I Warned Him - Roger Clemens and Perjury

Look -- it can't be all Pumpkinhead and Tweety all of the time.  And no more debates -- please, I can't take any more.

Okay, I've been slightly obsessed by the legal train wreck that is the Roger Clemens steroid/HGH controversy.  Clemens has ignored my cogent and free legal advice to shut the fuck up invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.  Instead, he testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in what can only charitably be described as a less than credible fashion.  As a result, the Committee is now asking the Justice Department to investigate bringing possible perjury charges against Clemens.   

Incredibly, Clemens's counsel, Randy Hardin, has said in response that "these matters will now be decided in court and by the ultimate lie detector - a jury."  Holy crap.  Randy and Roger -- it's not a game.  It's prison time we're talking about.  Ask Marion Jones if you don't believe me.  This is legal malpractice at a mind boggling level.          

Comments

[Ron]

Makes you wonder if they have gotten advance assurances of a Bush pardon, doesn't it?

[shoez]

If he pleads the 5th, everyone in baseball and everyone else says "So he's admitting he did it." And he doesn't want to admit it.

[Sir Charles]

Ron,

I doubt that a pardon has been greased at this point -- although I was rather shocked to see that this was apparently a partisan issue at the hearing, so maybe I'm wrong. Who knew Republicans were pro-juice?

Shoez,

I agree it would makes him look guilty. But the only thing worse than looking guilty is being guilty -- and having to do time.

The day of the congressional hearings I was having lunch at a Chinese restaurant -- and the maitre'd, a first generation Chinese American started talking to me about the hearings. He was very excited to hear that I was a baseball fan and lawyer and wanted me to explain how Clemens could possibly get up there and lie. And all I could come up with is that there is a kind of arrogance necessary to be the best pitcher (or best hitter) in baseball and that kind of arrogance is 1) conductive to believing your own bullshit and 2) tends to stop others from telling you the truth. Clemens and I are roughly contemporaries and I began rooting for him when we were both young men -- but he really has an unpleasant aspect about him that seems destined to get him into deep trouble. As for his lawyers -- they should be ashamed.

[ikl]

I'm not certain that his lawyers are to blame. He seems like the sort that might go right ahead and ignore his lawyers' advise.

[johnny reb]

I read most of the depositions. He's toast. The one thing not mentioned is he was only with McNamee up to 2002 or so. If the Feds track down his post 2002 supplier - and I think they will try hard - he's burnt toast. It's maybe the dumbest thing I've ever seen anyone do. McNamee did him a huge favor by understating his usage. Had he just apologized ambiguously, people would pretty much have forgotten about it.

[Sir Charles]

ikl,

I agree that he is probably a truly pigheaded SOB. But then I think you're duty bound to quit and make him get other counsel as a wake up call to your client.

Johnny Reb,

He could have either apologized (hard to imagine him doing) or simply kept his mouth shut. I don't think he could have ever been prosecuted for the steroid use itself. But you could see the perjury trap coming from a mile away and I agree -- it's pretty hard to understate the stupidity of a guy who is rich, famous and has a family he seemingly cares about simply talking himself into a prison cell.

[litbrit]

But the only thing worse than looking guilty is being guilty -- and having to do time.

I confess to knowing sod-all about baseball, and if it makes everyone comfortable to regard me as a bubbleheaded bleached-blonde who doesn't stress out her itty-bitty brain trying to understand Teh Law, go ahead and think that.

But I have to say, even my eight-year-old has better sense than Clemens--and his lawyer--and would heartily agree with the above statement, Sir C.

Mama always knows when you're lying, he told Son One (15) recently. She does that thing with the eyes, and then you get in even more trouble.

[Sir Charles]

So mom, rather than a jury, is the ultimate lie detector.

At the conclusion of my first jury trial, counsel went back to meet with the judge to go over the jury instructions and the judge looked at us and cheerfully exclaimed "well gentlemen, I guess it comes down to which one of the two liars the jury wants to believe." I am pleased to report that they believed my liar.