Romney's 2002 Testimony Contradicts What He Has Said to the American People

President Obama's campaign points to a new report disclosed about Romney testifying under oath as to serving on the corporate board of Bain Capital long after the date that his campaign says he left.

Romney gave his sworn testimony at a hearing held  in June of 2002, that was held to  determine if he has sufficient residency in the state of Massachusetts to run for governor of that state. During that testimony, Romney testified that he still sat on the boards of Marriot International, LifeLike Corporation and one of Bain Capital's first investments, Staples. He told those at the hearing that he was presently on those boards, and that he had to regularly travel to Massachusetts to those meetings as well as social and family engagements.

The Boston Globe reported on the fallacy of Romney's claims about leaving Bain in 1999 earlier as well. According to the Globe, Bain reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2001 that Romney was the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president." in another form, it stated that Romney held the position of Executive and was paid a six figure sum for that position.

This goes directly against what Romney had disclosed in August of 2011, when he filed a financial disclosure form as he decided to run for the presidency. There, the form filed, states that he had no active role or dealings with the Private Equity firm Bain in any way since 1999. Bain did not sell its stock in LifeLike until 2001.

Romney has said for a long time that he had to take a leave of absence from Bain to work organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics. This gave Romney cover to deny any involvement with Bain and its activities and rumored dealings from 1999 to 2002.

 A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign said that the article by the Boston Globe is not true. In a statement released to the press, Andrea Saul said, "As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checker multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point."

But, his sworn testimony and the filings with the SEC seem to show otherwise and back up the stories from the Boston Globe and elsewhere.