Former Sen. Steve French says Harri Anne Smith offered him bribes

MONTGOMERY – A former state senator testified Wednesday that he believed Sen. Harri Anne Smith offered him a bribe in exchange for his favorable vote on pro-gambling legislation.

Steve French, a Republican senator from Birmingham who served in the state senate from 1999-2010, said the conversation occurred on the floor of the Senate in the Alabama Statehouse on March 11, 2010, and that the conversation startled him.

“I was very uncomfortable with it,” French said during testimony in the gambling corruption retrial. French testified similarly during the initial corruption trial last year.

French said the conversation occurred at Smith’s Senate desk just after the start of the day’s Senate session when Smith called French over to her desk.

French said Smith asked him if he would accept a campaign contribution from her. He said he would.

“She said ‘well, if you would be willing to commit to support the gambling bill (SB380) I will give you a contribution.’” French said.

“I told her we were not going to have that kind of conversation because we were not going to link an official act with a contribution,” French said. “It’s pretty well known, at least to me, you can’t have that kind of conversation.”

French said Smith reiterated the offer two more times during the conversation before French said he walked away.

Under direct examination from U.S Attorney Kendall Day, French said he was “put off” by the offer.

“How many times, in your time as a state senator, mentioned a vote and campaign contributions in the same conversation?” Day asked.

“No other times,” French replied.

French said he informed the Alabama Department of Public Safety about the conversation about a month later after word of the vote-buying investigation was made public. He then spoke with investigators.

Smith attorney Jim Parkman questioned the motive of French to testify against Smith. Parkman indicated that French may have had a reason to hurt Smith because when Smith was a Republican in 2008, she endorsed Democrat Bobby Bright for Congress. The Alabama Republican Party denied Smith ballot access as a Republican and Smith ran for re-election as an Independent.

French said he did not have an issue with Smith’s endorsement of Bright.

Parkman also asked French if he had a relationship with George Flowers, a Dothan businessman who ran on the Republican ticket against Smith in Smith’s state senate race. Parkman pointed out that French and Flowers had become friends on the social media site Facebook some time in 2010 or 2011.

French said he was not even aware that he and Flowers were Facebook friends and that he did not recall ever having a conversation with Flowers.

French said the March 11 conversation came on the heels of a separate conversation he had with Smith two nights before. During that conversation at a dinner meeting in Montgomery, French said Smith made an off-the-cuff comment about having people solicit her to contribute to her campaign. However, French said that Smith added that people typically shied away from making a contribution when she told them that she — a Republican at the time — endorsed a Democrat for Congress. French said he replied that he had no problem with Smith’s endorsement and would be happy to take a contribution from her.

Parkman questioned French’s ability to remember the details of the conversation he said he had with Smith.

Parkman asked French how much he had to drink on that evening.

French said he had one Vodka Martini and drank red wine with his dinner. He said he did not know how much red wine he had with dinner.

During questioning, French said he did not consider the March 11 conversation a bribe, but an “offer of a bribe.”