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City of Boston posts Kineavy emails online

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Think you can find the smoking gun amidst 5,000 of Michael Kineavy’s emails?  Have at it!

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  2. if we get ALL the emails. These emails posted represent the 5k emails that were in other employee’s mailboxes, NOT Michael Kineavy’s full outlook mail backup. They do not represent the estimated 16-18k emails that should be in his mailbox based on an estimate I believe I read from the Secretary of State’s office.

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    p>These emails are not even close to the whole story. If emails exist between Senator Wilkerson and Michael Kineavy they would be in the emails that the city HAS NOT turned over.  

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    p>The city has actually said it will cost $250,000 to find those emails. Please try to control your laughter. This is one of the MANY reasons (what second computer?, infrequent email user, double delete or a glitch?) Secretary Galvin is not satisfied with the response from Mayor Menino.

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    p>We can all look at these emails and find what they want us to find all the while Menino tries to run the clock out on the election.

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    p>Meanwhile, Martha Coakley has a lab dedicated to this and it is not in use on this case. Our AG (I am supporting Capuano) should put politics aside, do some public service, save the taxpayers some money and get the job done.

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    p>Read her press release on the new cyber lab here

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    p>And yes I am supporting the ticket of Flaherty/Yoon because it represents a welcome change to the politics of one person who want to control everything in a city from what building entryways look like to not allowing city employees to have voice mail.  

    • Given that

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      p>City Hall’s difficulties in producing public records under subpoena for the US Attorney and under review of public records laws from the Secretary fo State, for reasons that include
      – how the mail system operated by backing up records at night but not in a chrono file
      – how the records were handled by Kineavy who seems to play an important role close to the decision making process (the mayor) in a city government alleged to be driven by patronage and potentially tainted by corruption charges against two government officials.
      – how Kineavy’s slow PC, that was shelved and hasn’t been searched forensically, is the only source of some of the public records that were double deleted before they could be recorded by nightly backup

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      p>I am surprised that

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      p>the US Attorney and Sec of State and AG have not impounded Kineavy’s PC and insisted the forensic work be done within the chain of evidence by people whose competence that Commonwealth can assure such as the Attorney General’s new $750,000 cyber crime lab.  

    • This is starting to sound like George W. Bush making the case that Saddam Hussein had WMDs.  When they weren’t found even after inspectors were allowed, Bush fell back on the excuse that Saddam was hiding them too well.  Somehow NOT finding the WMDs further convinced Bush that they just HAD to be there somewhere.  You seem to insist there is a smoking gun, but there is no way to know unless you look, yet the only reason to look seems to be knowing it’s there.  Another analogy is to those who justify torture based on “knowing” the suspect has info, yet if we’re so sure what that info is we wouldn’t have to torture it out of them because we could find other ways.  How about actually showing some probable cause (because I have my doubts) before we do any (more) unnecessary scandal mongering.  Remember, the burden is on the accusers to prove the case.

      • Come on, Christopher — TORTURE? Why not offer up a Hitler reference? So long as you’ve brought it up, it is to me more reminiscent of the Bush administration’s frequent, loud, and high-profile denials of any knowledge — never mind formally-document policies — of torture. Denials that when we finally did see the actual White House records (preserved because of similar public records laws) turned out to be outright lies.

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        p>We already have strong reason to suspect that possibly incriminating emails were exchanged between Mr. Kineavy and both Mr. Turner and Ms. Wilkerson. This has already been reported in connection with the criminal cases already underway. We already know that the FBI has subpoenaed the emails in question, and there are strong indications that the city has not delivered them. We already know that the city has been knowingly violating current law.

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        p>We already have the appearance of a crime, together with motive, means, and opportunity.

        • Suppose I am a judge and you are the prosecuter coming to me asking for a subpeona/warrant for the emails in question.  What is your proffer of evidence?  Why are these emails necessary for your case?  How do you answer the defense attorney standing next to you in my chambers who is adamantly insisting that I not grant your request on the grounds of executive privilege?  Do not fall back on the idea that the emails were supposed to be public anyway.  That is not the issue before my hypothetical court at this time.

          • Take any of the thorough and thoughtful posts above and debunk them. Take our points and give us some critical analysis and debate. Just one point, just one original thought is all we ask for. This is a forum for ideas and opinions, not ignorance.    

