idiot defense
n.— «The Enron Corp. trial opening Jan. 30 in Houston is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of the so-called idiot defense.…No chief executive “knows everything going on in his company,” Lay said in one of his speeches, so no one should expect him to take responsibility for the crimes of an executive he portrays as Enron’s chief villain. “I did not know what he was doing.”…It’s…also known as the “dummy” or “ostrich” defense.» —“Enron case big test of the ‘idiot defense’” by Greg Burns Chicago Tribune Jan. 2, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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