Clemens Trial Continues

A small setback for the defense and mainly a ruling that saves Congress some embarrassment. In the scheme of things, the jury is already aware of the dubious nature of the congressional hearings to begin with.  The real issue in the case is whether the jurors will believe anything that Brian McNamee has testified to.  This afternoon produced the following:

Lawyers for Roger Clemens today argued unsuccessfully to convince a federal judge in Washington to force Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to testify at the former baseball pitcher's trial on perjury and obstruction charges.
The attorneys, including Joe Roden, said Clemens has a right to question Issa, now the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, over his remarks in February 2008 about the merits of a congressional hearing about drug use in baseball.
Issa expressed concern then in statements to reporters about the underlying legitimacy of the hearing at which Clemens testified. Clemens’s denial of using performance-enhancing drugs is the heart of the perjury case against him in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton this afternoon refused to force Issa to testify. Walton said he was not convinced that Issa’s testimony was “competent” to challenge the prosecution's position that the congressional hearing was a legitimate legislative purpose.