Last week, Volkswagen of America C.E.O. Michael Horn told a House subcommittee investigating his company’s ongoing emissions scandal that it wasn’t a corporate decision to cheat emissions tests by installing “defeat” software in eleven million diesel cars.

An Engineering Theory of the Volkswagen Scandal, par Paul Kedrosky du New Yorker

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Instead, Horn said, it was “a couple of software engineers.” His interlocutor, Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, reminded Horn that he was under oath and then asked him when Volkswagen’s senior management in Europe learned of the tampering, which reportedly began in 2009. When Horn replied that they found out only this September, Barton expressed incredulity.

“I agree, it’s very hard to believe,” Horn said.