When he was U.S. attorney for Utah, Brett Tolman would deliver the same line in front of business leaders over and over again.
Give me the executives of any company, he would tell them, and I could prosecute them for a federal crime.
At the time, it was said with the intention of telling business leaders to shape up, stay compliant with the law, don’t dodge the IRS.
“I look back at that speech and I realize how absolutely horrifying that is,” he said. “That I could prosecute any individual because that’s how broad I felt the law was and how powerful I felt my position was?