Jury selection is expected to conclude on Tuesday in the Roger Clemens trial, but the morning saw a preliminary hearing as to the jury instructions. Once a jury is selected, the empaneled jurors will receive preliminary jury instructions before opening statements and then additional instructions either right before or right after closing arguments.
Roger Clemens Trial: Defense To Question Validity Of Congressional Hearing
The Tuesday morning argument dealt with the preliminary instructions expected discussion of the legitimacy of the Congressional hearings. The defense is arguing the hearings go beyond Congress's legislative powers and turned into nothing more than a he said-he said contest between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. Congress has held multiple hearings concerning PED usage in baseball and other sports over the last ten years and every time the hearings come up there are complaints about Congress wasting money on an issue that is not of their concern.
In this particular instance, there was a portion of the hearing devoted to whether Roger Clemens was at a pool party at Jose Canseco’s house. Clemens denied attending the party and the defense contends this minor dispute within the hearing suggested a lack of legitimacy. They believe the jurors should not only be looking at whether Clemens lied, made false statements and/or obstructed Congress, but also whether the hearing itself was legitimate. If the jury decided the hearings were not even legitimate in the first place, that would conceivably throw out the obstruction of Congress charge even if it is proven that Clemens purposefully lied to Congress.
See More:
