Barry Bonds Might Not Go to Jail
As far as I'm concerned, the big news is that Barry Bonds might be getting off. Yep, that's right. Barry Bonds might not be going to jail.
For those who don't know all of the details, but do know that Bonds is going on trial in March, know this. He's not going on trial for using steroids. He's going on trial for perjury, for supposedly lying to a Federal grand jury about whether he ever used steroids. Bonds stated that he never used steroids. The Feds, having possession of his records, knew that he took "The Clear," which they claim was a steroid.
There's just one catch.
At least not at the time that Bonds took it. The U.S. Government didn't classify "The Clear" as a steroid until 2005, which was after BALCO, the Bay Area lab that supplied Bonds, was shut down by the Feds. And the Feds knew this, and admitted to such under oath to the grand jury.
How do we know this? Well, a couple of folks over at Yahoo! Sports went through all of the thousands of pages of grand jury testimony, and read every single word. Thus they read one of the government's expert witnesses state that the version of "The Clear" that Bonds took wasn't a steroid. And Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator stated that it wasn't even known if "The Clear" enhanced muscle growth like steroids are supposed to do.
Now Bonds is being prosecuted for perjury, for lying to the grand jury in 2003 about whether he was taking steroids. But the trap that the Feds are stuck in now is that it's kind of hard to get some guy for perjury if he was actually telling the truth.
Barry Bonds is not in the clear. I'm sure the Feds think they have enough to convict Bonds on, even with this problem with "The Clear." But this is interesting to me because Bonds and his legal team have been one step ahead of the Feds on this matter since this all started. And seeing that a grand jury has just been convened to deal with Roger Clemens, I would think that Clemens would be putting in a call to Bonds and his legal team.
Anybody who has paid any attention to Team Rocket over the past year or so knows that they haven't come off very good. For instance, many might have forgotten, but Bonds was subpoenaed to appear before Congress at the same time as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Jose Canseco. But Bonds' legal team got him out of it.
We all know how Rocket's appearance before Congress went. And Bonds' friend Greg Anderson has done jail time to keep from testifying against Bonds. But we all saw how quickly Andy Pettitte rolled over and sold out Rocket.
And do you know what would be really funny? If Barry Bonds does walk and gets no conviction or jail time whatsoever and it's the Rocket who ends up behind bars because, if you think back, it was Barry Bonds who was supposed to have been the world's biggest jerk while Rocket was this great family guy and teammate. Maybe Memorial Hermann should talk to Bonds about putting his name on their clinic.
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