By Ralph Cipriano
Vince Fumo told jurors today that the federal prosecution of him was political, and that the Bush Administration was behind it.
"They were going after Democrats all over the country," Fumo testified. "I was a target."
Fumo, facing a 139-count federal indictment, said he made the White House enemies list because George Bush was running for reelection in 2004, and the Republicans knew they had to win the swing state of Pennsylvania to hang onto the White House.
And standing in their way was Vince Fumo. The former state senator told the jury that Republicans wanted him out of the way because he was "the most promiment Democrat" in the state, as well as the guy who had "raised more money than any Democrat in the country."
"We're talking Karl Rove here," Fumo told the jury, no doubt hoping there are plenty of registered Democrats on the panel composed of several twenty-somethings, as well as African Americans.
Several jurors broke into smiles when Fumo got rolling on the stump. After all, it worked for former Philadelphia Mayor Street. After a bugging device was discovered in his office, Street cruised to reelection by campaigning against the Bush Administration's Justice Department, saying they were out to get him.
Fumo's political speech erupted when Prosecutor John Pease was questioning the former state senator about why the non-profit he created, the Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, never got around to filing their 990 financial disclosure reports to the IRS.
Pease was asking about emails between Fumo and a lawyer who suggested that Citizens Alliance might have to incur a large fine for not filing the 990s. Pease asked Fumo why he was willing to let Citizens Alliance run up a heavy fine.
That's when Fumo, like an ace punt returner, grabbed the ball and started juking as he headed for the political goal line.
The idea of Citizens Alliance taking a big fine was the lawyer's idea, not his, Fumo said. He elaborated that the lawyer got the idea from a Republican governor, who got in trouble over a nonprofit he was affiliated with. The lawyer was merely trying to "find a creative way out" of Citizen Alliance's troubles with the IRS, Fumo told the prosecutor.
"Obviously, I was not a Republican governor," Fumo began, before he started railing against the Patriot Act, Big Brother, and the Bush administration.
Prosecutor Pease tried to take the discussion in a different direction.
"Your views about federal law enforcement are very strong," aren't they, Pease said. The prosecutor then accused Fumo of being antagonisic towards FBI agents. When Fumo backpedaled, Pease introduced an email from Fumo complaining to staffers about a visit from "my two favorite female FBI agents," who in the email, were promptly dissed by Fumo as "motherf--kers."
On a jury with 10 women, you had to wonder how that went over.
Fumo, however, seemed unfazed, and kept talking about what he wanted to talk about, namely those nasty Republicans.
"I viewed it as political," Fumo said of the FBI's pursuit of him. George Bush and the Republicans, Fumo continued, "would do anything to win this state."
Is that why you felt you were justified "to do anything in your power to destroy evidence," the prosecutor countered.
"No, that's not true," Fumo said before the court broke for lunch. Lost in the political skirmish was the news that Citizens Alliance has still not gotten around to filing those 990s. When Pease subsequently asked Fumo about why Citizens Alliance can't follow the law and get those 990s in, Fumo said he had no idea.
Before the discussion turned political, Prosecutor Pease had been banging away at Fumo, on the third day of cross-examination, for not reporting some $60,000 in power tools and other gifts from Citizens Alliance on state ethics dislosure forms.
The state public ethics law requires that gifts in excess of $250 be disclosed, Pease told Fumo.
"No," Fumo said.
"No?" Pease asked.
Fumo, splitting hairs, said the disclosure portion of the state ethics law regarding nonprofits only requires reporting gifts when they exceed "what you give" to a nonprofit. Fumo said the work he did for Citizens Alliance over the years easily dwarfed the gifts of power tools and other goods that he received.
"That's the way I interpreted it," Fumo said of the state ethics law.
Then that $60,000 you received from the Citizens Alliance was income that also should have been disclosed on those 990s, Pease argued. No, it was not income, Fumo replied, it was a gift, and the way he interpeted the law, he didn't have to report it.
When Pease persisted, he earned the first of three public rebukes today from Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter. The normally mild-mannered judge told the prosecutor, "Mr. Pease, we have really exhausted this, we're repeating the same thing over and over again."
Pease then went after Fumo for not disclosing the $60,000 in gifts to reporters, who were asking questions about Citizens Alliance. Pease once again brought up Fumo's now-famous interview with Marty Moss-Coane of WHYY, when the state senator denied getting any compensation from Citizens Alliance.
