Political Quotes

“My amendment seeks to prevent a disgraceful action taken by some defendants. Specifically, it addresses the problems of withheld or shredded documents. We have recently heard allegations that Enron and Arthur Andersen have engaged in document shredding. Those documents were being sought by lawyers for the company's former employees, by Members of Congress and by government investigators. In any lawsuit involving shredded documents, the information those documents contain may be lost forever. So while a court may sanction a party that shreds documents, other parties will never be able to use the documents to prove their case. Under my amendment, any party that withholds or destroys material related to a court discovery order would be deemed to have admitted to any fact relating to the discovery order. Before that can happen, it would have to be proven that the party did, in fact, destroy or withhold those documents or that the party made a misrepresentation as to their existence; but once that has been proven, the party that engaged in illegal activity would have essentially admitted to the facts relating to the discovery order.”