Cheated or not, I expect the reason to use it as an excuse is so their stock won't take a bigger hit than they expect it to get, and maybe stop the downfall of their stock with a promise of a new future.
I guess regardless, he is expected to take a bit hit financially from both the trade investigation and family issues soon enough.
I don't personally blame him for the silly things people here post like drivers, the bugs which predated him, or claims as if he personally put a huge cooler and OCed the 28 core.
I do think that intel hadn't had a good vision since sandy bridge or ivy bridge, and they have been basically been walking forward like the world is at their feet, milking the same technology without any improvements (though I would blame AMD as well for not giving them a fight).
Lets see whether a new CEO will kick them back into work to improve things, or just fire more people to make more money to shareholders.
