Kott Trial Day 3 - PM - FBI Investigation Team Reunion

The afternoon consisted of calling up different FBI agents from all around the country, swearing them in, then asking them the identical questions about whether they had verified that the material on this particular CD - Prosecution exhibits 1- 10 were in the morning, the 11-26 in the afternoon - was the same as the original recording. Then they had to verify the transcripts. (I'm not certain about #14. I had #13 down and the next one was #15. The judge asked about #14 too and the prosecution said, no, the next one was #15. So either they missed one, the judge and I missed one, or they are saving it to introduce at another time. But then they have to bring in the FBI agent again, so I probably just missed it.)

So you can look at this list: (The bulleted ones are from out of town)
Witnesses

Morning
Kelley Woodward, FBI, intelligence analyst, in Anchorage
Jessica Debra Ann Newton, FBI Intelligence analyst, Anchorage Division (twice)

• Joel Stephen, Texas Spec Agent FBI,
• William Bondurat California FBI, special agent, LA division, three years
• Tom Szot, FBI, special agent, 8 years, Chicago
• Frank DePodesta, FBI special agent, Chicago (twice)
• Joseph Thelen, retired FBI, 24 years, organized crime, NYC

Afternoon
DePodesta again

• Agent Dunphy (from yesterday)Cincinnati, 23 years FBI special agent

DePodesta again
DePodesta again
Kevin Loader, Anchorage, FBI, 2 years, special agent
DePodesta again
Joe Thelen again

• Sean McDermott, FBI special agent, 4 years Miami

Break
Chad Kadera Anchorage, FBI special agent
DePodesta again

• Roslyn B. Harris, Atlanta, FBI, 20 years, Special Agent

Jessica Newton again
Patricia A. Mumz FBI, 20 years, special agent, Anchorage

• Ingrid Schmidt, Columbus, Ohio, FBI, 5 years, special agent (Cincinnati Division)

(6 out of 14 were women -42%. Not my stereotype of FBI agents.)

As I said in the previous post, the out of town agents are here because defense attorney John Henry Browne insisted that the individual agent who was monitoring the recording had to be here to verify the recording. In the previous two trials, the defense attorneys allowed the prosecution to have one attorney verify all the tapes.

So we have nine FBI agents from out of town (the bulleted names) and five from Anchorage all gathered in the US Federal Courtroom anteroom. An FBI Investigation team reunion. In the overall scheme of what this investigation and trials cost, nine more airfares and several nights of hotel rooms is a minor costs. But there is also the loss of the work the agents could be doing in on other cases. (Some people may see it as a benefit that they aren't doing other work and I must admit that the work they've done in Alaska has reminded me that the FBI can do important work in the public interest.)

So why is Browne insisting on this? Well, for one, the FBI isn't infallible and there could be mistakes. But I suspect that the more work the prosecution has to do on this stuff, it's a little attention taken away from other stuff. And with two lead attorneys and FBI agent Kepner sitting up front, and two other attorneys sitting behind them (well, Goeke is still around, but Marsh said he was headed back to DC this week and I didn't seem him in court today), they do have things stacked in their favor. And this doesn't even mention the home field advantage: they can push their cart full of documents and equipment down the hallway and into their offices without even going downstairs and outside; they can bring in whatever staff from the building to help them in or out of the courtroom to mention just a few benefits.

By calling in all these agents, Browne is probably hoping one or two won't make it and so a tape might not be put in as evidence. We don't know if that is the case or not. He's emphasizing to the jury how many agents have been spending time on this and how much money the government is spending to bring them up here. (I don't believe the jury knows that Browne is the one who insisted on this, and I guess the prosecution can't tell them that.) Whatever extra steps the prosecution has to take, offers new opportunities for them to mess up somewhere along the line, and some bit of evidence may be lost, or some doubt could be raised among the jurors. What happened to Ex. 14 for example? Was I just not paying attention or did they actually skip it?

Browne did ask several of the witnesses where their names were on the documents. A: Not there. Well, how do you know that you were the person monitoring this? A: Well, it's somewhere. It never was clear how they knew. So there was a seed of doubt.

While the defense attorney should be doing everything he can to get his client off, if all he has are technical maneuvers that wouldn't bode well for Kohring.

OK, there was also the substantive material that was on the tapes we heard today. As I understand the process, the prosecution has to play all the tapes when they introduce them. There was really no discussion of them, other than what Bottini said in the opening arguments. And that did alert the jury to what was going to be shown on the tapes. If the previous trials are predictors, as the witnesses come in - and Bill Allen and Rick Smith (key characters on the tapes) have been mentioned - the prosecution will play the tapes again and ask the witnesses to explain what is going on.

But I'll finish this post and try to put together my thoughts about what the tapes were about today.

Jury Notes:
I saw that at some point today, every juror had a pen in his or her hand and wrote something in the court provided notebooks. Many were taking notes most of the time. This is very different from the previous two juries when I rarely saw a juror taking notes.

Eddie Haskell observation:

At the afternoon break, the defense attorney noted that he has copies of Bill Allen and Rick Smith's testimony from the Kott trial. "Would the judge like a courtesy copy?" He didn't do this in front of the jury at least.