            • …on why I can’t get worked up over deleted emails.  Remember, however, the accusing side has to provide the proof in our system; all the defense has to do is raise questions.  I’m not the person to provide the affirmative defense as I am not a City Hall insider.  If one is reading this I would invite that person to join this discussion and make that case too, though I can’t guarantee a fair hearing given that so many people have jumped to conclusions already.  That is actually my biggest objection (aside from my philosophical dissent regarding public records) – that we’ve basically only heard one side of the story here.  I’ve talked to someone offline whom I trust who is in a position to know a little more about this case.  It definitely sounds like there’s another explanation, but if a person who knows the case does it there’s less risk for losing something in translation.

          • What do you mean, “don’t fall back on the idea that the emails were supposed to be public anyway”?  The records in question ARE public and ARE supposed to be available upon demand.  The “case” is that Kineavy, most likely with Menino’s approval,  willfully attempted to conceal and destroy public records.  The Menino administration’s  release of a bunch of cherry-picked emails from the files of a few of Kineavy’s many correspondents, and their efforts to make it difficult if not impossible to perform electronic searches of the corpus by word or topic make it pretty obvious to any outside observer that the administration has something to hide.  News flash! – destruction of public records and obstruction of justice are real crimes, Christopher.  A subpoena of all the relevant hard drives and printed correspondence relevant to this case would be a cakewalk.

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            p>Frankly, I think the Feds should just  storm the 5th floor, seize everything and end this farce.

            • All documents responsive to the Federal subpoena, that once existed but that were double deleted by Kineavy upon receipt, exist on the hard drive of his original computer, not as part of his Outlook wastebasket file but deleted from it and available only by reclaiming free space on the drive.  

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              p>This work is being done now, as we speak, by a contractor hired by city hall.  

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              p>None of the PDF files posted could contain these emails.  

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              p>City hall will tell the US Attorney they are terribly sorry Kineavy forgot about the computer swap in April and that some poor schmuck in IT is responsible for not completing the document production properly, but who is certainly not responsible for this incomplete document production? Of course, Kineavy, city hall counsel, Mayor Menino.    

      • It was the Menino administration’s responsibility to keep public records for 2 years.  They chose to destroy these records without having backup.  The CIO of Boston is quoted as saying that he had no idea that this backup was supposed to take place. At this point, this destruction is proven, so the harm has already been done.

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        p>For an “urban mechanic,” Menino is falling incredibly short on this basic democratic concept of providing public records access to Boston citizens.  Even if there is no “smoking gun”, the administration has been negligent for what looks like the entirety of Menino’s terms in providing basic information.  How long can we wait for Boston to enter the 21st century?  It’s obvious that this administration is either ignorant of current technology or actively corrupt.  Does it really matter whether they’re ignorant or corrupt?  

  3. I read through the February batch but didn’t see anything especially interesting.

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    p>BTW, the collection for each month seems to be in reverse chronological order; i.e. section 1 has the end of the month.

    • As I explained below, the surprise (and failure on the part of StoneTurn) is if there is anything to be found.

  4. This is just more of the smokescreen.

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    p>This is the equivalent of dumping a garbage-sack of shredded checks on the floor in response to a discovery motion in a divorce case, in this case carefully filtered to make sure that:

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    p>a) The material cannot be searched or indexed in any meaningful way
    b) The material does not include any incriminating emails (gathered by trusted and friendly sources)
    c) The material is big, bulky, and easily referenced in self-serving photo-ops and press releases.

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    p>More informative would be if the server logs were delivered to a truly independent forensic data recovery company, so that a list of each email sent and received by Mr. Kineavy, Mr. Turner, and Ms. Wilkerson could be enumerated. The truly interesting question would then be which of those emails the city has produced, and which remain missing.

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    p>I am surely not the only software professional in Massachusetts with the technical chops needed by this investigation. I’m happy to do it for significantly less than the $150 to $300 an hour being collected by StoneTurn to boil the email ocean:

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    p>

    Platt said his investigators found 40,000 instances of Kineavy’s name on the older hard drive, but that the only way to determine whether those instances were e-mails was to have human beings examine each mention. It’s a slow process, and a costly one, since StoneTurn charges between $150 and $300 an hour.