"That's not the only reporter who asked questions of you," Pease argued.
"I have no idea," Fumo replied. Pease then brought up an interview with the Harrisburg Patriot-News, when Fumo was asked about reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer that federal investigators were on his trail
Fumo told the Patriot News that the feds could investigate him "for 100 years" and they wouldn't find anything, because "there's nothing there."
"You didn't want reporters to know about the gifts," Pease told Fumo. "You did not want anybody to know that you exercised complete control over Citizens Alliance. . . You did not want the public or the FBI to know."
"I did not want the FBI to know anything about my life," Fumo shot back.
Pease brought up an email Fumo had sent to another journalist, Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, and a longtime Fumo pal.
In the email, Fumo denied to Segal a report in the Philadelphia Daily News that he controlled the Citizens Alliance.
"I do not control the Citizens Alliance, nor do I want to," Fumo wrote in the email. "That's what you told your good friend Mark Segal," Pease reminded the jury.
Pease even went after Fumo for what he wrote on an accident report to an insurance company. Fumo got into an accident at the Jersey Shore after he borrowed a Town and Country minivan owned by the Citizens Alliance. The van was leased to Ruth Arnao, Fumo's codefendant, and the former executive director of the Citizens Alliance.
"I borrowed Ruth's car," Fumo told the prosecutor. "I viewed this as a perk."
Pease told Fumo if he had been truthful on the accident report, he would have admitted he was "driving a minivan as a perk."
"You didn't want anybody to know" about that perk from the Citizens Alliance, Pease argued.
"I could care less what the insurance company knew," Fumo said.
The prosecutor and the defendant also jousted about the legal advice Fumo received while his staffers were deleting emails from the senator and wiping blackberries and laptops clean.
Fumo testified that Richard A. Sprague, his former lawyer who was "like a father to me," told Fumo that "you don't have to worry about that" if he wasn't hit with a subpoena.
The discussion arose, Fumo testified, when his former chief senate counsel, Christopher Craig, was putting together documents from Fumo's dealings with PECO and Verizon, in preparation for an expected subpoena.
Craig went looking for emails and found none, Fumo testified, because the staff had a policy of deleting emails from the senator, and because Fumo had replaced the office email server, wiping out all previous emails.
Fumo testified that Sprague's advice to him was as long as he wasn't facing a subpoena, he "didn't have to do anything," Fumo said. That meant, as far as Fumo was concerned, his office could carry on with business as usual, namely an office policy of deleting emails from the senator as soon as staffers received them.
Pease countered that he couldn't believe any lawyer would advise Fumo that he could continue to delete emails and wipe computers while the state senator was being served with search warrants. The government is expected to call Sprague as a rebuttal witness to counter Fumo.
Pease asked Fumo about the day a search warrant was served on Fumo's district office on Tasker Street in Philadelphia. The prosecutor wanted to know if Fumo had ordered two staffers to wipe computers. The staffers were caught in the act when the FBI raided Fumo's office.
"I did not know that they went over there," Fumo said.
Pease was expressing his skepticism about Fumo's innocence regarding the wiping incident when the judge warned the prosecutor, "Do not talk over the witness."
Pease introduced an email that showed Fumo complaining to then-attorney Sprague about the wave of search warrants and subpoenas that were being dropped on him.
"When the f-ck are we going to fight one of these things," Fumo wrote his lawyer. Fumo said in the email that he wanted to "expose this very expensive fishing expedition" that the government was on, spurred by Fumo's enemies in the press.
Pease asked more follow-up questions about Sprague's advice to Fumo. The prosecutor wanted to know if Fumo was directing his staffers as they continued to wipe blackberries and laptops, and delete the senator's emails. Meanwhile, Pease kept pointing out the Inquirer was filing one story after another about the ongoing federal investigation of the senator, his dealings with PECO and Verizon, as well as some free yacht trips that he took.
Fumo reiterated that Sprague's advice to him was, "You don't have to worry about that if there's no subpoena."
"We've been over this many times," the judge complained. "Do you have one more question before we adjourn?"
When Pease replied that he had several more questions, the judge dismissed court for the day. The Fumo trial resumes tomorrow, with Dick Sprague expected to take the stand, and give his version of that fatherly advice he once gave Fumo.