Kohring Trial Day 3: Technical Stuff

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
Court Calendar for Wednesday, October 24, 2007




9:00 AM 3:07-CR-00055-JWS Judge Sedwick Anchorage Courtroom 3
USA vs. VICTOR H. KOHRING
TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 3 (DEPS)




Basically this was a technical session in which the Prosecution was introducing witnesses who verified exhibits.

Witnesses:

Dan Dickinson, former State Tax Director, and consultant on ppt tax and gas pipeline
Gave background about Alaska’s oil tax regimen and the reasons for changing it. This witness also set the context for the legislative session and special sessions. He also answered a question I ‘d had about whether PPT stood for Petroleum Production Tax or Petroleum Profit Tax. Apparently it has meant both.

Suzanne Lowell, Chief clerk of House of Reps.
Verified House Journal documents about voting on the PPT bill in the regular legislative session and the two special sessions in 2006.

FBI Agents
Kelley Woodward, FBI, intelligence analyst, in Anchorage
Jessica Debra Ann Newton, FBI Intelligence analyst, Anchorage Division (twice)
Joel Stephen, Texas Spec Agent FBI,
William Bondurant California FBI, special agent, LA division, three years
Tom Szot, FBI, special agent, 8 years, Chicago
Frank DePodesta, FBI special agent, Chicago (twice)
Joseph Thelen, retired FBI, 24 years, organized crime, NYC


First four tape exhibits - basically Kohring asking if he can do anything to help Veco or Bill Allen to let him know.

Ex#5 - brings up his nephew getting an internship with Veco, is told he needs to have a resume and Rick Smith tells him what needs to be on the resume and to get it in soon because, if I got it right, they are already filling these positions.

Ex#6 - RS and PK in room 604, RS briefly talks to VK on phone.
Kott: He hasn’t voted on a tax bill in 12 years, He hasn’t voted for a tax bill since he was born.
Smith: If he’s needed he said he’ll be there.

Ex#7 Voice Mail: Kohring: Left envelope with your name, contains my nephew’s resume you asked for and the Dittman poll on the oil industry and tax, you may already have it. Thanks for the nice dinner last night and in regards to my nephew, thank you very much.

Ex#8 Kohring telling Smith how he has pushed through an amendment that adds tax credits and says he thinks the oil companies won’t object because it means more money in their pockets and that he and Theresa worked three months to get this done


Ex#9 Kohring saying he’ll do whatever is needed to help out.

The FBI witnesses were verifying that the CD’s with the recordings are accurate copies of what is on the original audio and/or video, and that the transcripts are accurate reflections of the recordings too. This was fairly tedious as they had to repeat the same set of questions of each witness, each time they verified a specific tape.

Some return because the Prosecutors want to play the tapes in what appears to be chronological order. So they only verify one cd at a time.

In the previous two trials, one FBI agent was sufficient to verify all the tapes, but the defense attorney in pretrial motions would not accept that and insisted that the FBI agent who actually made the recording has to verify it. So we have agents being flown in from all over the US to do that tape by tape today.


John Henry Browne has been asking some of the agents if there is anything on the front of the materials that identifies who made the recording and basically, it appears, there isn’t. I guess he’s trying to raise doubts. Obviously there is is some way to connect the tape with the recorder, but the prosecutors haven’t followed up to clarify that.

Do Bloggers Count as Media?

For the first time since the press have been allowed to take computers into the courtroom, which began during the Kott trial, I was asked more than perfunctory questions today.

The guard took down the url of my blog and my telephone number. He let me in with the computer and said, we'll get back to you. There's no way I could have made this evening's long post without the computer. We'll see tomorrow if bloggers count.

Is John Henry Browne really Eddie Haskell 50 years later?

I finally figured it out. About 9:15 tonight the name Eddie Haskell bubbled up in my brain and I knew why. John Henry Browne. Actually, with Google's assistance, I discovered that Leave it To Beaver began on CBS on October 4, 1957, so this month is the fiftieth anniversary of the show. For those of you who didn't watch tv in the 50's and 60's, here's what Wikipedia says about Haskell:

Even today, the phrase "Eddie Haskell" is known to refer to an insincere brown-noser. . .He was known for his neat grooming—hiding his shallow and sneaky character. Typically, Eddie would greet his friends' parents with overdone, good manners and often a compliment such as, "That's a lovely dress you're wearing, Mrs. Cleaver."

It's the parts in italics that I was thinking of. I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to base any of the "shallow and sneaky character" parts of this description to Kohring's attorney. And after 50 years, I'm sure he's had time to work through all that.

Kohring Trial Day 2 - PM Opening Arguments

The prosecutor's witnesses weren't able to fly out of Juneau last night, but it probably didn't matter because the after the opening arguments and one witness - FBI Special Agent Dunphy - who testified how the wire taps are approved and run, it was about 4pm anyway.

First quick impression:

Both the prosecution and the defense made strong opening arguments. The prosecution said it was about abusing public trust. About Kohring getting money from Veco and then offering to help Veco in the legislature. He did a nice job of talking about the context - the gas pipeline, the ppt legislation, the importance of it all, the relationship between the Governor and the oil companies, etc. Well, after sitting through the Anderson and Kott cases, I got it; whether the jurors with much less background could follow it I'm not sure. It did seem pretty straightforward though. He also said the trial was unique because so much of the evidence was on tape - audio and video. It wasn't clear to me how much was actual taking money was on tape - at least one incident where Allen gave Kohring $1000 - and how much is going to rely on others - mainly Allen I guess - testifying that Kohring would say he wanted to do something (visit his family in Oregon, for example) but didn't have the money, and Allen would take out his wallet and peel off hundreds.

