the F.C.I.C.’s Mr. Bondi suggested “some substantial changes” to his testimony ... Mr. Bowen says the F.C.I.C. wanted him to delete his concern that Citi may have materially misrepresented its certifications of internal controls, which require corporate officers to certify the accuracy of their financial statements under Sarbanes-Oxley.
Isn't tampering with witnesses at congressional hearings very very illegal? Like, contempt of congress?
No. Prepared testimony is just that: Prepared. There's no law against your employer (or anyone else, for that matter) suggesting topics you should or should not cover.
Do you think every cabinet undersecretary who goes up to the Hill writes his or her own testimony without input from anyone else?
Of course that only has teeth if Congress actually wants to hear the truth. If Congress is actively sticking their collective fingers in their ears singing "la la I can't/wont hear you" it doesn't matter a jot.
Speaking truth to power is an extraordinarily difficult past time.
> Instead, the document (the whistleblower's testimony), along with the commission’s other records, was sealed and sent off to the National Archives, where it may be reviewed beginning in 2016. “Why five years?” Mr. Bowen wondered. “I don’t know. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that five years is the statute of limitation for fraud.”
At the one hand of the spectrum, we have people who get thrown in jail for years for possessing mere ounces of marijuana.
At the other end, we have people who stole tens of billions from Americans, committed outright fraud by packaging risky investments inside healthy ones, obstructed justice by lying to Congress, and countless other crimes, who get... nothing.
The thing about throwing rich people in jail is that while they're in prison, and after they get out, they're still rich. They just have lost all pretense to "reputation" and are now infinitely more willing to use their money to enact revenge and illegal means to that end.
Isn't tampering with witnesses at congressional hearings very very illegal? Like, contempt of congress?