Ted Earmarked Funds Used to Buy Trevor McCabe’s Land in Seward

Trevor McCabe, along with Senator Ted Stevens, is under scrutiny for a Seward land deal involving the Alaska SeaLife Center. Justice Department officials are investigating a $1.6 million Ted Stevens-driven allocation to the Seward SeaLife Center in 2006. Trevor McCabe was a long-term aide and legislative director for Sen. Ted Stevens from 1991-1999. Between 2002 and October 2005, Trevor McCabe and Ben Stevens co-owned the Anchorage consulting firm, Advance North LLC.

Justice Department officials are now examining whether the federal funds Stevens steered to the SeaLife Center improperly enriched McCabe, who purchased the property in 2003 when the National Park Service was looking for downtown land to build a visitor’s center. After the Park Service purchased different lots, Stevens used his power as chairman of the appropriations committee to steer the $1.6 million to the SeaLife Center, which then agreed to spend $558,000 of the money to purchase McCabe’s property. [Stevens Scrutiny Mounts; Interior Department Investigates SeaLife Center Appropriation, Anchorage Daily News, 8/1/2007; SeaLife Was Good Deal For Ex Aide To Stevens, Anchorage Daily News, 2/10/2008]