Can "I DON'T RECALL" be considered perjury?

[BOSSHOG]

If, in future testimony, as Waxman is putting the heat on some staffer's ass, he blurts out that soandso was coached to say "I don't recall" to these questions?

[SteppingRazor]

1. In practice, no it can't.

You'd have to prove that the person in question did, in fact, remember the events in question at the time of questioning, which is pretty much impossible without stepping into their brain.

[BOSSHOG]

2. So we hire Hannibal Lector?

[SteppingRazor]

3. Provided we supply him with fava beans and Chianti, of course

[BOSSHOG]

4. But

just for instance:

if in future testimony someone said sampson met with rove who told him to answer thusly to these specific questions regardless of whether you recall or not?

Maybe a stretch on my part but I want some lurking sampson to think a little harder before turning totally to the darkside.

[SteppingRazor]

6. Wouldn't matter

Because you couldn't establish a causal relationship between the coaching and the answers.

In other words, despite the coaching, the witness in question may have genuinely forgotten the events in question. (I know, I know. Fat chance. But it's still a legitimate excuse in court.)

[jkshaw]

5. ... without stepping into their brain.

Should be plenty of room in there, Razor! :evilgrin:

[hippiechick]

7. I'd think obstruction, if nothing else ...

:shrug:

[salin]

8. that is what came to my mind, as well...

:hi:

[hippiechick]

9. Salin

:hi:

[leveymg]

10. Not perjury or obstruction. Contempt.

If the Committee asks the witness, "What is your name?", and the answer is, "I can't remember", that's Contempt of Congress, unless the witness is mentally disabled (I know, . . .). But, if the question allows for the possibility a person was genuinely unable to recall the particulars of a conversation months or years earlier, then there's a presumption that "I don't recall" might be an honest answer.

There's a grey area in between, of course, where a witness can be pressed to answer. But, in the end, "I don't recall" can't normally form a perjury charge.