As they became friends, Spoonamore sensed that Connell was having second thoughts about what hed been doing for the Republicans. Maybe youve followed some of the flap about all of those e-mails of Karl Roves that somehow disappeared over time. Well, it was Connell who set up the site used by Rove for 95 percent of his e-mail communication, known as GWB43.com. At the end of a private meeting in 2006, Connell asked Spoonamore what he knew about the complexity of trying to erase e-mail. Spoon explained that, in most cases, it cant be done. Connell pointed in the direction of the White House a few blocks away, saying that hed kinda been asked to look at a challenge, whether you could recover or get back e-mails. Spoonamore recalls: He was fishing around for what the steps might be. I said, Mike, Im involved in a lot of stuff to protect peoples privacy and bank accounts, but I dont use those skills to destroy information. And I would encourage you to tell people to walk away from this because, one, it doesnt work and, two, the cover-up is always worse than the crime, Mike.

The memo prepared for [Congressman Conyer's] House Judiciary Committee said: Well before the 2000 election, one of Connells employees created a Trojan Horse software application which, when installed on one computer, allows its remote control by another computer. Prior to the 2004 election in Ohio, Connell administered and developed important parts of the Secretary of States computer network including the election results reporting server systems. . . . During the 2004 (and 2006) elections, Connell routed the election results from the OH SOS office through SMARTech servers in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In July 2008, attorney Arnebeck asked U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to hold onto all of Roves e-mails. Rove was identified in the lawsuit as the principal perpetrator of a pattern of corrupt activity under the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act. We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell . . . that if he does not agree to take the fall for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed law lobby violations.

Then, in September, Connell got issued a subpoena. His attorney, Bill Todd, who happened to also have been legal counsel for Bush/Cheney 04, said that Connell couldnt be deposed before the election because he was too busy working for the John McCain campaign. Shortly before the November election, Connell appeared with a trio of lawyers before an Ohio judge, who ordered him to give a deposition. With the election one day away, Connell denied any role in recommending the Chattanooga SMARTech company to Ohio officials in 2004, but he did admit for the record that his company had subcontracted with SMARTech.

This might have shaken up Rove and company. In mid-October, Rove had an article in the Wall Street Journal headlined Obama Hasnt Closed the Sale. The latest Gallup tracking poll showed nearly twice as many undecided voters than in the 2004 election, Rove said, so Obamas 7.3% lead didnt necessarily mean that much. McCain, entering the final weekend of the race, predicted a come-from-behind victory, based on how things were looking in battleground states like Ohio. But then suddenly, on Monday night, after Connell gave his deposition, it all changed. The new Rove electoral map predicted a 338-to-200 electoral vote margin in favor of Obama. Rove had basically done a 180-degree turn.