Content of the Indictment Against Longest Running Senator Ted Stevens

A federal grand jury in the District accused Stevens of concealing on financial disclosure statements lucrative gifts from the now-defunct oil company Veco and its top executives, including a Viking gas grill, a tool cabinet and a wraparound deck. At one point, Veco employees and contractors jacked up the senator's mountainside house on stilts and added a new first floor, with two bedrooms and a bathroom, the indictment says.

The senator, who once oversaw more than $900 billion in federal spending each year as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he has "temporarily relinquished" his senior posts on several committees, in accordance with Senate rules, while he focuses on the legal battle ahead.

Stevens, 84, the first sitting U.S. senator to face criminal charges in 15 years, adamantly denied the allegations in a statement yesterday afternoon.

"I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator," said Stevens, whose more than five decades of public service date to the missions he flew for the Army Air Corps during World War II. "The impact of these charges on my family disturbs me greatly. I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that."