A federal judge on Monday dismissed one of the two counts in the indictment of a former BP executive who was charged with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was leaking from the company’s blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt cited two reasons for dismissing the obstruction of Congress charge against David Rainey, who was BP’s vice president of exploration for the Gulf. First, Engelhardt said the indictment failed to allege that Rainey knew of the pending congressional investigation he was charged with obstructing.
“Because it is an essential element of this crime that the defendant knew of this inquiry and investigation, the indictment must allege such knowledge. It does not,” the judge wrote in his 44-page ruling. “Even construing the allegations strongly in the government’s favor, it is simply impossible to ascertain from the indictment whether this essential element was presented to and found by the grand jury.”
The judge also ruled that the obstruction count must be dismissed because it wasn’t clear that it applied to subcommittee investigations like the one at the center of the indictment.
“Although subcommittees exist in both Houses of Congress, the statute does not contain the word ‘subcommittee.’ Thus, the defendant argues that the Court should not enlarge the statute to include subcommittees,'” Engelhardt wrote.
Rainey still faces one count of making false statements to law-enforcement agents, but the obstruction count was the backbone of the case against him.
One of Rainey’s lawyers declined to comment on the ruling. A Justice Department spokesman said prosecutors were reviewing the decision but declined to comment on it.
The indictment claims Rainey failed to disclose information about the estimated rate that oil was spewing from BP’s blown-out Macondo well during a May 4, 2010, congressional briefing. It also claims Rainey responded to a letter from a subcommittee chairman, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., with false and misleading information about flow-rate estimates.
