Lesson from Martha Stewart: Don't ever talk to the FBI

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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.

...
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