Colin Powell puts in a good word for Sen. Stevens at trial

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state was a character witness for the Alaska Republican.

McClatchy News Service

Last update: October 10, 2008 - 9:16 PM

WASHINGTON - Colin Powell, the retired Army general and former secretary of state, characterized Sen. Ted Stevens in court Friday as a "trusted individual" and a man with a "sterling" reputation.

"He was someone whose word you could rely on," said Powell, who self-deprecatingly described himself as the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who retired and then "dabbled a bit in diplomacy."

Stevens, R-Alaska, on trial for lying about gifts on financial disclosure forms, has the right during the defense portion of the trial to ask character witnesses to speak on behalf of his "truthfulness and veracity." The first such character witness, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, spoke Thursday. Three others are set to testify on Stevens' behalf, but the highest-profile witness, by far, will be Powell.

The former secretary of state said he had known Stevens for 25 years, mostly in the senator's role as the top defense appropriator on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In Stevens, "I had a guy who would tell me when I was off-base, he would tell me when I had no clothes on, figuratively, that is, and would tell me when I was right and go for it," Powell said. "He's a guy who, as we said in the infantry, we would take on a long patrol."

Stevens, 84, faces charges of failing to disclose more than $250,000 in gifts between 1999 and 2006. Most of that total is related to a major renovation project that doubled the size of Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska, with much of the work allegedly done for free by an oil-field service company run by a friend, Bill Allen.

Stevens' legal team hoped to have 10 character witnesses testify, but the judge is limiting it to five. One proposed witness, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is probably too ill to testify, the defense said. The defense said it would like to call Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, former Transportation Secretary William Coleman, former District of Columbia Council Member John Ray, Olympic medalist and sportscaster Donna DeVerona, and a fellow veteran from Stevens' World War II Army Air Corps unit, Leroy Parramore.