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Flaherty says e-mail case has the ’flavor’ of cover-up

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 6, 2009 04:32 PM

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

City councilor and mayoral candidate Michael F. Flaherty Jr. said today that the discovery at City Hall of a second computer used by chief mayoral aide Michael J. Kineavy, which may contain the bulk of the e-mail subpoenaed by federal authorities, has “a real flavor here that speaks to a cover-up and/or obstruction of justice of an ongoing federal probe.”

City Councilor Michael Flaherty

Using his strongest language yet, Flaherty renewed his call for an investigation by Attorney General Martha Coakley, saying he was not satisfied with the explanation from city officials who said they had not discovered the computer earlier because they had been relying on what Kineavy had told them and Kineavy still does not remember getting a new computer.

“Quite frankly, who doesn’t notice when they get a new computer?” Flaherty said, speaking to reporters after attending a luncheon for senior citizens in the North End. “It’s common sense here that if they had nothing to hide, they wouldn’t be acting this way.”

Councilor Sam Yoon who is campaigning for Flaherty, and has been promised a post as deputy mayor if Flaherty is elected, went a step further. “It’s just a lie,” Yoon said of the assertion that Kineavy did not remember getting a new computer. “What we’re facing is corruption in City Hall. The city should be outraged.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, speaking after he attended the same luncheon in the North End, bluntly dismissed the call for a new investigation and defended Kineavy, his chief of policy and planning and key political strategist.

Menino said his administration has been "forthright" in turning over information about Kineavy’s computer and the emails that Kineavy deleted in possible violation of state public records law. “I’m trying to be as upfront as I can and people are trying to make a political issue out of it,” Menino said.

He added that “until someone proves otherwise,” he has no reason to believe that Kineavy’s failure to remember that he was given a new computer in April was anything other than “an honest mistake.”

He also brushed aside Flaherty’s call for an “independent investigation,” saying he was satisfied with the ongoing effort by Secretary of State William F. Galvin to recover Kineavy’s deleted e-mails. “The Secretary of State’s office is independent, isn’t it?” Menino said.

The discovery of the second computer directly contradicted prior assertions by the city that Kineavy's computer had not been replaced in more than two years.

The Globe reported Sept. 13 that Kineavy routinely double-deleted his messages – dragging them to the trash and then emptying them from the trash, in a way that they were not saved by the city's backup servers, a potential violation of the state public records law, which requires employees to save e-mails for at least two years, even if they have "no informational or evidential value."

Secretary of State William F. Galvin then ordered the city to seize Kineavy's computer and hire a forensics firm to try to retrieve his deleted e-mails.

The latest twist to the story came when city officials acknowledged Monday that they had discovered a second computer used by Kineavy. It was Kineavy's old one and was being kept in a sixth-floor office after Kineavy received a new one in April. Its appearance offered the prospect of finding more of Kineavy's missing messages.

The computer forensics firm hired by the city will try to retrieve e-mails requested by the Globe, as well as e-mails subpoenaed last fall by a federal grand jury. The subpoena, issued in a public corruption case against former state senator Dianne Wilkerson and Council Chuck Turner, sought copies of any messages Kineavy exchanged with Wilkerson, Turner, or their aides between March 2007 and February 2008, according to two public officials briefed on the subpoena who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.