Is Clemens Lying?

[Flip217]

I vote for "They both are, the question is who is the bigger liar" option.

Lots of inconsistantcies on both sides. My biggest question about the evidence is that McNamee is a ex-cop, yet he stores evidence in a Miller Lite can?? It just boogles the mind that someone with his training, who is trying to preserve his smoking gun would go about it so stupidly. It just doesn't make any sense.

It does if you look at it like this: McNamee wants to keep it quiet, because if nobody ever finds out about Clemens et al. using HGH and steroids, then McNamee just goes happily along, getting paid and hanging out with the greats of the game, etc...but he knows what he's involved in can blow up in everyone's face. So he keeps some evidence around just in case - but what is he supposed to do with it? Hand it over to the cops or feds and say, "Please treat this as real evidence but don't ask me what it's evidence of, unless I need it at some point to prove my side of the story and cover my ass."

And I think the evidence was stored in a FedEx box (as if that's better), not in the actual can.

I think because he was a cop he knew the importance of that evidence, but because of his role he wasn't able to preserve the evidence in a meaningful way.

[byrdz]

Lots of inconsistantcies on both sides. My biggest question about the evidence is that McNamee is a ex-cop, yet he stores evidence in a Miller Lite can??

That's pretty disgusting...the Miller Lite. Clemens could have just pointed this fact out yesterday during his interrogation and saved himself the trouble. Case closed, Roger wins!

[Migrant Redbird]

My biggest question about the evidence is that McNamee is a ex-cop, yet he stores evidence in a Miller Lite can?? It just boogles the mind that someone with his training, who is trying to preserve his smoking gun would go about it so stupidly. It just doesn't make any sense.

Do you really think that cops who happen to be crooks preserve evidence which would send themselves to jail at the local precinct evidence locker if they can help it? The guy is going to stash it someplace that's either under his control or some place where it can't be traced back to him, and ideally where he can ditch it quickly if the need arises, before a search warrant could be served.

[EddieO's21]

people actually think that Clemens is telling the truth...thats shocking

[Migrant Redbird]

"Expert" Opinions

Driver said McNamee came across as believable.

Sure, his hands were shaking at times and his body language said he was nervous. He even crossed his arms and rubbed his wrists, a move Driver said Martha Stewart did frequently during her trial. But Driver found him believable, referring to his slouched shoulders and crossed arms as "defeated."

"He looks like he's out of the game, like he doesn't want to fight," Driver said. "And when bad guys are about to confess, that's what they do. Their posture is less straight, they stare off. He's in an emotional place. He's a wet rag. And he gives me the indication that he's throwing up his arms and telling us everything he knows."

.... he only issue Driver had was when Burton asked McNamee whether he had kept syringes or any other evidence from clients besides Clemens and Chuck Knoblauch. McNamee's answer: "Possibly one other." That troubled Driver.

"There's more to that story," she said. "If you've saved evidence that long, you know what you have. It's one other. Not possibly one other."

.... On several occasions, Clemens referred to McNamee as "this man." Said Driver: "That's distancing language. Bill Clinton did the exact same thing when he said he did not have sexual relations with 'that woman.' It's a way to distance yourself from the truth."

.... Unlike some of her colleagues, Driver said she refuses to "absolutely" accuse someone of lying since there is no certain body movement to reveal that. But just like the game of poker, there are "tells." And if one of her law enforcement colleagues had shown her a tape of the hearing and asked her to grade the two witnesses on their potential hot spots, Driver said she would have given McNamee a "1" and Clemens an "8" on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the fewest hot spots.

.... Greg Hartley, a former Army interrogator and author of, "How to Spot a Liar," concurred that Clemens struggled.

"When Rep. Cummings talked to him, he licked his lips 22 times," Hartley said. "That's a huge indicator that his stress levels are high. That's holding back emotion, that's, "How dare you ask me that.'"

Hartley added that McNamee came across as more sincere.

"When I watched them," he said, "McNamee came across as a little sleezy, but so what? He's injecting people with steroids. Of course he's going to be a bit sleezy."

.... Unlike some of her colleagues, Driver said she refuses to "absolutely" accuse someone of lying since there is no certain body movement to reveal that. But just like the game of poker, there are "tells." And if one of her law enforcement colleagues had shown her a tape of the hearing and asked her to grade the two witnesses on their potential hot spots, Driver said she would have given McNamee a "1" and Clemens an "8" on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the fewest hot spots.