WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 PRNewswire-USNewswire — Michael Con­nell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly impli­cated in the rig­ging of George Bush’s 2000 and 2004 elec­tions, was killed last night when his sin­gle engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron air­port. Vel­vet Rev­o­lu­tion (“VR”), a non-profit that has been inves­ti­gat­ing Mr. Connell’s activ­i­ties for the past two years, can now reveal that a per­son close to Mr. Con­nell has recently been dis­cussing with a VR inves­ti­ga­tor how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Con­nell told a close asso­ciate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw [him] under the bus.”

A tip­ster close to the McCain cam­paign dis­closed to VR in July that Mr. Connell’s life was in jeop­ardy and that Karl Rove had threat­ened him and his wife, Heather. VR’s attor­ney, Cliff Arnebeck, noti­fied the United States Attor­ney Gen­eral , Ohio law enforce­ment and the fed­eral court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Con­nell be placed in pro­tec­tive cus­tody. VR also told a close asso­ciate of Mr. Connell’s not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sab­o­taged. Mr. Con­nell, a very expe­ri­enced pilot, has had to aban­don at least two flights in the past two months because of sus­pi­cious prob­lems with his plane. On Decem­ber 18, 2008, Mr. Con­nell flew to a small air­port out­side of Wash­ing­ton DC to meet some peo­ple. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

On Octo­ber 31, Mr. Con­nell appeared before a fed­eral judge in Ohio after being sub­poe­naed in a fed­eral law­suit inves­ti­gat­ing the rig­ging of the 2004 elec­tion under the direc­tion of Karl Rove. The judge ordered Mr. Con­nell to tes­tify under oath at a depo­si­tion on Novem­ber 3rd, the day before the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Vel­vet Rev­o­lu­tion received con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion that the White House was extremely con­cerned about Mr. Con­nell talk­ing about his ille­gal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attor­neys were dis­patched to rep­re­sent him.

An asso­ciate of Mr. Connell’s told VR that Mr. Con­nell was involved with the destruc­tion of the White House emails and the set­ting up of the off-grid White House email system.

Mr. Con­nell han­dled all of John McCain’s com­puter work in the recent pres­i­den­tial cam­paign. VR has received direct evi­dence that the McCain cam­paign kept abreast of the legal devel­op­ments against Mr. Con­nell by read­ing the VR ded­i­cated web­site, www.rovecybergate.com.

VR demands that the Ohio Attor­ney Gen­eral and the United States Jus­tice Depart­ment con­duct a com­plete inves­ti­ga­tion into the activ­i­ties of Mr. Con­nell and deter­mine whether there was any foul play in his death. VR demands that fed­eral law enforce­ment offi­cials place the fol­low­ing peo­ple under pro­tec­tive cus­tody pend­ing this inves­ti­ga­tion. Heather Con­nell who

is the owner of Gov­Tech Solu­tions, Randy Cole, the for­mer Pres­i­dent of Gov­Tech Solu­tions, and Jeff Aver­beck, the CEO of Smart­Tech in Chat­tanooga, Ten­nessee. Both Gov­Tech and Smart­Tech have been impli­cated in the rig­ging of the 2000 and 2004 elec­tions and the White House email scan­dal. Our prior request to have Mr. Con­nell pro­tected went unheeded and now he is dead.