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Grani_Smith066474*eMaiiContent. btm So, what's should you do if the FBI comes calling? First of all, the advice I am about to give is not for the a guy who was an inadvertent witness to a bank robbery. [am talking about people who are being interviewed as part of the types of crimes that are best described as corruption, RICO, white collar, etc. Those are the kinds of cases that involve tons of evidence. Giving an innocent, but incorrect answer to a __vague question could leave any of us in deep CaCa. _ A case in point is the lead — in the September 26, 2009 Herald. Chris Walton, director of the ° Broward County Transportation Department, was interviewed by two FBI agents. rir “He stated that they wanted to know if ""commissioners attempted to influence contracts. ""T told them no."" It may sound like a simple straight forward Q-and-A but it ain't necessarily so. He may think his interview and public statement ends the matter. In actuality, he has thrown down the gauntlet in front of the FBI. Start out with the understanding that the FBI is not investigating to see if there is crime and corruption in Broward County government. They already believe there is. They are only trying to uncover evidence to confirm their beliefs. Walton's blanket defense of the Commission has made the Feds conclude he is a fool or co-conspirator. The FBI just needs the evidence and not much of it. To quote the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan: ""any prosecutor worth his salt could indict a ham sandwich."" This means all evidence, regardless of its ambiguous nature, will be interpreted to support their assumption of WEOnEdOInS, They will be using software to go through millions of E-mail messages to look for key words. As. Buddy has quoted me: ""The 'E' in E-mail stands for evidence." So imagine the following scenario. ) _ Six months from now they uncover an E-mail from the County Manager to Walton stating that Commissioner X wants to know if the bid of company Y for new busses was correctly filled out. He replies that it was. file:///C/Documentss20and%20Settings/Trial/Desktop/E.. xuction/eDocs/eMailiGrant_ Smith066474*eMailContent. htm (4 of 6) [11/6/2010 10:16:47 PM] ~ 14493 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030930__