[bmurray7jhu]

Jacob plead guilty after the government found Jacob's unilateral recording of himself making false statements during a phone call with an FAA investigator. The plea bargain mentions these false statements, but only the search warrant notes that Jacob made perhaps the only recording of himself committing a federal crime.

The search warrant also includes a narrative into the investigation of four other crimes for which Jacob was investigated, but not ultimately charged.

[olddustytrail]

I can't believe Americans accept that it's a criminal offence to lie to federal officials. Why don't you push back against such a bizarre overreach?

[jzb]

"Why don't you push back against such a bizarre overreach?"

Well, gee, I'm just gonna run right out and riot over it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Is it not a criminal offense to lie to whatever the equivalent of the FAA is in your country if you're a pilot or otherwise under investigation for the equivalent crimes this YouTuber committed?

The context is important here: If I understand correctly, the pilot had to have a license issued by the FAA and should've been made aware of laws and penalties in the context of operating a plane. Operating a plane is not a right, it's a privilege. It's also in the public interest that there are strict regulations and investigators with the ability to look into these types of crimes.

The pilot ditched a plane and then tried to obstruct an investigation into the crime. He did commit several crimes and potentially endangered others. He tried to lie to cover it up. As a U.S. citizen who has a vested interest in not being hit by planes dropping out of the sky because the pilot decided to try to get more YouTube views - I'm not particularly offended that this is a crime.

The FAA investigator's job is to assess the cause of air accidents. That may involve interviewing a lot of people with a lot of incentive to lie -- pilots, executives of plane manufacturers who may have cut corners leading to accidents, air traffic controllers, engineers trying to avoid blame, etc. Lots of scenarios where the incentive to lie is high, the impact of a cover-up may be bad for society overall, and without penalties people would lie with impunity.

There should be guardrails around what they can ask. If he was convicted of lying about something totally unrelated to air safety, I might feel differently. This does not feel like an overreach to me.