Witness against Stevens says he lied on the stand

One of the government’s witnesses against convicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska said he didn’t tell the truth about an immunity deal with the Justice Department in exchange for his testimony. But federal prosecutors say his current story is the false one.

“I testified to the fact that there was never immunity for me or my family and friends,” welder David Anderson said in a November letter to a federal judge placed in court files by Stevens’ lawyers. “That is simply not true.”

Stevens’ lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to hold a hearing on Anderson’s charges.

Stevens, 85, is the Senate’s longest-serving Republican but lost in the Nov. 4 election to his Democratic challenger, Mark Begich. A week earlier, he was convicted on seven felony counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure documents to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from millionaire businessman and oil-services firm executive Bill Allen, who is Anderson’s uncle.