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Grand jury perjury question
As Prof. Sam Buell posits in his Corporate Crime casebook, here is one of the most famous examples of testimony and the issue of “literal truth":
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON’S GRAND JURY TESTIMONY
Q: Mr. President, I want to before I go into a new subject area… The statement of your attorney, Mr. Bennett, at the Paul[a] Jones deposition, “counsel is fully aware…that Ms. Lewinsky has filed, has an affidavit which they are in possession of saying that there is no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form, with President Clinton”? That statement was made by your attorney in front of Judge Susan Webber Wright, correct?
A: That’s correct.
Q: That statement is a completely false statement. Whether or not Mr. Bennett knew of your relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, the statement that there was “no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form, with President Clinton,” was an utterly false statement. Is that correct?
A: It depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is. If the-if he-if “is” means is and never has been, that is not-that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. But as I have testified, and I’d like to testify again, this is—it is somewhat unusual for a client to be asked about his lawyer’s statements, instead of the other way around. I was not paying a great deal of attention to this exchange. I was focusing on my own testimony.
Grand Jury Testimony of President Clinton, August 17, 1998, pg. 57-58. (Video of a three-minute excerpt of Clinton’s grand jury testimony, including the passage transcribed above, is available at https://youtu.be/xHlt1W83JFU.)
This testimony formed the basis of one of the Articles of Impeachment against Clinton:
“It is clear to the [House Judiciary] Committee that the President perjured himself when he said that Mr. Bennett’s statement that there was ‘no sex of any kind’ was ‘completely true’ depending on what the word ‘is’ is.”
Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, H.R. Rep. No. 105-830 (1998).
Under Bronston, is the assertion of the House Judiciary Committee, in its Articles of Impeachment, correct?
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