WASHINGTON -- After nearly three weeks of testimony about the renovation of a mountain cabin that could ruin an epic political career, federal prosecutors on Thursday rested their corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens.

Stevens, 84, is accused of lying on Senate forms to conceal more than $250,000 in renovations on his cabin and other gifts from Bill Allen, his close friend and former chief of a giant oil pipeline company, VECO Corp.

It remained unclear whether Stevens -- the straight-talking, longest-serving Senate Republican and patriarch of Alaska politics for generations -- would take the stand in his own defense. He has languished in the courtroom as a Democratic opponent back home mounts a strong challenge to the seat he's held for 40 years.

Defense lawyers insist that Stevens was too busy in Washington to pay close attention to a project that his wife oversaw. They also say their client assumed the $160,000 they paid to another contractor covered everything.

The prosecution's case relied on testimony by several VECO workers who, starting in 2000, labored for months to transform a modest A-frame cabin into a two-story home with wraparound decks, new electric and plumbing, sauna and a master-bedroom balcony. Prosecutors called as their star witness Allen, who has pleaded guilty to bribery in a corruption investigation resulting in convictions of several Alaskan legislators.

A self-made multimillionaire who's known Stevens for more than two decades, Allen testified that the senator came up with the idea for the cabin renovation to make room for visiting grandchildren. As the work progressed, Stevens sometimes asked him for invoices, but Allen said he ignored the requests because he liked him too much and the senator never ended up paying VECO.

Following his arrest in 2006, Allen agreed to secretly record phone conversations with Stevens. In tapes played for the jury, the senator coached his friend on how to fend off the FBI, but also said, "I don't think we've done anything wrong, Bill."

Behind the scenes at the trial, Stevens' attorneys have repeatedly complained to the judge that prosecutors have improperly withheld information that was favorable to Stevens and used records they knew were faulty to try to sway the jury.

Though he's rejected four motions for mistrial, the judge on Wednesday threw out disputed portions of the prosecution case, including misleading records saying that VECO welder Dave Anderson logged hundreds of hours on the cabin project. Allen's nephew left for Oregon for a few weeks in the middle of the job -- something jurors weren't told when VECO accounting records were introduced as evidence earlier in the trial.

However, the judge also decided Thursday to let prosecutors call Anderson to the stand as an extra witness, even though they said Wednesday that their case was over.

Anderson testified that he and a parade of other VECO workers spent 10 hours a day, six days a week jacking up the cabin and doing construction on a room underneath and on a new garage, deck, balcony and a fire escape ladder -- all paid for by the company.

"This was basically Bill's thing," Anderson said of Allen. His uncle wanted the crew to "pretty much take care of Sen. Stevens," he added.

Defense attorneys declined to cross-examine him.

If convicted, Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of seven charges, though under federal sentencing guidelines, he probably would receive much less prison time, if any.

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On the Net:

Justice Department documents: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/us-v-stevens/