The defense began by saying it was an honor to try this case, something about participating in government. We get to vote and we get to be involved in cases like this with public officials. And that the jury should feel honored too.
Then basically he said his client was a decent man who didn't smoke, drink, or swear. But he was still good friends with Allen (who did all those things and Browne quoted him liberally to make the point) because Kohring has a Russian wife and step daughter and Allen then had a Russian girlfriend with a college age daughter.
Another key point was that Kohring had signed a no taxes pledge and would never have voted for the ppt bill because it was an increase in taxes. (If they changed it so it was called a fee he could have gone along.) He spent a fair amount of time trying to show that there were the sleazy, alcoholic, cussing bad guys and their legislative tools. "I own their asses" was quoted about everyone under the son including Don Young and Ted Stevens. He talked about how much money Ben Stevens got paid by Veco (he said $250,000 a year, but my recollection is that $200,000 was the total over a number of years. ) And how much Tom Anderson got paid, both for doing nothing. In comparison Kohring is so poor he lives in his office in Juneau and in a trailer in Wasilla and doesn't drink, smoke, swear, etc.

Clearly, hearing Kott and Anderson use profanity on the tapes and hearing them agree to the various deals made the prosecutors case much stronger. Browne is trying to distinguish his client as not one of those guys. We'll have to see what the prosecution has.

I've got a class tonight, so I don't have too much time here. I'll post my notes of the opening arguments below. NOTE: These are very rough. I did use spell checker to correct some of the worst. There is a lot missing - I just couldn't keep up. But it will give you a little flavor of the arguments. If the Daily News or APRN gets the days CD of the day from the Court today, maybe they'll have the audio available.

Prosecutor Joseph Bottini's Opening Argument

1:47pm

About misuse of public trust for personal gain. Using his office to ask for and accept things of value from people who needed his help.

Public official simply cannot use that office for their own personal financial gain. That is indeed what Mr. K. did. He accept things of value, in exchange for be ready willing and able to help people
Charged with conspiracy, bribery, extortion under color of official light, and attempted extortion.

In essence, charged with selling his public office, in exchange of using his position to help the people who gave him

Prove it through his own actions, his own words.

Central theme: Efforts to get natural gas pipeline built. Exxon, Conoco Philips, Fall 95 condition reached. Conditioned, - something had to take place before deal could happen. Producers wanted oil tax revamped. Wanted certainty for next several decades. Deal -tax rate 20% and fixed for number of years and offset by 20% credit for expenses.

Agreement had to be ratified by legislature. Key issue in 2006 legislative session Jan-May 2006. You will hear repeated refs. 20-20 agreement, Govt’s plan, as 20-20, or PPT, if you hear witnesses or recording using those words, that’s what they are talking about.

Also learn a lot about a company called Veco Corp. Basically an oil field services business - made most money providing services for oil production in AK. Veco’s bread and butter. Bill Allen CEO, basically started company in late 1960s and built it to 2005-06 Veco had 5000 employees world wide, back bone in AK.
Rick Smith, VP for govt. affairs for VECO. Both will testify as witnesses. Tell more in a minute.

Veco’s clients were primary oil producers - BP, Exxon, C-P who made the deal. Veco stood to make 100s of millions of $ from construction of pipeline. Before that could happen, this agreement had to be ratified and passed into law by the legislature. Bill A, RS and Veco were pushing hard in 2006 to get this passed. They pushed too hard, went over the line. The bribed a number of elected public officials. They both have pled guilty and they’ll tell you who they admitted paying bribes to. And that they have agreed to cooperate with the govt. what their expectations are with regard to their cooperation with the govt.

BA started getting active in politics about 20 years ago. Hiring a lobbyist. L = person who communicates info to legislators, tries to advance the ball for his clients. As years go on, Allen gets more active. Organizing fund raisers, Veco employees active with political contributions. Veco and Allen and Smith got in trouble. Veco started reimbursing employees for their political contributions. You can’t do that because corps can’t contribute to political campaigns.

They became so active, that they ended up very year going down to J. setting up shop. They rented suite 604 of the Baranof hotel. Use that as base of operations. Set up shop. You will hear a lot about their conduct in Suite 604.

Case is not about BA and RS. About VK

Elected first in 2006 entering 12th year in legislature. VK generally had a strong anti-tax philosophy. Also strongly in favor of oil industry. Allen and Smith became very supportive, of his campaigns, contributions to his campaign. They considered him a friend.

As 2006 leg. session kicked off, this critical piece of legislation was their primary focus. 20-20. They knew the vote was going to be close. Every vote counted. Every vote critical. Including Kohring’s. Despite the fact that he was generally supportive, they were concerned. He was such an anti-tax advocate, that he would think 20% too hight He might want lower tax.

Would be assigned to Special Committee on Oil and Gas. Kohring head of committee But bill going to Nat. Resources, not his committee. They knew Kohring was upset, that he was being bypassed. That’s why they decided to give him number of benefits. Gave VK cash, to keep VK loyal, that he would support the ppt bill as it went thru the legislature.

