Barry Bonds was indicted on three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The charges, of course, stem from his BALCO grand jury testimony in December 2003. The maximum sentence for the charges combined is 30 years.
The Smoking Gun has Bonds’ Indictment in full. The indictment contains a summary of the evidence the government obtained before listing verbatim exchanges from his grand jury testimony in December 2003. The parts the government believes to be lies, 19 in total, are underlined. The following are excerpts from the November 15, 2007 indictment of Barry Bonds.
“During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes.”
Q: And what about the – – the clear – – either the clear or the cream, were you getting either of those substances in December of 2001 from Mr. Anderson?
A: No. Like I said, I recall it being toward the end of 2002 – – 2002, after 2002 season.
Bonds lawyer, Michael Rains wouldn’t comment fully, but offered this from a prepared statement.
“We will no doubt have more specific comments in the very near future once we have had the opportunity to actually see this indictment that took so long to generate… All you need to know about the government’s case is that they leaked an official indictment to every media outlet in America and withheld it from Barry, his lawyer, and everyone else who could read it and defend him.”
“Every American should worry about a Justice Department that doesn’t know if waterboarding is torture and can’t tell the difference between prosecution on the one hand and persecution on the other.”
Victor Conte, president of BALCO, told ESPN that he might testify on Bonds’ behalf.
Shaun Assael of ESPN The Magazine talked to Conte Thursday night and Conte said he may testify on Bonds’ behalf that the sample the government claims Bonds tested positive for steroids is not what it seems. Conte claims it was inconclusive for many reasons.
U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan, the lead prosecutor of the BALCO investigation from 2002 through February 2007 wasn’t surprised Bonds was indicted.
“You don’t get in trouble unless you do something wrong. There was an opportunity for him to help the investigation, but he chose a path that led him to this point… I’m not surprised by this indictment.”
Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, was released from prison around the same time Bonds’ was indicted. Anderson had been in prison for most of the last year for not testifying against Bonds in said grand jury.