House members seek criminal prosecution for ex-CSB chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso

Washington – Rafael Moure-Eraso stepped down from the Chemical Safety Board in March, but the controversy surrounding his tenure as the agency’s leader appears to be far from over.

On July 8, the top two members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee referred Moure-Eraso to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.

Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) requested a federal probe in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. In the letter, Chaffetz and Cummings ask the Justice Department to investigate whether Moure-Eraso may have lied under oath, made false statements and obstructed Congress.

The questions stem from Moure-Eraso’s testimony at committee hearings on June 19, 2014, and March 4, 2015. The letter cites at least three discrepancies between Moure-Eraso’s testimony and statements and documents obtained by the committee.

For example, Moure-Eraso testified that he stopped the illegal use of his personal email for official business “about a year and a half” before the June 2014 hearing, but the Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General’s office provided documents that suggested otherwise.

“The inconsistencies between Mr. Moure-Eraso’s testimony and other information received by the Committee raise significant concerns about the truthfulness of Mr. Moure-Eraso’s testimony,” Chaffetz and Cummings claim.