Yesterday, at the trial of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, testimony revealed that while Senator Stevens sent a request for a bill to Veco for the renovations done on the "chalet."  But, we're led to believe Senator Stevens didn't really want the bill:

In October 2002, Stevens sent a handwritten note to Allen asking him for a bill to pay for those renovations, citing strict Senate ethics rules on gift-giving.

“When I think of the many ways in which you make my life easier and more enjoyable, I lose count,” Stevens said in the thank-you note, which was admitted as evidence Wednesday.

“Friendship is one thing, compliance with ethics laws is different,” Stevens added.

In the note, Stevens said that a friend who was helping oversee the renovations, Bob Persons, a local restaurant owner near his home in Girdwood, Alaska, would remind Allen to give the senator a bill for the work.

In court on Wednesday, Allen said that Persons signaled that the senator only wanted cover by asking for a bill.

“Don’t worry about giving a bill, Ted’s just covering his ass,” Allen said Persons told him in 2002.

Sitting across the crowded courtroom, Stevens remained expressionless, and barely made eye contact with his former close friend of some 25 years.

Allen said he “really didn’t want” to send Stevens bills for Veco’s work “because I wanted to help Ted” and “because I like him.”

The government hopes the testimony will undercut one of Stevens’s main lines of defense: that the senator would have paid for all costs if Allen disclosed additional renovations he made when the senator was working 3,500 miles away on Capitol Hill.