Like any trial, you’ll hear from a number of witnesses. Case unique in that bulk of evidence is real time recordings - audio and video - made during legislative session. Made under authority to do this. You’ll learn what govt. has to do to get permission to tape. Difficult to get these. Have to satisfy court that probably cause that criminal conversations will have to take place. Not done lightly. Even when authorized, still can’t listen to everything. Some kinds of conversations you can’t listen to.

Back in 2005 FBI sought authorization to put tap on RS’s cell phone. Then BA’s cell and then home phone. Jan. 2006 application for electronic surveillance in Suite 604 of the Baranof hotel.

From these wire taps and the bug, recorded a number of conversations, including between RS, BA, and VC. In some that we play for you, the language is pretty harsh. These two gentlemen - RS and BA particularly, were pretty profane

Pipeline contingent on 20-20 negotiation. RS and BA go down to J and set up shop in S. 604 in January FBI gets authorization to put a bug for audio and video in that suite.

PPT bill incorporated agreement - introduced to leg. on 2/21. Was not going to Kohring’s committee, but to Nat Resources. BA and RS concerned about VK’s feeling

They take K to island pub in Douglas AK, and gives VK $1000 in cash. Allen will tell you, not the first time he’s given K cash during legislature. He will tell you he gave K cash on 3 or 4 occasions. Always in K’s leg. office, only BA and VK their, $600-800, when K would tell Allen, “ I want to do something, but can’t afford it.” Allen would peel off the money and give it to him. Allen kept several thousand dollars in his wallet.

Reason he gave him the money - he felt sorry for Kohrning an his financial situation
But also because he knew he could keep K. loyal to him. 2002-6, same time he was giving K cash. Also asked K to do things for him, as a legislator, not as a private citizen.
2003, K introduced piece of leg. in house relating to royalties on CI oil platforms. A competing bill in the Senate. Upset that another leg. had highjacked his legislation. Referred to K’s committee. K. sits on bill in anger that someone else had hijacked his bill. He was asked by murkowski admin member, and BA asked him to release the bill and K did.

Also asked K on two occasions not to run against Lyda Green. Twice. Mr. K had announced his intention to run for the senate. He went to K twice and asked him not to run against Green. K. stayed in his house seat.

K hired a leg staffer who’d worked for a prior legislator. They filed a complaint against the legislator. BA angry about this because he liked legislator. BA called K and asked him to ?drop the complaint?

You will hear that these were just gifts between friends. Had nothing to do with his job as legislator. Listen to how these people act, what they say, how he brings up his problems, and how he promises to do things in return. It’s up to you to judge whether these are criminal activities.

2006 legislative session. Allen takes K out to dinner Feb 23 gives him $1000. March 3, Allen and Smith in 604, stressing out about passing ppt bill, this is our future, we gotta produce right now, profane, Smith: I know, we gotta get dirty, we gotta produce. BA: You know, just like the other night with old VK, you take off an I gave him a $1000. I know you did, thats why I left. And he will kiss our ass. They meant that they knew he would be behind them on this ppt legislation.

Another video March 20, 2006, Pete Kott another legislator with RS. You will hear RS’s end of conversation to meet VK in lobby in half hour. PK knows VK on phone. You know you aren’t going to hear VK on that bill. He hasn’t voted for a tax bill in 12 years. NO, no, we’ve talked to him. If you agree on the vote, I’ll vote for you. We’ve talked to him and he said he’d be there if we needed him to be there.

Mr. K ]’s nephew got a job with Veco. BA and RS will tell you how this came up. VK asked if his nephew can get a job there. You’ll hear on the phone. Getting his nephew’s resume. “Thanks for the good things you do for me.” I’ve dropped off my nephew’s resume. Call if I can do anything to help. Let me know what I can do. Can I lobby on your behalf? Keep in mind ppt bill in legislator.

Another call. I stand by ready to help.

March 29 VK calls RS I want to talk to you and BA. Serious matter for me. RS and BA agree to meet. Video March 30, 2006 - VK comes up, sits down. I’m in trouble with personal finances. $17,000 on credit card agency, they’re ready to sue, will hurt me politically. You guys got any ideas? They talk about possibility of cosigning on loan to get him out. Maybe hire him at VEco. As they talk about this. They also say they have to be discreet. CAn’t let people know they are helping K financially. K: I won’t do anything that will raise red flags. Then K brings up his desire to visit family over easter break. BA says I like to put $ in plastic easter eggs and go find them. BA asks RS for $100s. BA gives to VK. VK says thanks. I just sent my step daughter money for a gscout uniform. BA hands a stack of currency to VK “let me help you out.” K: what can I do at this point to help you guys? Just keep lobbying my colleagues for the governor’s plan. Talk about specific legislators he was close to he could lobby. He provides inside info on where dif. legs are on their support for ppt.

Next day phone call: Want to let you guys know I’m doing what I can to help you out. I’m scheduling appointments. I’ll keep lobbying the best I can.” This is the day after they gave him lots of cash.

Reg. session ran to May 10. PPT didn’t pass. Conversation between RS and BA on May 8. If this goes thru, we’re going to have to take care of a number of people, BW, Ben Stevens, VK - got to figure out what to do with him. Regular session ends w/o ppt. Murkowski calls a special session to continue to consider ppt leg. Toward the end of this 1st spec. session. PPT bill jacked around and comes out at 22.8%. Concerned that the producers will walk away at tax that high. So now they want to kill the bill. On June 8, late in the evening, BA comes up with plan to mess this up.

