Mastro report on GWB scandal deviates from federal standards

[malaise]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/analysis-mastro-report-on-gwb-scandal-deviates-from-federal-standards-1.842413
<snip>
But the reasons for skepticism go beyond the fact that the report was commissioned by Christie.

The investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, publishes standards that its work must follow in what’s known as “The Yellow Book.” So, too, do the in-house watchdogs in the federal and many state governments, known as inspectors general.

The report prepared by lead attorney Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn appears to diverge from those standards in several ways, according to an analysis by The Record and interviews with experienced investigators.

Reports can be persuasive, these standards say, but persuasion should come from facts and not “adjectives or adverbs that characterize evidence in a way that implies criticism or unsupported conclusions.”

The Mastro report included more than 500 adverbs and adjectives, and in many crucial accountings of facts or presentations of conclusions the authors used them to color descriptions, such as calling things said by one Christie accuser “demonstrably false” — eight times.

[madaboutharry]

1. When you can't cite facts,

use adjectives and adverbs.

[malaise]

2. more than 500 adverbs and adjectives?

Fugger should be disbarred.