Fumo: 'Probably wrong' to allow campaign work

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo acknowledged yesterday under aggressive cross-examination that his staff did campaign work in his South Philadelphia district office and that he was "probably wrong" to have allowed that.

"It's also a violation to spit on the sidewalk, but I don't know that it's enforced," said Fumo, who gave terse and often feisty answers to Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Pease during the first day of what is expected to be a long and blistering cross-examination in Fumo's federal corruption trial.

In questions that often seemed aimed at antagonizing the once-powerful Democrat, Pease asked him whether he was "above the law," or whether he had an obligation to be ethical and aware of the type of conduct that had gotten other Pennsylvania public officials in trouble.

"My only obligation as senator is to go to Harrisburg and vote," Fumo replied evenly.

Fumo did express familiarity with the case of one lawmaker who had forced staffers to do fund-raising and other campaign-related work and who had gotten in trouble for it.

Fumo insisted he never forced any staffer to do campaign work.

"I asked them to help. They volunteered to help. It was on their own personal time," he told the jury.

The much-anticipated cross-examination began after Fumo, under questioning by his defense attorney, said that he never intended to defraud the Senate or the South Philadelphia nonprofit he helped form.

Responding to questions from his lead defense attorney, Dennis J. Cogan, Fumo insisted that he had not intended to obstruct the FBI investigation when his computer technicians stepped up sophisticated purgings of e-mail from all computers, BlackBerrys and laptops. Those efforts were undertaken after news broke that the FBI was investigating him.

"Did you ever, at any time, have any intention to do anything wrong, anything that you thought was illegal?" Cogan asked.

"No," Fumo replied.

Fumo told the jury that when The Inquirer reported in January 2004 about the FBI investigation, it was "like a punch in the stomach" and that he consulted with lawyers, including Richard A. Sprague of Philadelphia.

Fumo said his chief legislative counsel had been worried that e-mail involving the senator's dealings with executives from Peco Energy Co. and Verizon was gone because the Senate e-mail server had been replaced several years earlier.

He said Sprague told him that was no problem.

"He said to me, if nothing's been subpoenaed, you don't have to have it," Fumo quoted Sprague.

Fumo said he had a similar conversation with lawyer Robert Scandone after learning of a grand-jury subpoena for records related to the South Philadelphia nonprofit he established, Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

"His answer to me is, you don't have a subpoena," Fumo quoted Scandone. "You don't have to do anything. You can continue to do business as normal."

Sprague and Scandone have denied telling Fumo it was OK to delete any e-mail during the investigation.

Prosecutors contend that Fumo directed a campaign to obstruct the investigation with stepped-up measures to purge e-mail once he became aware of the investigation.

Fumo's testimony set the stage for federal prosecutors to call Sprague and Scandone to the witness stand during the rebuttal portion of the trial, probably next week.

But the cross-examination provided the drama of the day, and it drew a packed crowd to the 17th-floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter, who has presided over the trial since October.

Fumo, 65, who had been one of the most powerful Democrats in Harrisburg and in Philadelphia for decades, is charged with defrauding the state Senate by having employees and high-paid contractors do personal and political-campaign work on state time.

He also is also charged, with codefendant Ruth Arnao, with defrauding Citizens' Alliance by getting it to pay for hundreds of power tools, farm equipment and personal items for him. Fumo also is accused of obstructing the FBI investigation.

Under questioning by Pease, Fumo admitted that a Senate staffer did handle expense reports charged to his law firm - including a $10,500 bill for three nights at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan during a Pennsylvania Society meeting, the annual gathering in New York of the state's top political and legal movers and shakers.

Pease was blunt, even caustic, asking Fumo whether he was "sensitive" to ethics.

"I'm as sensitive as any other senator," Fumo replied.

Pease showed Fumo a summary of rulings from the state Ethics Commission and asked whether he ever read any of the digests of ethical opinions.

"I don't think any senator reads this," Fumo said.

Pease went through a number of cases, including some in which state employees were found to have improperly used government employees for personal or campaign work.

"I take it you weren't aware of that?" Pease asked Fumo about one case in which a township official had used an employee to repair his personal car.

"No, I wasn't," Fumo replied.

Fumo said he operated under Senate rules that were often unclear, with no specific regulations on such matters.

"You're not suggesting that you can make up your own rules?" Pease asked.

"No, I am not," Fumo replied. "I try to do things in the legal way, and I do things in the legal way."

Fumo nearly chided Pease at one point as he was being asked about a subpoena for records at his law firm, Dilworth, Paxson LLP.

"I think you subpoenaed everybody everywhere," he told Pease. "Among all the places you went for information about me, this is one of them."

During another tense exchange, Fumo urged Pease to "calm down."

Fumo did concede that "some of my staff did some campaign work" at his South Philadelphia district office - and that he should not have allowed that.

"I was probably wrong in not telling them that they had to go to the second floor," Fumo said, indicating that they should have used space in the building that was not part of his Tasker Street district office. "Obviously, with this type of microscopic scrutiny, I should have told them to go to the second floor."

But he disputed Pease's suggestion that the campaign work was done on Senate time. "They did not do it in the middle of the workday because there is no workday defined by the Senate," Fumo said.

Pease also asked whether Fumo's employees "routinely used state facilities and state equipment" for campaign work.

"I don't know if routine is the proper word," Fumo replied. "They did do that. . . . They did it often."

Fumo is scheduled to return to the stand this morning for more cross-examination.

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

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