Former senator Ted Stevens (yes, now actually former) is keeping up the fight against his guilty verdict — and now Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid has lent him a hand.
Reid told Politico that he believes Stevens shouldn’t serve jail time.
My personal feeling, you guys, I don’t know what good that [would do]… He was a real war hero too, you know. He’s been punished enough.
Reid said he thinks Stevens was simply behind the curve of modern ethics standards in not disclosing the $250,000 in gifts he received from VECO CEO Bill Allen, saying of the famously internet-unsavvy Uncle Ted that “it’s a different world we live in, and Stevens did not understand that.”
Sentencing for Stevens had tentatively been scheduled for next month, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be sentenced any time soon. Last month, lawyers for Stevens asked for a new trial, claiming that the prosecution had presented false evidence and withheld information that could have helped the defense.
