Was Olson Wearing the Wire? [NO]

[Later: Anonymous points out in a comment below that Lisa Demer's ADN article says the FBI were in the next booth taping the conversation. Given they were listening to Bill Allen's phone, they would have tipped off about the breakfast meeting.]

At Alaskan Abroad, Dillon speculates from the conversations cited in the indictment that Senator Olson was cooperating with the Feds.

The question that comes to mind reading the Cowdery indictment is whether Sen. Donny Olson was cooperating with the feds at the time of the June 25, 2006 breakfast meeting with Cowdery? You have to hope so, otherwise it's pretty hard to explain away this conversation:

According to the indictment, Bill Allen asked Olson: "So you need . . . some money here pretty quick, huh?"

Olson nodded his head affirmatively and told Allen that he could use his money "to get out there" and campaign.

Olson: How much are you good for?

Allen: What?

Olson: How much are you good for?

Allen: Oh, we can probably go 25.

Olson: That's a good start...

In the previous trials, only one had an active informant throughout - the Anderson trial. Frank Prewitt, helped set up the scheme that got Anderson indicted, was wearing a wire. That was in 2004 already. (After Allen agreed to cooperate he made one call to Pete Kott to get him to verify something on tape - I think it was about getting money for polls done by Dave Dittman. And there was only one situation in the Kohring trial I recall - a meal with Frank Prewitt who carried the wire.)

Allen and Smith weren't brought into the FBI office until the end of August 2006. Before that they didn't know they were being listened to. So in June 2006 neither of them would have been carrying a wire.

But if Allen and Smith weren't working undercover yet, who was carrying the wire? Since Cowdery is the one being indicted, it wouldn't have been him.

The FBI was monitoring Suite 604 in the Baranof Hotel and was listening to Allen's and Smith's telephones. But in the previous trials, when there was tape from a restaurant conversation, one of the people in the conversation was carrying a mic or a video camera. Or was there another person at the breakfast? The indictment says:

On or about June 25, 2006, COWDERY met with COMPANY CEO and
State Senator A for breakfast at a restaurant located in Anchorage, Alaska.

No one else mentioned at the breakfast. So maybe Olson was wearing the wire.