One instance that sticks out- had a private discussion over IM with one guy which essentially ended up as "yah, I'm aware of that problem and we're cutting that

One instance that sticks out- had a private discussion over IM with one guy which essentially ended up as "yah, I'm aware of that problem and we're cutting that corner now for brevity, bossman is aware too. I've thought about it already and actually do have the code ready to do the right thing and it'll be implemented when the time is right." To me, just another minor detail (a detail that is not particularly in the purview of this engineer's projects. Once upon a time he may have been in a similar role (not exactly) and believes he has authority because of it). In a later, in-person all-hands meeting, he brought it up in a way that made it seem like it was a critical, urgent mistake that needs to be corrected ASAP. Why wouldn't he have expressed that 1:1 when we were actually talking about it? From what I can tell, he just wanted to make me look like a fool instead of suggesting a solution. Yah it's makes me paranoid, I'd rather just keep my mouth shut than give him something else to put on his list of transgressions to bring up whenever he wants to throw me under a bus.