Jury hears secret Stevens tape-recording

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he didn't think he had done anything wrong, tape-recordings played in a Washington courtroom Monday revealed.

In secretly recorded phone conversations, Stevens -- who is on trial for allegedly failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts and home renovations -- can be heard telling his friend, businessman Bill Allen, now a chief prosecution witness, that while he believed they were innocent they could expect to be fined and possibly serve jail time if found guilty, The Washington Post reported.

"They aren't going to shoot us. It's not Iraq," Stevens said on one call. "Hell, the worst that can happen to us, is that we run up a bunch of legal fees ... might pay a fine, may spend a little time in jail.

"I don't think we have done anything wrong. I can't think of a thing we have done is wrong."

Stevens' attorneys are seeking a mistrial, claiming they've found more evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. In a motion filed Sunday, his lawyers said material they received Friday at the order of U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan revealed what they said was "intentional misconduct" by the Justice Department to conceal information that would have helped prove Stevens' innocence, The New York Times reported Monday.

The judge had not yet ruled that their request.

Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, is seeking re-election in November.