cdiwho_clip_image002.thumbnail.jpgMike Connell, the GOP's go-to computer guy who died in a solo plane crash late Friday night had had allegedly been threatened with federal prosecution by Karl Rove.

In email to Attorney General Mukasey posted on BRAD Blog attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who brought the Ohio vote-tampering suit, wrote:

We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to "take the fall" for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations.

Connell was deposed on November 3 of this year in the 2006 case which alleges that voter fraud helped steal Ohio votes and swing the 2004 election for President George W. Bush. Computer servers for Ohio on Election Night were run by one of Mr. Connell's companies. Connell had designed Blackwell's election websites along with the 2004 Election Night site for the Secretary of State which showed votes in real time, along with numerous sites for the GOP.

Ohio.com explains that the lawsuit King Lincoln Bronzwell v. Blackwell

alleges that by 9 p.m. on Election Night 2004, the results were switched from the state server to one set up by Connell's, in the former Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tenn. It is alleged the same server was used to bundle and remove White House e-mails regarding the 2005 federal prosecutor firing scandal.

Investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna writes:

Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House...When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all "known" Karl Rove accounts...Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened.

During the investigation into missing emails between the White House an Justice department, per Cybrinth CEO Stephen Spoonamore, as reported on HuffPo, Connell asked 

about ways to "permanently destroy hard drives." Spoonamore said "If this is what I think you're talking about, this meeting is over."

Bob Fitrakis who filed the lawsuit with Arnebeck said in the deposition that Connell discussed the computer servers he had put in place in Ohio in 2004 and other areas. The hope of those involved in the suit, according to Fitrakis, was that Mr. Connell's deposition would lead them to Rove.

Executive director of the Ohio Republican Party, Jason Mauk discounts the conspiracy theorists, dismissing them as the "tin foil hat community," and commenting that:

I don't think Mike had nearly as much to do with that as the tin-foil-hat community would believe.

Meanwhile, initial investigation seems to indicate that Friday night's "cloud cover and misty, cold conditions" were at cause for the crash.

Former Navy pilot and director of safety for a Cleveland-area private jet company Charles Starkey told Ohio.com that in such conditions, pilots typically are forced to rely on the plane's instruments rather than their own vision, which can contribute to crashes.

It's easy to get disoriented, especially if you're not very experienced at it. You've got to ignore the various things your body can be telling you and rely on your instruments. It's very challenging.