Immunity? For Telling the Truth? ... What?!

SEE HERE OK this is just crazy and frankly suggests that they need the immunity.  Why would a scientist need immunity if they have been telling the truth?  That at least is the question that popped into my mind when I read this.  Scientists are supposed to be a data-driven breed and that means publishing the data and the analysis and the interpretation.  So long as the data is accurate and the analysis is not flawed then what comes out is the truth, or at least an approximation of the truth that is as close to it as our understanding of the data and the analysis principles applied can achieve.  So what's with requests for immunity?  Peculiar and suspicious.