Plan: If i can get VK away from the capital so he isn’t available, it’s going to die because every member is supposed to be there. Mr. Allen’s end of the conversation. How about you and I go for a ride. Why not just don’t show up. PK and RS say that won’t work. They’ll figure out what’s going on and call for a vote. All you’re going to do is hurt VK and you’ll get into trouble.

Can’t reach K. BA goes to McDonalds and meets VK. On way back to hotel. He pulls out $5-600 out of his pocket and sticks into VKs hands. BAck to 604 talking about how plan wouldn’t work, Allen turns to VK and says, “I wouldn’t done it to you.” VK says, ”I would have done it for you anyway Bill.”

Aug. agents went to Wasilla and interviewed him. Asked if he ever received any money from BA or RS for personal use and campaign expenses. When they asked him to elaborate, VK said, I’d like to reflect on that. Later he says, I only received personal gifts, the value was in hundreds of $ and he didn't keep track. Had asked for help on the $17K credit card debt. The only time I ever took cash was that one time in the suite. It was about $100 bucks or so.

As you listen to evidence in trial. Keep an open mind. Render a true and just verdict in this case. You will find him guilty of receiving benefits in return do favors for those supporting him.

2:31 Break

2:43

Defense Attorney John Henry Browne's Opening Argument

Thank you. I’m honored to be able to participate. It’s an honor for me and you also. Want to thank you for your attention. Interesting that you aren’t taking notes for opening. That makes sense. What we say is not evidence. I’m going to tell you in context, what I think this case will present to you. Top of jigsaw puzzle. I think this is what is going to look like. But it may not. This is not supposed to be an argument. Just supposed to give you an overview of what I think the jigsaw puzzle looks like.

A little out of context, response to what Botinni said. ONe important thing - evidence will show that there are many legal ways to make political contributions to candidates. One example - Haliburton company donated to Bush and Bush listened to Haliburton company. But that is all legal. As long as you declare. People who contribute to your campaign are people you will want to listen to. Not a lot, but about 8% of the money for his campaign where he was elected 7 times with over 60% of the vote. 8% or less. Still a lot of money. Veco was a contributor to VK like Haliburton contributed to Bush and Environmental Defense fund contributes to Democrats. That’s how it is done and is legal.

Talk about fundraisers will be legal fundraisers. Mr. Allen, I will warn you, i will use some of the language. Allen thought he owned the world. He made comments like “I owned so and so’s ass.” They drank a lot. My client doesn’t drink, doesn’t swear. He says I own politicians’ asses. He includes Don Young and Ted Stevens. I own them. He donated lots of money legitimately to a lot of political campaigns. Responding to what Botinni said. This huge bill very important, economy going down a bit because oil production going down. Lots of people saying we need a pipeline, from all poltiical groups. REason bill didn’t go to Vic’s committee, which it normally would have done, was because BA, RS, Ben STevens didn’t trust Vic Kohring. That group, people’s whose asses were owned by BA, didn’t want it to go to VK’s committee. When PK said to Allen and Smith said, you will never get VK to vote for ppt, he had never voted for a tax in his whole career. PK is laughing at them. Ar you crazy? In one vote, VK was the only legislator in house or senate to vote for ppt. They knew they couldn't send the bill to his committee. He’d signed the American taxpayer’s pledge. Pledge never to vote to increase taxes. People who believe that believe enough money generated thru taxes to take care of things, and if you trim back bureaucracy and $150K executives, you can run the state fine. VK has signed this pledge and lived by it his whole career. I don’t know that the government knew this until recently.

VK never voted for any ppt legislation every. If the object is to get the legislation passed. Important for you to know that VK never voted for it. Ever. They knew he’d never vote for the tax. They knew they had to do everything they could. I ‘ll read it to you: “Don’t use this opportunity to go whacko on us” VK reminds them: That is is position that is his philosophy.

During presentation you just heard, VK never voted for ppt. New info, I never heard it before of any meeting at McDonalds or any effort to get VK to kill bill. Let’s see if they can prove that. I never heard it before.

This intern, did something very symbolic of the integrity of this case. I like that word - integrity - based on several things that never happened. Let me talk to you about the Easter egg. VEry symbolic.

BA felt sorry for Bill. BA cultivated friendship. VK felt a friend of BA. Even though very different life styles - VK doesn’t drink, smoke. Talking about easter, BA, whose been drinking. YOu know what I do with my kids, get little plastic eggs, put money in them and hide them. VK loves his daughter. BA actually talked to VK’s daughter, whose Russian. Mr. K’s wife is russian and step daughter’s is russian. BA’s girlfriend at the time was Russian and her daughter too. Here’s some money. BA will tell you he felt tremendous sadness for VK because VK lives within his means. BA is a multi multi millionaire - at least $100 million. VK sleeps in his office in Juneau. in Wasilla lives in a trailer. BA concerned VK didn’t have enough money to eat.

BA says, here, take some money, put them in the easter eggs. What B. left out of the conversation, VK says thanks a lot. I got the money to go home, we went to church we had an incredible time because I put all the money you gave me into the easter eggs.

