http://www.nwanews.com/times/story_Editorial.php?storyid=115586 Guest Commentary : Martha's lesson - don't talk to the FBI BY DONALD KAUL Posted on Saturday, March 20, 2004 Here is the lesson to be learned from the fall of Martha Stewart: Don't ever, under any circumstances, answer questions put to you by the FBI or any other federal agent unless you have a competent criminal lawyer at your side. And it would be better if it were a very good criminal lawyer. There are other lessons to be drawn from the fate of poor Martha, but that's the main one. You see, there is a section in the federal code, referred to as 1001 by legal eagles, that makes it a crime to lie to a federal agent. The agent doesn't have to put you under oath. If you tell him or her a lie, you're guilty. The federal officer doesn't even have to tape the conversation. All he or she has to do is produce handwritten notes that indicate that you made false statements. So, if you misspeak or the agent mishears or there is an ambiguity that the agent chooses to interpret in an unfortunate (for you) direction, you're on the hook. There's also the possibility that you might be tempted to shade the truth a bit when an IRS agent is quizzing you about that business deduction you took for the trip to Vegas. My advice to you is: Don't do it. To be on the safe side, when confronted by a federal agent, don't say anything at all unless your lawyer says you have to. It's a shame things have come to this. It used to be that people felt it their duty as citizens to cooperate with federal authorities. That was before Law 1001. We now live in an era of Incredible Shrinking Civil Rights. You have to protect yourself at all times. Let's look more closely at the case of Poor Martha the Match Girl. What did she do? She was convicted of lying about the reason she sold her shares in a biotechnology company two years ago. She said she sold them because they had fallen to the price at which she and her broker had agreed to sell. ... _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Mar 30 2004 - 22:01:21 PST