“When John Tierney speaks, you’re never quite sure you’re hearing the full story. There’s always a twist, a tweak of a word here or there, that leaves one with a sense there’s more to the story. And so it is with the matter of just how much the Democratic congressman from Salem knew about his brother-in-law’s illegal gambling and his own wife’s involvement in tax fraud. One view, that of the jailbird brother-in-law in question, is that Tierney is “the biggest liar in the world.”‘

“But, in trying to refute the charges, Tierney doesn’t help his own credibility when he suggests the judge at Patrice’s sentencing in 2011 essentially exonerated him from having any knowledge of the case. For that interpretation of the judge’s remarks indeed represents a stretch, at best — and at worst, as challenger Richard Tisei’s campaign suggested, deliberately distorts the judge’s words and intent.”

“But we never imagined that the potential next U.S. Representative for parts of Andover would make national news as a Congressman who is referred to by his own jailbird brother-in-law as “the biggest liar in the world.”‘

“But Tierney’s so-called ignorance doesn’t put him in the clear. In fact, it raises a basic question: How could he not know?”

“Frankly, the Salem Democrat should have done this two years ago, when news broke that his wife, Patrice, would plead guilty to helping her brother conceal income from his illicit offshore gambling business in Antigua.”