And since Cicci, thanks to Geary's prompting, said he never talked to Michael, he thought it was safe for him to perjure himself.
Finally, that little speech Geary made about Italian Americans being "the salt of the earth," could have been two-faced. When he said "...these hearings on the Mafia," who did he mean if not the biggest Mafioso sitting in the witness chair? And when he said "It'd be a shame, Mr. Chairman, for a few rotten apples to spoil the whole bunch," who did he mean if not the rotten apple in the witness chair?
I don't knw if Cicci was committing perjury. The question put to him was whether or not he ever received a direct order from Michael to kill anyone, and Cicci answered, at Geary's prompting that the Family had a lot of buffas. The buffa in this case was Pentangeli, who Geary had to know was alive.
Agreed on the rotten apples comment, except to say that Geary was pontificating about how many of his new constituents in Nevada were Italians and how wonderful they were. That's a far cry from his saying he disliked them coming out to this "clean country" posing as "real Americans" with their oily hair and silk suits.
