Obama Camp: Romney May Have Committed a Felony

If Mitt Romney wasn't actually Bain Capital's CEO in 2002, there could be "very, very serious legal consequences," an Obama campaign lawyer told reporters yesterday. Romney has said publicly that he left Bain in 1999, but the Boston Globe yesterday reported that Bain SEC filings indicate he controlled the company until 2002. If he wasn't actually in charge, which his campaign continues to insist, then he would appear to have committed a felony by misrepresenting his position to the SEC, Raw Story reports.

"[It's] very, very serious," Obama lawyer Robert Bauer said on a conference call. "And in the normal course would subject somebody in this position to every manner of investigation with all the consequences that you can imagine." Politico also notes that while running for governor in 2002, Romney said he often returned to Massachusetts for "business trips" and "board meetings." At the time, that was in Romney's best interests because there were questions about his residency and eligibility to run for governor. (More Mitt Romney stories.)