Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska pleaded not guilty on Thursday to accusations of planning to conceal thousands of dollars worth of gifts from an oil-services company.

Under impeachment and observing that some of his Republican colleagues are slowly moving away from him, Ted Stevens is relying on promptness to prevent corruption accusations from prolonging until Election Day and bringing his political career to an end.

Stevens requested a trial date in September and, according to Judge Emmet Sullivan, cited by CNN, the trial is due to begin with jury selection on September 24.

If everything works out according to schedule, voters will find out in November whether the Senate’s longest-serving Republican covered up the truth about receiving $250,000 in gifts and home improvements from contractors.

“I am looking forward to this trial as a way of finally showing the truth — that I’m innocent,” Stevens said in a written statement late Thursday, as reported by the Associated Press.

“He’d like to clear his name before the election,” attorney Brendan Sullivan declared in court Thursday, according to the same source.

However, such a short term before the trial may involve some treacherous risks. Brendan Sullivan’s law firm, Williams & Connolly, is acknowledged for gradually analyzing  the government’s case before the trial’s commencement. Thus, the reduced schedule does not offer sufficient time for conducting such a strategy. Nonetheless, Washington defense attorney K. Lee Blalack said that the Stevens case will depend more on discrediting the executives who consented to cooperate against Stevens, rather than picking apart the government’s case. What’s more, Ted Stevens has been aware for more than a year that he was under suspicion and his lawyers have benefitted from enough time in order to collect their own evidence.