The prosecutor who oversaw the Michael Brown grand jury has acknowledged knowingly calling witnesses who weren’t telling the truth. In his first interview since announcing the non-indictment of officer Darren Wilson last month, Bob McCulloch told a St. Louis radio station he decided to call all potential witnesses, even those who lied.

Bob McCulloch: “Early on, I decided that anyone who claimed to have witnessed anything was going to be presented to the grand jury. And I knew that no matter how I handled this, there would be criticism of it. So if I didn’t put those witnesses on, then we’d be discussing now why I didn’t put those witnesses on, even though their statements were not accurate … But I thought it was much more important to present anybody and everybody, and some that, yes, clearly were not telling the truth. No question about it.”

McCulloch claims the lying went “both ways.” He acknowledged that one witness who testified in Wilson’s favor “clearly wasn’t present” at the scene, an apparent reference to “Witness 40,” a woman with a history of mental issues, racist comments and fabricated claims. In a letter, Missouri state lawmaker Karla May called for investigating McCulloch for prosecutorial misconduct, saying: “There is at least some evidence to suggest that McCulloch manipulated the grand jury process from the beginning to ensure that Officer Wilson would not be indicted.”