Fumo admits deleting e-mails

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo yesterday admitted that he stepped up his computer security after news broke that the FBI was investigating him - and that his staff continued to destroy e-mails even after prosecutors blanketed his allies and his network of nonprofits with subpoenas.

Enduring a fifth day on the stand in his federal corruption trial, Fumo insisted that he believed that deleting documents was lawful because no subpoena had been served on him directly.

Fumo leveled an accusation of his own yesterday, telling jurors that he had been targeted by the U.S. Justice Department under a Republican president because "I was the most prominent Democrat in Pennsylvania."

In addition to trying to orchestrate a cover-up, Fumo, who had been one of the most powerful Democrats in Harrisburg and in Philadelphia for decades, is accused of defrauding the state Senate; Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit he founded; and the Independence Seaport Museum.

In other testimony, Fumo:

Said he was under no obligation to disclose $63,000 in goods he got from the South Philadelphia-based Citizens' Alliance because the items were not "gifts" under a close reading of Pennsylvania law. Nor, Fumo continued, did he need to report the goods as compensation on disclosure forms for public officials.

Rejected Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Pease's blunt explanation for unexplained spending by the South Philadelphia nonprofit. "You and Ruth split up the loot," Pease said, referring to Fumo's co-defendant - and former head of Citizens' Alliance - Ruth Arnao.

Called "preposterous" Pease's charge that he had methodically deleted e-mails dealing with Citizens' Alliance before turning evidence over to the FBI. Pease told jurors that the government found 10,000 e-mails on a "memory stick" maintained by Fumo - but that only seven dealt with Citizens' Alliance.

Fumo, 65, is due back on the stand this morning for more cross-examination in the marathon trial, which is about to enter its fifth month.

During his hours on the stand yesterday, Fumo looked weary and pale but remained unrattled. At one point as he was being questioned by Pease - for the third day - Fumo professed: "I've been here so long I don't remember what I say day to day."

Pease grilled Fumo as he set out to tear down the former senator's defense against obstruction-of-justice charges.

Fumo said he acted in good faith in ordering his computer technicians to delete e-mails and cleanse hard drives because of conversation he had with two lawyers, celebrated attorney Richard A. Sprague and Robert Scandone, who once worked under contract for the Senate.

Fumo said he called Sprague - who was then his lawyer - after news of the FBI probe broke in 2004. At that time, Fumo said, one of his aides expressed worry that many e-mails were lost when the Senate made a switch in technology.

He said that Sprague told him: "As long as you don't have a subpoena, you don't have to save anything."

Later yesterday, Fumo summarized that advice as Sprague having told him: "You don't have to keep anything."

But Fumo admitted he never told Sprague that he had ordered his staff to step up security and to engage in sophisticated purging of e-mails, "wiping" hard drives to make sure that deleted e-mails were truly irretrievable.

Fumo also conceded he had not fully briefed the other lawyer, Scandone, about his staff's newly aggressive security policy.

Sprague and Scandone are scheduled to be called by prosecutors in a brief rebuttal after the defense rests, which could be later today.

Pease confronted Fumo with an e-mail in which Fumo told his staff that they would be using the disk-wiping program more often "now that we're stepping up security."

"The reason you're stepping up security," Pease said, "you were concerned about the FBI and IRS were going to start an investigation" based on news articles about Citizens' Alliance.

"I was concerned about the possibility. I figured they would," Fumo responded.

Nonetheless, Fumo said, he drew a big distinction between subpoenas issued to his allies and those targeting him directly.

Pease established that Fumo followed the probe closely as prosecutors, in 2004, subpoenaed Fumo's top political adviser and corporations he had hit up for donations, as well as nearly a dozen Fumo-linked nonprofits and their accountants.

Even so, Fumo said, the technicians were free to go about their business - deleting e-mails and cleaning computers - until at least 2005, when the FBI raided Fumo's legislative office in South Philadelphia and seized his computer hardware from his offices in Harrisburg.

Pease demanded that Fumo explain why one of his key technicians wiped computers at Citizens' Alliance three times after the nonprofit had been subpoenaed.

"I don't know why," Fumo replied.

Fumo said he did know why the probe had begun.

"I viewed it as desperation by George Bush wanting to win Pennsylvania, and they would have done anything they could to win this state," he testified.

Fumo said he had been targeted because he was a successful fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. Without further clarification, Fumo said, "I raised the most money in the nation."

Fumo said that both Bush political strategist Karl Rove and former U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzalez had spurred the investigation on.

In sum, Fumo said, the investigation was "political."

In light of that, Pease asked sarcastically, "you could get rid of all the evidence, right?"

"No, that's not true," replied Fumo.

The Inquirer's live blog from the Fumo trial is at http://go.philly.com/fumoblog

To read more about the former state senator, go to http://go.philly.com/fumo

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