Now the FBI is After Clemens' Buttocks

The news just gets worse and worse for Roger Clemens. A day after Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens lied about performance enhancing drugs in testimony, the FBI announced that it is leading the inquiry. Clemens is about to learn that you can’t intimidate the FBI with a 95-mph fastball. They won’t back down if you throw a piece of a broken bat at them. Glare at them all you want, it won’t deter them from their job.

No, Clemens is going to have to find a new approach to beat this and possibly a new lawyer. Congressional sources have confirmed that Clemens’ legal strategy backfired when he testified and Rusty Hardin’s foolish bravado probably hasn’t helped. Yesterday, Hardin offered another gem saying, "We've always expected they would open an investigation. They attended the Congressional hearing. So, what's new?"

What’s new is that, as law professor Jonathan Turley told the Post, "I think even for a celebrity who is used to great scrutiny, nothing prepares you for being the target of an FBI field investigation. It is highly disruptive to your life. They are going to look at every aspect of his professional, financial and personal life.” Andy Pettite should expect to be contacted and even people like Joe Torre and any former teammates of Clemens could get a call from the FBI.

Clemens can take some comfort in the fact that perjury requires a person to knowingly lie under oath. Roger can certainly claim to have “misremembered” some of the events he testified about, but injections of HGH won’t be easy to explain away.

Photo of (left to right) Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens, Lanny Breuer by AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

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By Peter Trinkle in News on February 29, 2008 12:19 PM

Comments [rss]

Art Stewel

Unless they have already obtained a huge hole card, nothing short of a Presidential pardon, Clemens needs to can his advisers, especially Rusty Hardin. Clemens needs Washington, D.C. and New York counsel, immediately. The first order of business should be to explore whether it is possible to correct the record. Otherwise, he's done.

diabolix

Is this really that important for it to be a lead story on many major newspapers? Somehow I think the plight of the poor, domestic minorities or internationally discriminated groups like Palestinian or Sudanese refugees would deserve far more coverage than whether or not some sports figure took performance enhancing drugs.

miss_mess

that's a great photo. usually gothamist picks a completely unrelated, but illustrative image, or something schlocky and predictable. but this? this is perfect. and it looks like it may have even been properly licensed. good on ya, Peter Trinkle.