Text messages deleted by a BP engineer involved in the attempts to block the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could have been evidence in the US Justice Department’s probe into the disaster, an FBI agent told a court yesterday.
Special Agent Kelly Bryson said investigators had recovered a series of messages deleted by Kurt Mix while he was working with experts trying to seal the Macondo well.
Mix is accused of two counts of obstructing justice by deleting messages to and from his superior and from a contractor in 2010. Each count carries a sentence of up to 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000.
Giving evidence at the trial in New Orleans last night, Bryson – part of the Justice Department task force that investigated the disaster – told the court some of the messages helped show what the BP engineers working on the well knew about the amount of oil spilling into the gulf.
“I would have presented those to the grand jury,” she said, adding that the FBI had been looking into the difference betwen what was disclosed publicly and privately by the British supermajor in the weeks after the initial blowout.
The texts were important for the investigation, Bryson told the court, as they could have been more candid by virtue of being private conversations.
However, the FBI agent confirmed that the investigation had received other emails and documents from the 52-year-old which had been saved on his computer.
Lawyers for the engineer, from Katy, Texas, said these records contained the same information he is accused of concealing.
The trial, before US District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr, continues.
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