WASHINGTON The attorney representing Bill Allen, the star witness in Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial, got a public scolding Tuesday morning from the judge overseeing the case.
Lawyer Robert Bundy, who has been sitting in the spectator section of the courtroom in Washington while his client has been testifying, was accused Monday by the judge of trying to signal to Allen on the stand.
“I couldn't believe what I was seeing,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said Tuesday, before the trial began for the day. “That's borderline obstruction of justice.”
Bundy's colleague, Creighton Magid, said that the Anchorage lawyer and former U.S. attorney is “absolutely torn up by this” and “vehemently” denied signaling to his client.
Monday, at the close of proceedings but with the jury still in the courtroom, Sullivan pointed to Bundy, said he saw him signaling to Allen, and demanded he stop.
Stevens, 84, is accused of lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in home renovations and gifts from Allen.
The longtime Republican senator hopes to clear his name with an acquittal before voters go to the polls next month to decide whether to return him to a seat he's held for 40 years.
Allen testified as part of a plea deal in a bribery investigation of Alaska legislators. On cross-examination Tuesday, he testified that in addition to a possible break at sentencing, he has millions of dollars riding on his cooperation.
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