Court Opinion

ID: 9650721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:50:21.350281+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:22:34.228314
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing
Upon his petition for rehearing, appellant stresses one point which was not raised upon his principal brief, was mentioned in his reply brief, and was not discussed by the court in its opinion. Appellant now states the point as follows:
“The issue is whether the statute can be constitutionally applied to a prosecution for statements not required to be made, not under oath, not stenographically transcribed, never reduced to writing, made at a private conference initiated wholly at appellant’s request, which he was not required to attend, solely to ask the reasons of his superior in the government for a request which had been made for appellant’s resignation, where the only two participants in the conference addressed each other throughout by their first names and discussed a wide variety of other topics, where no suitable notice was given by regulation or otherwise of the consequences of knowingly and wilfully making any false or fraudulent statements, and where the statute provides criminal penalties for false and fraudulent statements made ‘in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States’.”
Upon the trial there was a direct contradiction of evidence concerning the circumstances and content of the conversations which formed the bases of the last two counts of the indictment. A Mr. Panuch testified that he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration; that about April 30, 1946, he.directed his assistant to request Mr. Marzani’s resignation from the State Department; that in the latter part of May Mr. Marzani came to his office and said that his resignation had been requested for security reasons and asked “what it was all about”; that he advised Mr. Marzani that the request was made pursuant to his authority; and that he thereupon advised Mr. Marzani of the various charges against him, including the charge that he was a Communist, a member of the Communist Party in 1940 and 1941, and operated under the alias of Tony Whales. The witness further testified that Mr. Marzani replied that there was nothing to the charges; that Mr. Marzani took the charges up one by one and said, among other things, “I am not and never was a member of the Communist Party” and “I was never known as Tony Whales.” The witness testified to a long ensuing conversation with Mr. Marzani, saying, “That was a long conference. I think it took over two hours. You see, it was in the nature of an appeal from Fearing^ [the witness’s assistant] request. * * * It was in the nature of an appeal from Fearing’s request for his resignation, and the man was appearing before me as Deputy Assistant Secretary, and he was entitled to have his day in court, and we just threshed the matter out thoroughly.” Mr. Marzani, in his testimony on the stand, gave a somewhat different cast to the interview.
It is true, as the appellant says, that the statements were not under oath and were *142not stenographically transcribed; that the interview was at appellant’s request; that there were only two participants in the conference; that they addressed each other by their first names; and that they discussed a wide variety of topics. However, it appears with equal clarity that Mr. Panuch was appellant’s superior in office, that he had requested appellant’s resignation, and that the purpose of the interview was to afford the appellant an opportunity to discuss the requested resignation and the charges upon which it was based. The pertinent statute1 **does not limit the offense to formal statements, to written-statements, or to statements under oath. It applies to “any false or fraudulent statements or representations, * * * in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States”. In United States v. Gilliland,2 the Supreme Court observed: “The amendment indicated the congressional intent to protect the authorized functions of governmental departments and agencies from the perversion which might result from the deceptive practices described. We see no reason why this apparent intention should be frustrated by construction.”
We see nothing vague about the language “false or fraudulent statements or representations” nor any ambiguity in the language “in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States” which would place in doubt the requirement that a government employee, discussing officially with his superior an official request for his resignation, must be truthful.
Appellant’s petition for rehearing is denied.

 Sec. 35 of the Criminal Code, 48 Stat. 996 (1934), as amended, 52 Stat. 197 (1938), 18 U.S.C.A. § 80.

 1941, 312 U.S. 86, 93, 61 S.Ct. 518, 522, 85 L.Ed. 598.