Former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, Pete Kott, has been found guilty of three of four charges brought by the FBI's investigaton.
He was found guilty of extortion, bribery, and corruption after just a few hours of deliberation, and only a couple of questions from the jury. He was found Not Guilty of wire fraud.
Anchorage Daily News has the latest.
This stems from the investigation of oil services contractor Veco, who you may recognize from the stories of Ted Stevens' house expansion and Don Young's pig roasts.
So far, we have:
- Conviction of the former House Speaker, Pete Kott;
- Conviction of Rep. Tom Anderson
- Guilty pleas from the owner of Veco, Bill Allen, and his chief government liason, Rick Smith;
- Charges filed and cases pending against Rep. Vic Kohring and Rep. Bruce Weyrauch;
- Veco Corp. sold to a reputable company, CH2MHill;
- Reinstatement of the Alaska Public Offices Commission's investigator (funding for investigating corruption had been cut);
- Promises to reverse the statute of limitations on illegal political donations -- that change made by the previous administration (Former US Sen, former AK Gov. Frank Murkowski reduced it from four years to just one -- New Gov. Palin plans to review);
- Mounting evidence against Sen. Ted Stevens and his son, former AK State Senator Ben Stevens, with speculation that charges will be forthcoming;
- New ethics laws requiring legislators to state what they do for their "Consulting Fees";
- Credibility for everyone who has been screaming about the corruption for the last 18 years.
As an aside, this conviction will be the sweetest for me.
Mr. Kott, years ago, sat on the House Rules Committee, where I was completely slandered with no chance to participate. The subject was his friend and Veco-sponsored cohort, then-Rep. Jerry Sanders, against whom I had filed ethics charges.
In the bi-partisan Ethics Committee (bi-partisan by law, mind you), Mr. Sanders was found to have violated the law by using his state office and employees to produce and mail campaign literature.
The Rules Committee, technically there to oversee the work of other committees, decided it could also reverse the decisions of the Ethics Committee -- which they did, effectually neutering its ability to police the legislators.
Karma takes patience....
Enjoy.