Kevin Sorbo, the actor best known for the title role in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, posted a pointed question to his social media followers this week, asking why Americans can be imprisoned for lying to Congress while lawmakers who lie to the public face no such consequence.
In the post, Sorbo wrote, “Just thinking about this. If people can go to prison for lying to Congress, then why can’t we put members of Congress in prison for lying to the American people?”
Under federal law, lying to Congress can be charged either as perjury, when a witness is under oath, or as a false statement under Title 18, a provision that applies even without an oath. Prosecutions remain rare. Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a Trump Tower Moscow project, becoming one of only a handful of people in recent decades to face real legal consequences for misleading lawmakers. No comparable statute criminalizes members of Congress for making false statements to the public, a gap that has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
Sorbo, 67, has spent recent years building a second public profile as a conservative commentator, frequently criticizing government officials and institutions on social media. He did not propose any specific legislative fix in his post or elaborate further, but the comment quickly spread among his followers, reigniting a recurring debate over the different standards of accountability applied to private citizens and elected officials.
