Under Investigation by DOJ for Using Banned Wood, Gibson Guitar CEO Will Attend Obama's Job Speech

Via Instapundit comes news that the CEO of Gibson Guitars will be attending tonight's jobs speech by President Barack Obama.

Whose Justice Department recently raided Gibson on the grounds that it might have been importing illegal wood for use in its guitars.

Gibson chief Henry Juszkiewicz denies the charges and is attending as the guest of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). The company was raided on similar grounds back in 2009 (that case is still pending). One of the major twists in the story? Juskiewicz is on the record as saying the DOJ told him that if they outsourced labor, there wouldn't be any issue:

CHRIS DANIEL:  Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?

HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ:  They actually wrote that in a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL:  Excuse me?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ:   They actually wrote that it a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL:  That your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of our labor?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ:  Yes

More on the Gibson raids via New Jersey's Star-Ledger.

Here's Gibson's most-famous player, Les Paul, with Mary Ford, singing "Song in Blue":

Les Paul, incidentally, was one of Reason's 35 Heroes of Freedom, and not simply because he played a mean guitar (though that helped). He helped create the technology that allowed all who followed him be more creative. We wrote:

Paul was a terrific jazz guitarist who invented the solid-body electric guitar in 1947, helping usher in America's most liberating cultural invention of the latter 20th century, rock 'n' roll. He pioneered multitracked recording and built the first eight-track, which put the D into DIY while allowing bands like the Beatles to make lasting works of art.

Read the whole list of our heroes - certainly the only litany that includes Ron Paul, Willie Nelson, and Martina Navritolova - online here.