Remember those Senate hearings last week with the heads of the major oil companies? There was a good daily show bit about how the chairman Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) didn't swear them in, even when Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) asked him to.
Well now it turns out all of the execs lied about meeting with Cheney. Just great, can anyone in Washington tell the truth?
Though if you read the transcript of the hearing Sen Stevens began it with "These witnesses excepted the invitation to appear before our committees voluntarily. They are aware that making false statements and testimony is a violation of federal law, whether or not an oath has been administered."
The relevant law is Title 18 Section 1001 of the US Code. The penalty is "shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both." How insane would it be to put the CEO's of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Shell in jail for 5 years in one fell swoop?
2 comments:
Did they except the invitation or accept it? Have to be careful about words if you want to convict on perjury. Send them all to the clinker for a couple of days just to put teeth in the law.
I didn't write the transcript, nor did I hear it live. It's always possible that he misspoke. Even still, the point stands
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