Is Fumo still in charge of his PAC or not?
Fumo's lawyer continues to maintain that his client has no control over his Political Action Committee
Dennis Cogan, the lawyer for jailed former State Sen. Vincent Fumo, says he wasn't misleading the Inquirer in May when he said his client no longer controlled the political action commmittee that bears his name.
"He has nothing to do with the PACs anymore," Cogan said at the time. "He has extricated himself from that world and doesn't intend to go back to it."
On Friday, federal prosecutors released a filing aimed at increasing Fumo's sentence on fraud and other charges. The document contains e-mails from the former senator in which Fumo demonstrably takes quite an interest in the PAC. In the emails, however, Fumo also clearly wants the PAC to stay largely inactive in the political arena.
In his messages, Fumo criticizes how the PAC money was spent and talks about changing its name, Fumo for Senate, to "get it under the radar."
Fumo's e-mails from prison also discuss replacing Andrew Cosenza, the friend he had appointed to oversee his PAC money.
In one e-mail to Cosenza, Fumo complains that he had ordered his friend not to spend a "(expletive deleted) dime on anything."
The Inquirer story documented how the PAC had spent nearly $100,000 in 2009 and 2010 to help political candidates that included Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Bill Green.
On Wednesday, however, Cogan said he still believes Fumo was not involved in the PAC because his client has repeatedly said he never wants to return to politics.
"I do know that Andy had control of the PAC, and I guess that Fumo was not happy with how money was being paid but also wanted to make sure the funds were not unduly dissipated," Cogan said.
At the Nov. 9 resentencing hearing, Cogan said, he will further elaborate why Fumo was trying to keep the PAC spending to a minimum.
He also said he will explain why Fumo did not want the PAC money spent at the Nov. 9 resentencing hearing.
Fumo doesn't like the attention to the PAC money.
In an e-mail about the Inquirer article, he wrote:
"And my Appeal is coming up on Wednesday and this makes me look like a corrupt crook still in business from prison. It's akin to Gotti running his mob operations from his jail cell."
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