Jury Acquits Ex-BP Exec Of Lying In Oil Spill

More than two years ago, Justice Department officials held a news conference to unveil criminal charges against BP and several executives in connection with the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

But the Department of Justice task force created to hold the company and responsible individuals to account has a track record that's spotty at best.

On Friday, a federal jury in New Orleans acquitted the highest-ranking BP executive charged in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, after just five days of trial.

The verdict for David Rainey, the company's former head of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, on a false statements charge deals yet another blow to a Justice Department task force that was created to deliver a reckoning for the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The government loss this week follows two other prosecution setbacks in cases that sought to hold individual BP executives to account.


David Rainey, second from right, leaves Federal Court after being arraigned on obstruction of a federal investigation in New Orleans in 2012. Rainey was acquitted Friday.

More: NPR