The top lawyer at General Motors has faced a grilling before a Senate committee over the company’s failure to address an ignition switch defect for more than a decade. The defect, which prompted the recall of millions of cars, has been linked to at least 13, but potentially hundreds, of deaths. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri called the failures of GM’s legal unit “stunning,” saying the company’s focus on minimizing its own liability had “killed innocent customers.” She asked GM CEO Mary Barra why Michael Millikin, the head of GM’s legal department, had not been fired.

Senator Claire McCaskill: “How in the world, in the aftermath of this (the GM internal) report did Michael Millikin keep his job? I do not understand.”

Mary Barra: “As you know, I have made the promise to fix what happened in the company to make sure that we are dedicated to safety, that we’re dedicated to excellence. We are well on our way. We’ve made significant change. To do that, I need the right team, and Mike Millikin is a man of incredibly high integrity.”