OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma lobbyist and former state senator testified Tuesday he cooperated with FBI agents during their investigation of bribery and extortion allegations against the Senate’s former leader but denied being a government snitch.

Former Sen. Dave Herbert, D-Midwest City, said he had “casual discussions” with FBI investigators about a landfill project in northern Oklahoma. It is at the heart of federal bribery, extortion, conspiracy and mail fraud charges against former Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater.

“We visit from time to time,” Herbert said of his contact with FBI agents. “I was shooting the breeze with them. I thought they were trying to learn about the Legislature. They seemed very naive about it.”

But Morgan’s defense attorney, David Ogle, questioned Herbert at length about what Ogle said is Herbert’s 15-year relationship with the FBI. Ogle accused Herbert of being “golfing buddies” with one of the investigators in Morgan’s case, FBI Special Agent Jim Shook, who was seated in the courtroom, and asked the former senator if he was a snitch for the government.

“Not in my mind,” Herbert responded. “I never called the FBI. I never felt like anything but a golfing buddy.”

He said he was never asked to wear a recording device and indicated he spoke to FBI agents about his knowledge of the landfill project without knowing he was considered a confidential contact in the FBI’s investigation of Morgan.

“I felt like I was trying to help Mike Morgan,” he said.

Ogle asked Herbert if Morgan did anything illegal.

“I have no idea,” Herbert said. “I didn’t know there was anything illegal, illicit.”

Morgan, 57, is accused of conspiring with lobbyist William Andrew Skeith and attorney N. Martin Stringer to illegally accept more than $400,000 from three companies that sought his influence on pending legislation between 2005 and 2008.

Skeith, 53, of Edmond, and Stringer, 71, of Oklahoma City, are charged with conspiracy, extortion and mail fraud. All have pleaded not guilty in the case.

One of the companies, Dilworth Development Co., allegedly paid Morgan $141,000 to help develop a solid waste landfill in Kay County. Defense attorneys claims the payments were for legal services, but prosecutors allege Morgan did not perform any legal services for Dilworth.

Herbert said he did not know Morgan was being paid by Dilworth when Morgan called him into his office in 2006 and asked for his help in convincing Kay County commissioners to drop their opposition to the landfill proposal.

“He said he had some friends who really wanted to see that happen,” Herbert said. “I told him I’d see what I can do.”

Herbert, a lobbyist for the Association of County Commissioners at the time, said county commissioners refused to change their position and the organization was against legislation that would strip county commissioners of their ability to regulate local landfills.

Herbert said he felt pressured when Morgan and Skeith decided to run the legislation anyway.

“The language was so toxic it wasn’t going anywhere,” he said.

It eventually passed the House but died in the Senate, where Herbert said Morgan did nothing to assure its passage.

Prosecutors allege Morgan also accepted $250,000 from Tenaska Inc., which wanted to build a power plant, and $12,000 from Silver Oak Senior Living of Edmond, which was seeking to limit the state Health Department’s regulation of assisted-living centers.

Barton Ford, vice president of development for Tenaska, testified the company hired Morgan in 2005 in connection with a proposed 600-megawatt, coal-fired plant for the Grand River Dam Authority that was never built. Ford said he met Morgan during a meeting about the project in Arlington, Texas.

Ford told a federal grand jury last year that he did not recall Morgan performing legal work for the company, but he told Morgan’s 12-member jury that Morgan performed legal work during the meeting.

“I recalled being impressed with his level of participation and I consider that to be legal work,” Ford said.

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count of conspiracy, extortion and wire fraud. Morgan also faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of bribery.

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