<story><title>YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-man-sentenced-6-months-prison-obstructing-federal-probe-plane</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>Critically, he is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; going to jail for intentionally crashing the plane. He is being jailed &amp;quot;for obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Had he cooperated, it&amp;#x27;s plausible to see him getting away with a license revocation and fine. Instead he did this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the weeks following the plane crash, Jacob lied to investigators that he did not know the wreckage’s location. In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site. There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob’s pickup truck.&lt;p&gt;Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere, which was done with the intent to obstruct federal authorities from investigating the November 24 plane crash.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throw0101b</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Had he cooperated, it&amp;#x27;s plausible to see him getting away with a license revocation and fine.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reminder of the quotation from Howard Baker (R-TN): &lt;i&gt;“It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.”&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though some would disagree:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;There&amp;#x27;s this old line the wise folks in Washington have that &amp;#x27;it&amp;#x27;s not the crime, but the cover-up.&amp;#x27;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;But only fools believe that. It&amp;#x27;s&lt;/i&gt; always about the crime. &lt;i&gt;The whole point of the cover-up is that a full revelation of the underlying crime is not survivable. Let me repeat that, the whole point of the cover-up is a recognition that a full revelation of the underlying bad act is not survivable. Indeed, the cover-ups are usually successful. And that&amp;#x27;s why they&amp;#x27;re tried so often. Just look at this administration [in 2007]. They&amp;#x27;re the ultimate example of this truth.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;* &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20071026022311&amp;#x2F;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;talkingpointsmemo.com&amp;#x2F;archives&amp;#x2F;013271.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20071026022311&amp;#x2F;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;talkingpo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-man-sentenced-6-months-prison-obstructing-federal-probe-plane</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>Critically, he is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; going to jail for intentionally crashing the plane. He is being jailed &amp;quot;for obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Had he cooperated, it&amp;#x27;s plausible to see him getting away with a license revocation and fine. Instead he did this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the weeks following the plane crash, Jacob lied to investigators that he did not know the wreckage’s location. In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site. There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob’s pickup truck.&lt;p&gt;Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere, which was done with the intent to obstruct federal authorities from investigating the November 24 plane crash.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>duskwuff</author><text>Note, however, that this doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that he would have gotten away with it if he&amp;#x27;d cooperated. It means that the federal prosecutor decided that the act of obstruction would be easier to prove, since the intentional nature of those acts is much more self-evident.</text></comment>