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Not looking good for Fumo
Submitted by Dan U-A on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 8:19am.
On Friday, the second computer aide in the Vince Fumo case pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. For those not following along, these were the guys who were caught telling everyone in their offices to delete any emails with refernces to Fumo, because there was a federal investigation.
He had been tasked with leading a systematic effort - allegedly at Fumo's behest - to delete e-mails and other electronic evidence primarily from computers used by Fumo and his staff in his Harrisburg office, in hopes of thwarting a federal investigation of Fumo.
The indictment said Luchko sent a e-mail to Eister on the evening of January 25, 2004, after published reports that the feds were investigating Fumo.
The e-mail said Fumo wanted Eister "to check all of our machines in Harrisburg and the servers as well . . . He wants all the BlackBerries wiped."
....
Several months later, on June 14, 2004, at a weekly meeting of staffers in Fumo's Harrisburg office, Eister told them that they should delete all e-mails to and from Fumo and that he would be inspecting each person's computer to ensure that everyone was following the instruction.
It is not a shock that they are going down for obstruction of justice, and frankly, that is now probably the absolute minimum that Fumo is going to be convicted of. In fact, in federal cases like this, many times the convictions become for lying and trying to mislead the government in in its investigation (See Stewart, Martha; Libby, Scooter).
And for all the future criminals out there, if you are going to commit a crime, stop writing about it on email. Emails seem always to be 'found.'
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You forgot my favorite part
of the computer-wiping story so far:
Ask For Legal Advice in Writing and Study It
Dan is right about the dangers of email: most email, most of the time, is generally preserved somewhere by someone or some piece of equipment. Engaging in criminal conduct, or conduct that creates civil liability, by email is a pretty stupid practice that many people engage in.
People in white collar jobs generally do not see themselves as potential criminals, and thus are sometimes oblivious to the legal ramifications of what they are doing even if they have the intelligence to be aware of legal dangers.
People taking actions in response to potential investigations, or taking actions that they are not specifically authorized to take, should more readily ask for legal advice about the potential ramifications of what they propose to, even if they are lawyers or have been asked to do things that may be illegal by lawyers.
The law is full of many gray areas on the margins, and the best legal strategy for anyone to follow is to stay out of these areas to the degree possible so that one is not at the mercy of the new legal interpretation of some prosecutor.