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What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law

Prosecutorial Discretion

What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law

Roman Mars

Government

4.84.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Prosecutors recommended that Roger Stone, an associate of Donald Trump, be given a heavy penalty after being convicted of seven felony counts, including lying to authorities. But after intervention from Attorney General Barr, and tweets from the President, those recommendations were rescinded. What can his case tell us about presidential interference and prosecutorial discretion?

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is a story about accounting, crime, and fish.

0:05.0

Enron was once the world's largest energy trader, and it filed for one of the largest corporate

0:10.5

bankruptcies in American history on December 2, 2001.

0:15.0

Enron employees, some carrying boxes filled with belongings, leave their downtown

0:19.7

headquarters, huddled against the cold and an uncertain future.

0:23.0

This was supposed to be a very solid company.

0:25.0

No worries about your future, right?

0:27.0

If you come from a small dot-com startup.

0:30.0

The company admitted that it hadn't been entirely truthful about its finances,

0:35.0

and by not entirely truthful, I mean fraudulent.

0:39.0

The government's investigation of Enron led to the prosecutions and convictions of Enron CEO

0:46.2

Jeffrey Skilling and its founder, Kenneth Lay.

0:49.8

Certainly this was not the outcome we expected. I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges

0:55.8

against me as I have said from day one. I still firmly believe that as of this day.

1:00.8

Enron's collapse also led to the downfall of its accounting firm Arthur Anderson.

1:07.0

The accounting firm was in fact indicted on obstruction of justice charges.

1:13.3

Federal prosecutors argued that Arthur Anderson had shredded documents and computer

1:17.8

hard drives related to its shoddy auditing of Enron. After Enron and several more accounting scandals, Congress

1:26.9

eventually passed what's known as the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002. This is a federal law that's meant to regulate auditing and

1:35.8

accounting firms more closely to prevent another Enron from happening again.

1:40.5

And that's where the fish come in.

1:43.0

On August 23rd, 2007, the crew of the commercial fishing vessel called the Miss

...

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