GM CEO says feds interviewed her in ignition-switch probe

Associated Press

DETROIT

General Motors CEO Mary Barra confirmed Tuesday that she has been interviewed by the Justice Department in its criminal probe of how the company handled a deadly ignition- switch problem in older small cars.

Barra told reporters the interview happened last year but said she didn’t know when the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan would release the results of its probe.

“We have cooperated fully. We continue to do that,” she said. “It is their time line,” she said about when charges could be filed.

Wire fraud likely is among the statutes being considered by federal investigators because GM used electronic communications to interact with the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Investigators are focused on whether GM failed to notify the agency of the switch problems and potentially tried to hide them.