Baseball legend Roger Clemens is now giving sworn testimony to congressional staff members on the scandal of performance-enhancing drugs. It is a considerable risk for Clemens who appears intent on protecting his legacy — even at the risk of his liberty. He could lose both. Most defense lawyers would strongly discourage Clemens from testifying. In Washington, your client is much more likely to be charged with false statements than the original allegations in a scandal. It is how you react to a scandal that is often your downfall in D.C. With various people contradicting Clemens in his denial of the use of drugs, he is at great peril.As discussed here, Clemens is pursuing a defamation lawsuit that could also present some risks.He is appearing in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after his Yankees teammate, Andy Pettitte, gave a 2 1/2 deposition to the committee. Moreover, Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee has stated that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with human growth hormone and steroids. McNamee claims to have syringes and other physical evidence to prove his allegation.For Clemens, it comes down to the choice of moving to protect his legacy or his liberty. If he is inconsistent or inaccurate, he could lose both his legacy and his liberty in this gamble. Ironically, if he insists on immunity, he would have been hard to prosecute given the high-visibility of the case. The more that such testimony is reported in the media, the more difficult it is for prosecutors to bring a criminal case — as evidenced by Oliver North’s reversed convictions in the Iran-Contra scandal.For the full story, click here
6 thoughts on “Roger Clemens Testifies Without Immunity in Congress”
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Blunder indeed and it is very close to legal malpractice. Why do guys from Mike Tyson to Monica Lewinsky to Skooter Libby to Michael Vick to Roger Clemens initially hire these “face” guys who have no feel for the venue or the case and simply want to be in the spotlight. I know here in Richmond there were twenty lawyers better suited to handle Vick’s case in front of Henry Hudson than the high profile guy he retained and all that happened is that Vick got the high side of the guidelines. Money well spent indeed. No disrespect intended and I do not consider you one of those guys, but the best lawyers I know are unrecognizable in a crowd.
Indeed, many lawyers are watching this train wreck with amazement. If those needles truly have Clemens’ DNA and performance-enhancing drugs, this would rank with one of the greatest legal blunders.
This whole episode has exposed about the worst example of lawyering I have ever seen. Since when does an attorney expose his client,in order, to an uncontrolled solo interview with Mike Wallace, Congressional investigators without any request for immunity, and then members of Congress without first being damn sure that his client’s position is unassailable and not contradicted by any of the evidence. Why would you not wait with the public relations campaign until after McNamee and his crowd made their evidence public before pushing your client out on a very public limb. I think Rusty and his ilk are better “face” lawyers than thinking lawyers, and like every other legal disaster I can think of–it all boils down to arrogance and self-aggrandizement by some “super” lawyer or some wanna-be “super” lawyer.