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