If they can be characterized as gifts, there can be no crime there. Another 15 or 20 minutes]

At some point during conversations with BA and RS, um, VK tells them, often, I can’t vote for ppt I can’t vote for any tax. If you want to restructure this legislation, and he believed it was good for AK, and turn it into a fee and not a tax, then it would be something I could support. He tells them that.

Govt. says sometime in 2003, allegation made in last two weeks, Mr. K did something to release a bill from his committee because BA told him too. I believe not evidence to support that, except for BA. In addition to alcohol problems BA had, he had a very serious motorcycle accident without a helmet, BA this millionaire who uses fuck, shit asshole in every sentence. It is his testimony alone that says this.

BA will tell you he made a deal with the govt. to save his children from being prosecuted. Is there anything we love more than our children? BA made a deal with the govt - the G really owns his ass. If he satisfies them he probably won’t go to prison as long as he expects and his children won’t be indicted. And Veco as a corp will not be charged as a defendant. Corps can be charged as defendant. Part of the deal was that VECO would not be charged. Then Veco would be worthless. Who would buy Veco if it was under fed indictment. In addition to the 50-80 million he made from sale of Veco - he was allowed to keep $500,000 to pay for his attorneys. This personally makes me feel really bad. You’re going to plead guilty, make a deal with the govt. your kids not charged, the corp not charged, and you’re going to spend $500K to plead guilty.

BA and RS made a great deal, and this is what you will hear. You’ll hear about people who will kiss their asses, They own, I already told you. Ben STevens Ted Stevens, Pete Kott, and once they threw in Kohring’s name. Ben Stevens had a consulting contract with Veco that gained BS $250,000 a year while he was a legislator.

The money they are talking about giving this guy is less than $3000. They are bragging about people they own. They paid BS $250k/year. They owned Kott because he inflated the bill, he made $10K more graft money to do what BA told him to do. They did vote for ppt. They did take a lot of action for ppt. They did a lot for their $250K. Mr. Anderson also had a contracting job for Veco. Not required to do anything BA will tell you and BS didn’t have to do anything. And they’re giving money to VK for easter eggs.

I don’t know what to say about this allegation bout trying to kill the bill. We’ll see what they say.

He’s known as gentle giant, few people taller than me, he’s one. He’d stay in his office til 2am where he slept because he couldn’t afford a home. He would always return every constituents phone call. When not working in legislature. He’s a sheet rocker. He doesn’t live in a multi-millionaire. He’s a sheet rocker and refuses to be bought. Somewhat controversial because of his no tax pledge. He’s never violated in the seven times he was elected. He will explain to you why. He things taxing corps and individuals hurts economy in the long run. If you really don’t want to hurt the economy you don’t tax individuals too much or corps more than already.

Met ba because of the russian women in their lives and their children. Did legal fundraisers - you’ll hear of APOC - keep in mind only 8% of his campaign money about $80K - came from Veco.

What’s important about, BS made all this money and Anderson made all this money from Veco and Kott also and promised job from Veco, what’s important, they all voted for ppt. Which Botinni admits is what Veco wanted to do. Mr. K never did.

Mr. K would from time to time in his recordings say, “i’ll help you guys try to get this point across. It was the gov’s bill. You understand, I didn’t , these bill oil companies wouldn’t make any investments in the pipeline unless they had certainty thru this ppt bill which VK always voted against. In these tape, if you don’t take them out of context, you’ll know what was said. He says, You know my philosophy you know I can’t vote for this, but I’ll help you get your point across. BP, Conoco, whats the other one? would invest without being taxed. Believed pipeline good for AK.

Checking his notes.

Let’s talk about what was actually said. You heard something about mr.K firing one of his aides because BA told him to Eric Musser, you’ll see from emails, he left, not fired, the emails themselves say, VK wants him to come back to work. But the Govt.s argument is that he was fired, at will employee. Mr. Musser was ragging off some really good friend of ba there were phone calls. VK didn’t know about the complaint. I don’t know if Musser will be awitness or not.

How much time your honor? about 7 min.

Tom Anderson, had a contract with Veco to do nothing
Pete Kott, speaker of the house at one point, inflated one of his invoices, made $10,000 or more.
BW, don't want to talk about him, his case is on hold, you’ll hear about his son in this trial. FBI, BEn stevens, John Cowdery, Bev Masek, Don Young Ted Stevens. With these huge names, and then you have VK on his couch in his trailer.
[He did the next part really fast, and this isn’t even close, but the best I could do. I’m guessing one point was to show the profanity these people used and how they bragged about owning all these politicians.]
Direct quote: conversation between Smith and Allen: March 6. They have all this stuff.
S: Well you will always coer my ass
BA; you too
S: Thank you cuz, I told that little gal, whose all fucked up,
BA: Which one?
S: Theres’ som any of them
BA How many times have we gotten out of spots
S: Oh Jesus
BA O Shit, even before with old Jerry Ward. That was all horseshit
S: We got PK
BA And on and on
What about Rick Halford, we owned him
S: The list goes on and on
But we’re still here, absolutely
S; I don’t have a prob.
A: We know what the gov wants. And we got Ted. And we got DY?

Who’s name is not mentioned in that diatribe? VK.
Go on about who they own. Kott. Anderson, Give them a fake contract.
Anderson asking about getting $ for doing nothing. Lots of money. Anderson is worried about this. Don’t sorry. Is Ben stevens worried about this shit? Hell no. Then why should Anderson be worried.

