Lying to Congress

Lying to Congress — under oath, in sworn declarations, or in formal congressional testimony — is a federal crime and a direct breach of the oversight relationship. Concrete forms include false statements about material facts during testimony, doctored documents submitted as authentic, and false representations to congressional investigators acting in their official capacity. The publication tracks instances where the statement is documented and the falsity is established (by contemporaneous documents, by later testimony, or by judicial finding). Routine disagreement over legal interpretation is not lying; lying is the false representation of facts within the speaker's knowledge.