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    p>This quote demonstrates to my satisfaction why Mr. Platt is not suited to lead this investigation and, more importantly, why his firm has been retained by the Menino administration. It is clear enough to me that Mr. Platt’s goal is to demonstrate that the task is impossible, rather than to solve the problem at hand.

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    p>I can do better, and I’m quite sure that the Boston area is filled with professionals like me who can do better.

    • Given that the e-mails contain names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of many individuals, it does kind of make sense this was not posted in a format that would allow it to be easily scraped by a spammer or identity thief, but it is annoying for our purposes.

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      p>You seem to be assuming that there are incriminating e-mails, and that their absence must indicate a cover up of some sort. Perhaps there are incriminating e-mails, but their absence in this sample is not evidence of anything in particular.

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      p>In any case, rather than whining about being able to see everything, go dig in and see what you can find.

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      p>[BTW, couldn’t we just ask the NSA for copies of the missing e-mails? ;-]

  5. Couple of thoughts:
    1. The fact that we – and the secretary of state and Coakley – are only being given access to the emails the Mayor’s office decided to release is a problem.  No emails to people outside the building are included.
    2. The Public Records Law is just that – a LAW.  A pubic official cannot just decide it doesn’t apply.  Where is the authority here to enforce? Why isn’t this concerning to the FBI – that they did not get the information they seeking in a case which may send people to jail? (Turner and Wilkerson)
    3. The emails show that Kineavy was the go to for everything from zoning, city council business, charity basketball games. Obviously, LIQUOR LICENESES go through him as well.
    4. The willful destruction of evidence or total incompetence by a technologically retarded city hall and MIS department stuck in the dark ages? Which is worse?

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    p>I just don’t think I can look past this.  I thought my default after Yoon was Menino but I’m def thinking that Flaherty-Yoon is the only way progressives can go. Get into the 21st century and end this machine.  

    • on the same principle, I have to believe that Flaherty has made a deal with the Firefighter’s Union to give them everything they want in their next contract in return for their support in the election. Everything he has said and not said regarding them tends to confirm this.

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      p>If it weren’t for that, I would be a lot more willing to believe he is the real thing.

      • They’ve managed to resist substantive change under Menino all these years. How much more could Flaherty give them anyway?

        • or else they would have agreed to a contract by now.

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          p>They want a 20% raise, for one. When Janet Wu asked Flaherty a number of pointed questions on the contract issue, he totally ducked the issue. He also promised a contract withing 100 days. The only way he could honestly promise any such thing is if he already has negotiated the contract with the union in advance.

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          p>

      • I wish I could believe otherwise, but I just expect more of the same from Flaherty, and I don’t believe that Yoon as a deputy is going to able to do much to change that.

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        p>It really is too bad that it could not have been Yoon vs. Menino. I would have voted for Yoon. I wonder if McCrea had put his support behind Yoon instead of attacking him if that would have been enough to put Yoon ahead of Flaherty.

  6. Ann Hess Braga, Boston City Council Staff Director and Ellen Fritch, City Stenographer have kept at too long an arms reach from the people the stenographic machine record of the last public meeting of Boston City Council. Reporter journalists have failed to hold accountable Boston City Councilors like former Council President Mike Flaherty and current Council President Mike Ross. Reporters are needed that understand and advocate how our governing Councilors should make available the public records of municipal government.

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    p>Add your request to an effort to get disclosed the stenographic machine record of the last public meeting of Boston City Council http://www.cityofboston.gov/co…

  7. I just looked inside these files.

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    p>They are not only not searchable, each page is emitted as an image! It’s bad enough that the taxpayers paid for a bogus and at best incompetent recovery effort. It doesn’t stop at that, though. After the material was re-assembled from the hard-drives — and while it was readable by any tool — this outfit then printed these as scanned pdf images.

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    p>This is intentional obfuscation. The point of this exercise was to create the appearance of producing something, while actually muddying the water.

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    p>Do the partners of StoneTurn — the company responsible for executing this charade — actually think this is going to be good for their business?

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    p>Maybe so — I’d love to know who their other clients are, and whether those clients wear white or black hats.

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