The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Medicare analyst confirms he was ordered to withhold unfavorable cost estimate

"Richard Foster, chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said last night that he received a handwritten note from Scully, then the centers' administrator, in early June ordering him to ignore information requests from members of Congress who were drafting the drug bill.
Scully's note, according to Foster, 'was a direct order not to respond to certain requests and instead to provide the responses to him and (to) warn about the consequences of insubordination.'
The note was Scully's first threat in writing, Foster said, and came after at least three less-formal threats. They 'came in different forms,' he said. 'Sometimes he would make a comment that 'I think I need another chief actuary,' or 'If you want to work for the Ways and Means Committee (which was drafting the bill) I can arrange it.' It was that sort of thing.' "

More Enron-style accounting in the Bubba Bush administration. This sort of intimidation is probably illegal and should be severely punished. At any rate, this is precisely the sort of thing that "crooked and lying" refers to.