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Saturday, November 17, 2007
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Guilty of Lying

Another one could be found guilty of not committing a crime... but it doesn't matter.  This is just as good... right?

Martha Stewart - Never convicted of insider trading... though if you tell that to most people, they'll stare at you dumbfounded.

Scooter Libby - Never convicted of committing a crime directly rated to Valerie Plame... though if you tell that to most people, they'll call you a bald faced liar.

and now potentially...

Barry Bonds - Not charged with using steroids, selling steroids, or any other crime related to steroids.  Though if you read most blogs regarding the news, you wouldn't know it.

What do these three people all have in common?  They were charged with obstruction of justice, lying to federal investigators, and perjury.  Personally, I've always found the crime of "lying to federal investigators" to be bullshit.  After all, they can lie to you all they want... but suddenly it's wrong for you to lie to them... especially since depending on the circumstances, you don't have a right to remain silent.  They'll charge you for that too.

# Posted at 11:28 AM by Nick  |  Comment Feed Link 4 Comments  |  No Trackbacks

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Saturday, November 17, 2007 12:07:16 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
You don't think it should be wrong to lie to a federal prosecutoor
the FBI?

What Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby were convicted of lying
about wasn't even illegal, but what Barry
Bonds is accused of lying about, is. But to say that it should
not be a crime to lie to federal prosecutors is just insane,
why should anyone ever tell the truth then?
Patrick
Saturday, November 17, 2007 12:23:52 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
That's a good point that the feds are allowed to lie to you, but not vice versa.

I wrote come things in a similar vein on my own blog.
Saturday, November 17, 2007 2:07:28 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
The problem Patrick is two fold. One, it's the double standard. Why should federal investigators be allowed to lie to you, in order to try to get you to talk? In many cases, people have false confessed to things, because investigators lied and said they had evidence they committed a crime, and if they confessed, they'd go easy on them.

Secondly, its more common now a days to try to get around "the right to remain silent" by holding someone as a witness, or a person of interest, but never charging them with a crime. The reality of this is that they are being investigated, but they aren't allowed to be silent, or they'd be "obstructing justice". Sort of throws a wrench in the Constitution doesn't it?
Saturday, November 17, 2007 2:16:49 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
And to correct you Patrick... what Martha Stewart was guilty of... was lying about insider trading... which is illegal. Scooter Libby is a little more gray.
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