Fumo computer aide: Vince wanted all e-messages 'wiped'

A one-time computer aide for Vince Fumo testified yesterday at the former state senator's federal corruption trial that Fumo had directed him to "wipe" all the BlackBerries in Fumo's Harrisburg office after a January 2004 newspaper article reported that the FBI was investigating Fumo.

Mark C. Eister, a bespectacled computer geek, calmly told the jury that he had been away taking training lessons on computer security at the time.

"After you go back from the training, did you do the wipes?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pease.

"Yes, yes, I do recall going around the office and doing wipes," Eister said. Wiping involves using software to erase traces of deleted files, including e-mails, from computers or hand-held devices.

Prosecutors say that Fumo orchestrated a systematic cover-up by instructing two former computer aides, Eister and Leonard P. Luchko, to destroy e-mails sent to and from the senator and to wipe any traces of them from computer hard drives, servers, PC cards and other storage devices.

Both men pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and obstruction-of-justice charges, and agreed to testify against Fumo.

Luchko had been expected to testify for the government on Monday until prosecutors received a cache of e-mails over the weekend from Luchko's attorney in which Luchko had been communicating with Fumo and government witnesses during the trial.

Printouts of the 5,000 pages of e-mails were stacked in court yesterday - they measured 19 inches high - and Fumo attorney Dennis Cogan told U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter that he was "flying blind" and needed more time to review the e-mails before cross-examining Eister.

Buckwalter said that he would delay the trial until 1:30 today.

Eister told the jury that after the Inquirer published its story on Jan. 25, 2004, he received an e-mail from Luchko in which Luchko asked him to check all computers and servers in Fumo's Harrisburg office.

He testified that until then, computers were wiped only if a staffer was leaving Fumo's employ or the computer was being taken out of service.

Eister testified that, as Fumo ordered stepped-up computer security after the FBI probe became public, he wiped Fumo's e-mail exchange servers in Harrisburg.

At a meeting of the Harrisburg staff in June 2004, Eister informed staffers that e-mail to and from Fumo had to be deleted weekly and that he would be inspecting each person's computer to make sure the practice was being followed.

He said that Fumo was aware of the practice and wanted it done.

"Any doubt in your mind about that?" asked Pease, the prosecutor. "No," Eister replied.

He testified that the atmosphere was "tense" around Fumo's Harrisburg office throughout 2004 as the weight of the FBI probe began to sink in.

Conversations among staffers were punctuated by "dark humor," he said.

Eister said that he had some concerns about destroying the Fumo e-mails but hadn't given it much thought at the time.

"It was personally uncomfortable to me, but it was my job," he testified.

He said that he now regrets what he did. *