....Peter Hendrickson, the author of Cracking the Code, also testified for the defense. He explained that, contrary to Boyd's position, his book did not express the view that individuals had no obligation to accurately declare their income and pay federal taxes. When the prosecutor questioned Boyd about that statement on cross-examination, Boyd responded that he had not heard that part of Hendrickson's testimony.
I haven't read an actual transcript of Hendrickson's testimony. But in fairness to Hendrickson, I suspect that he never actually backed off from what he claims in his book. For instance, I don't think he claims in his book that individuals have no obligation to accurately declare their income and pay taxes. So, if he said, in open court, that individuals DO have an obligation to accurately declare their income and pay taxes, he would be (in his own mind) stating something that is
consistent with what he has written in his book.
He plays ineffectual word games with words such as "income," "trade or business," "includes," "including," "wage," "employer," "employee," and so on. Using those word games, he comes to his erroneous conclusion that the federal income tax law does not apply to income not connected to the exercise of a federal privilege. His "out" (in his own mind) is that if you have income connected to the exercise of a federal privilege, then (and then only) will the law require you to report the income.
Hendrickson tries, but he is just not smart enough for the psychological "game" he has been playing all these years. For example, he is not smart enough to devise a scheme that will allow him to avoid federal prison. He doesn't quite learn enough from his mistakes. Indeed, he does not even recognize his mistakes for what they are.
It is certainly true, however, that Hendrickson does not stand behind his followers -- especially those who are sent to prison. Instead, he makes a variety of specious arguments to the effect that the reason a follower has lost is because the follower did not quite use Hendrickson's non-method "Cracking the Code" method
properly. Hendrickson will never admit the truth: that he doesn't know what he is talking about, and that "Cracking the Code" is just another tax evasion scheme.
"My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line." -- David Mamet