A lawyer who told then-state Sen. Vince Fumo he could continue the "normal course of district office business" after a nonprofit organization that he founded was served with a grand-jury subpoena in April 2004 said under cross-examination yesterday that did not mean Fumo could delete e-mails.

The advice was in a February 2006 letter the lawyer, Robert Scandone, gave to Fumo's then-defense lawyer, Richard A. Sprague, who was preparing Fumo's defense.