Skip to main content
Report Published: Jul 8, 2015

Referring Former Chemical Safety Board Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso to DOJ to Consider Criminal Prosecution

On July 8, 2015,House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) referred former Chemical Safety Board (CSB) Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso to the U.S. Attorney General to investigate whether he should be criminally prosecuted for making false statements to Congress.  The criminal referral follows two Oversight hearings in June 2014 and March 2015, where Mr. Moure-Eraso contradicted other information provided to the Committee.

The Committee asks the Department of Justice to investigate whether Rafael Moure-Eraso, the former chairman of the Chemical Safety Board, committed perjury and made knowingly false statements during the course of the Committee’s investigation of his agency.

  • First, Mr. Moure-Eraso testified, under oath, that he consulted with the General Counsel of the CSB before approving a request to access the emails of two CSB employees.  However, the agency’s General Counsel told the Committee that the Chairman did not do so.
  • Second, Mr. Moure-Eraso testified, under oath, that the CSB’s former Chief Information Officer (CIO) was responsible for overseeing a production of emails to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General.  According to the Inspector General, Mr. Moure-Eraso’s testimony is contradicted by the former CIO’s sworn statement.
  • Third, Mr. Moure-Eraso testified, under oath, that he stopped using his personal email account for official business “about a year and a half” before the Committee’s June 2014 hearing.  Documents and information provided to the Committee by the Inspector General’s office indicate that Mr. Moure-Eraso in fact continued using his personal email account for official business until a much later date.
  • The inconsistencies between Mr. Moure-Eraso’s testimony and other information received by the Committee raise significant concerns about the truthfulness of Mr. Moure-Eraso’s testimony.  Furthermore, the testimony in question is related to key aspects of the Committee’s investigation, and in each case, Mr. Moure-Eraso appeared to answer questions in such a way as to avoid additional scrutiny.
Related Documents
Name Document
Letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch Referring Former CSB Chairman to DOJ for Criminal Prosecution Document
Memo Regarding Testimony of Dr. Moure-Eraso at Oversight Hearings Document