These are the guys who got bribed, not VK
Keep in mind all of them voted for and lobbied for Veco and ppt. He did not.

Then discussions about how VK told them time and time again, he would not vote for it because it was a tax. How he wanted to borrow, went to BA because V thought he was a friend. That went no where because they knew he wouldn’t vote for them.

OK my time’s up, you’ve been paying close attention. VK’s life changed completely when he borrowed BA’s truck. Tells FBI complete truth in 2.5 interview, could be charged with perjury if he lied. Wasn’t charged. They took 30,000 documents and didn’t find anything.

Please, please keep an open mind. This is really important.

Kohring Trial Day 2 - Jury Selected

The street was white when I got the paper this morning. When I read Lisa Demer's article, I realized that the jury selection got further along yesterday afternoon than I expected. I debated whether to drive or get another bike trip in before the trails are too icy. So I didn't get to court until 10:50am.

By my quick count the jury had seven men and five women. The alternates were two men and a woman. Very different composition from the previous trials.

This was supposed to go up at lunch. Don't know why it didn't.

Mark Twain's "The War Prayer"

There was a reading at Cyrano's tonight of Mark Twain's The War Prayer. It's very short and you can read it at the link. The program cites Kevin Drum,

"His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously: "None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.

After the reading there was a discussion featuring representatives of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity sponsored by the Interfaith Council. The question was "How can God be on Everyone's Side?"

The comment that was most enlightening to me was from Rev Koun Franz in response to what a good Buddhist would do if he saw someone violently assaulting another. It would be ok to intervene, he said, if you did it for the right reason, which would be to help both people. If you intervened from moral superiority to punish the aggressor you would cause a short term benefit, but you would be perpetuating what the aggressor was doing. This helps me understand a story I heard the other day about a survivor of the Mi Lai massacre during the Vietnam war. Asked today what she thought about Americans coming to Mi Lai today, she said she was glad they came. What if it was one of the people who killed her family? That would be even better, because then I could forgive them.

How different is that way of thinking about the world from an eye for an eye.

Kohring Trial Day 1 - Jury Selection and the Defense Attorney

9:00 AM

3:07-CR-00055-JWS

Judge Sedwick

Anchorage Courtroom 3

USA vs. VICTOR H. KOHRING
TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 1

Today was devoted to jury selection. Judge Sedwick used the same process he used in the Kott and Anderson trials. The first part already happened - the elimination of potential jurists based on their questionnaires. From what I understand, those who expressed bias about the case there, have been eliminated. When I walked into court today, about 9:15 am, the gallery was packed by people with little blue stickers on their chests that said "Juror."

I missed the first part, but I imagine it was the same as the Kott trial - jurors were introduced to the various parties, told the charges, given instructions about their job and restrictions about talking to others or viewing news about the case. Another court observer told me that one of the potential witnesses, Fred James, was given permission to be in the courtroom for the jury selection process. He's one of the two writers of the USA v. Victor H. Kohring blog I mentioned yesterday. What I hadn't realized was that the two writers have different views on the defendant and the blog will reflect this. James, I was told, is a long time, good friend of Kohring's.

Anyway, the jury was sent out and then they were brought back in, one-at-a-time to answer questions about their awareness of the case, the people involved in the case, and whether they could be fair and unbiased. The basic questions the judge asked were:
1. Where do you get your news?
2. Do you remember anything from the news about Kohring or Veco, Bill Allen, Rick Smith?
If they did, then
3. What do you know, have you formed an opinion, could you give a fair hearing. One question he asked along these lines to one or two jurors was, "If you were the defendant, would you want someone like you on the jury?"

Most of the jurors said they don't pay much attention to politics and don't know much or anything about the case. My sense this time round - I stayed for the first 29 jurors and the lunch break - was that even when they said they knew nothing, they tended not to be as oblivious as that suggested. When pressed they often knew something

Two jurors, while I was there, were dismissed. One because she had a back problem and sitting for long times caused her pain. Another, a full time student who works full time hadn't asked to be dismissed. The judge asked if this would affect his studies. He said he'd miss some midterms. The judge asked why he hadn't asked to get out. "Several people told me it wouldn't do any good." The judge said, "Well this court is a little friendlier. A two day trial would be ok, but a two week trial would really affect your studies. I'm going to excuse you."

One juror met Rick Smith, a likely witness, smoking outside Reilly's Bar several times. Another juror who works at Cal Worthington Ford, met Bill Allen there. A third juror had been at meetings of his Community Council when Vic Kohring attended. Alaska is a small place.

Jury Composition

The jury looked different from the Anderson and Kott jury pools. The most striking difference was the relative balance of genders. The Kott trial ended up with ten women and two men. But today, in the first 29 jurors questioned, 15 were men, 14 were women. There were two African Americans, a person from Bethel and one from Unalaska, if I understood right. The ages of the jurors seemed more evenly distributed than the prior two jurors - the Anderson jury being particularly young looking. And there was even one gentleman who had on a tie!

