, Morris said, was renovations on his house in Girdwood, Alaska, south of Anchorage.

Defense attorney Brendan Sullivan told the jury Stevens, seeking re-election, was an honest man who never intended to make false statements on Senate financial disclosure reports.

"The evidence will show he didn't want these things, he didn't ask for these things," Sullivan said of some of the renovations.