In 2012 it’s convenient for Mitt Romney to claim he had no ties with Bain Capital between 1999 and 2002 even though the official record says he was still the CEO, president, and sole shareholder, for Pete’s sake, but it was also convenient to testify in 2002 while he was running for Governor that he did.
Mitt Romney testified to Massachusetts officials in 2002 that he maintained business ties during his Olympics work, undermining his argument that he had no connection to Bain Capital or related companies after 1999. Notably, his campaign has refused to deny whether he ever held meetings with Bain during his time in Salt Lake City.
Romney, who at the time was trying to convince the state Ballot Law Commission that he should be allowed to run for office in Massachusetts despite living in Utah the previous three years, did not directly address his work with Bain Capital. But, in testimony obtained by the Huffington Post, Romney said that he returned home for “a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth.”
During his ballot commission testimony, when asked whether he continued to serve on boards while working on the Olympics, Romney answered: “Yes.”
“I immediately resigned from the board of Sports Authority located in Florida, feeling it could present a conflict of interest with my Olympic responsibilities and of course the travel could be challenging as well. I remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the Life Like Corporation. And I remained as a corporator of the Belmont Hill School,” he said.
Asked specifically about the Staples board, Romney said there were four to five meetings a year and he returned to Massachusetts “for most of those meetings. Others I attended by telephone if I could not return.”
Each of those companies were controlled by Bain.
Mitt Romney testified under oath that he maintained his “business ties” in 2002, but today he claims he had nothing to do with the company that was still paying him a generous salary.
Was he lying in 2002 or is he lying now in 2012?
One is not necessarily better than the other. Either way, Romney is an established liar.