John Henry Browne

For me the big unknown was the defense attorney. When I walked in, I saw him from behind and thought he was younger until he turned and faced the gallery. He was wearing what looked like an expensive light grey suit with just a touch of green. His shirt was just barely pink. The prosecutors, in comparison, were in dark, dark grey to black suits with white shirts, except for Mr. Goeke who had a beige shirt. Even Agent Mary Beth Kepner [Thanks, Steve, I was getting tired when I did that] had on a grey suit. And Mr. Browne's hair also looked expensive - basically brown with what would have been called surfer blond streaks where I grew up near Venice Beach. OK, I know what some of you are thinking. But this is not intended as a fashion evaluation of the attorneys. I do think, however, that the dress does tell us something about people. Browne very definitely pays attention to how he looks. He also has trouble talking without moving. If his arms aren't moving, or his hands, then his fingers are moving. A few times I could even see the muscles in his back moving through his jacket. And this was just very low key questions to the jury.

His voice is radio quality deep and his intonation is precise, more articulated than most American speakers naturally talk. Perhaps he's done some acting or had other voice coaching.

When he asked questions of the jurors, or even when he didn't, he would say, "Good morning" in the same exact tone which sounded warm and interested the first time, but after hearing it repeated precisely many times, it began to sound canned. For two jurors, he said something like, "Your comments were much more extensive than the other jurors" which I thought sounded like calculated flattery, and which caused Prosecutor Botinni to object to the "unnecessary editorial comments" about juror performance. The judge concurred.

He also addressed the court twice, between jurors, with two questions that I thought seemed inappropriate. The first time he wanted to know about jurors who came from outside of Anchorage - who paid for them? (The court pays their airfare and hotel, but they don't go back for weekends the judge replied.) The second question was whether the jurors came from all of Alaska. The judge explained that they only came from the Anchorage district, which was a large district, stretching from Cordova to the Aleutians. It just seemed to me that these were curiosity items, that I would have written down and checked on later. Or, as the Outside defense attorney, I would have found out before the trial. And being an Outside attorney - the local attorney Wayne Anthony Ross was not there today - he wouldn't understand the implications of what local talk show hosts the jurors said they listened to.

Overall, his behavior reinforced the impression I've gotten in the pretrial press coverage. This is the Seattle attorney who is coming to the boondocks to try a case. If that really is the way he's thinking, I suspect he's in for a big surprise. Judge Sedwick has run very tight, but fair, trials. His excusing of the full time student today is an example of his practical understanding of what makes sense and what doesn't. The prosecution has done an overwhelming amount of work and have been extremely well prepared. The teams at the previous two trials were one local attorney and one from the DC based Public Integrity Section. These guys do their homework. The pairing for this trial is Joe Botinni, whose been in the Anchorage US Attorney Office for many years, and Edward P. Sullivan from DC. On the other hand, it does seem that the taped evidence is likely to be not as damaging as in the other cases, and that Kohring might appear to have been less calculating than Kott or Anderson in working out ways to get paid. We will see.

Chicago Today - Circa 1935

We've got an extra bedroom downstairs that is essentially a store room that needs to be sorted out. Going through some of my father's old stuff, I came across this soft cover guide to Chicago, that I'm guessing was published in 1936. For a booklet entitled "Chicago Today" you'd think somewhere it would have a date. I've copied the pages here in high resolution so you can double click to enlarge them and see how good the photos are. This is just a few of the 65 or so pages. (No page numbers either.)




Edward Kelly was mayor of Chicago from 1933 to 1947 according to the Chicago public library So that doesn't narrow the date down much - 1933 at the earliest.



But here it says "Chicago -one hundred and three years ago was a 'mud hole trading post.'" And further down the page it says "In the spring of 1833 Chicago was incorporated and numbered at that time 550 people." So I'm calculating 1833 + 103 years = 1936. I see I should have left all the pages the original color. I changed some to black and white thinking a) the pages were black and white (which you can see they really aren't) and b) you would be able to read them better (which you can if you click on them.) It also says, "...and destined to become the world's largest city by 1968."

State and Madison Streets

Lake Shore Drive from the Drake Hotel and Michigan Boulevard from Chicago Ave

Skyline showing Grant Park and Michigan Boulevard

Aviation - "Daily 110 planes arrive and depart bearing some 500 passengers. During 1934 - 40,226 planes arrived and 40,266 planes took off." Ok, this also means we are after 1934 and where did the 40 extra planes that took off come from anyway? And that means an average of 5 passengers per plane!

Famous Restaurants. I'm not a Chicago boy so I don't know what's still around, if anything.

Baseball - Wriggly Field and Comiskey Field

Chicago Leads and Interesting Facts - Among the facts are more clues about the date of the book. "January 1935 brought 6,231 buyers to the Furniture Mart..." This was the latest date I could find, also suggesting the book was published in 1936.


Well, it was chartered in 1833 and incorporated in 1837. So I'm sticking with 1936 as the date of publication for now. But someone looking closer might find a later automobile or some other reference that could put it later.

Michael Clayton

I walked out of Michael Clayton feeling like I'd been to a good restaurant but the food just wasn't satisfying. This is Erin Brockavich from the viewpoint of one of the attorneys trying to screw over the class action victims. But there wasn't any soul. Listening to real life corrupt business men this summer in the US District court telling their stories maybe makes this story seem thin.





I'm not sure why the video quality of the clips is so bad. As usual, this is not a spoiler, but gives you a sense of the film if you don't pay attention to the subtitles.