This morning we ran down Andy Pettitte’s testimony on direct examination in the Roger Clemens case. The upshot: (1) Clemens told him he did HGH back in 1999; but (b) Clemens said he did NOT do HGH in 2005, and that Pettitte was wrong about the 1999 conversation.
Fine, as far as that goes. The prosecution is implying strongly that, when the PED heat started to get ratcheted up, Clemens began to lie about it, and that the 1999 conversation was the truth. The only problem: Andy Pettitte, on cross examination this morning, admitted that he may actually have been wrong about that 1999 conversation. “Attanasio” is the Clemens defense lawyer cross-examining Pettitte:
Attanasio: When #Clemens told you in 2005 he didn’t use, you believed you misunderstood him. AP: Yes.
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) May 2, 2012
Attanasio: Sitting here now, you’re 50/50 that you misunderstood him; is that fair? Pettitte: “I’d say that’s fair.”
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) May 2, 2012
Pettitte just said he’s only 50% sure he understood #Clemens correctly when he said he used HGH. This is exactly what the defense wanted.
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) May 2, 2012
Obviously Brian McNamee still has to testify and his testimony is key, but Pettitte’s testimony creates way more than reasonable doubt about whether Clemens ever said that did PEDs of any kind.
This, in my mind, renders Andy Pettitte’s testimony completely useless for the prosecution, because really, all that he was there for was to testify that Clemens admitted to PED use. And now that’s blown away.
