Feds "vacuumed" Mass. House computers
Federal investigators have seized files from some [Massachusetts] State House computers that were used in legislative redistricting, according to two senior legislative sources. The agents were gathering data, including deleted e-mails and other documents, as part of their probe into the veracity of House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran's testimony in a federal civil court case.
The FBI, using a subpoena it had delivered to the Special Committee on Redistricting on March 10, went to Beacon Hill last month and removed the information from the computers used by the Senate to draw districts for the 2002 election, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.
The agents were particularly seeking any documents, either e-mails or letters, that showed Finneran was in contact with the Senate map-makers over redistricting. Such documents do not exist, according to one of the legislative sources.
"They vacuumed everything in the computer," he said, noting that the FBI was able to collect from the computer hard drives e-mails and other information that had been previously deleted. -- US investigators seize State House records in Finneran probe (Boston.com)