The day after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s grand jury indictment, his lawyer and the jury foreman on Thursday appeared to contradict the Texas politician’s assertions that he was not given a chance to speak before the jury.
The foreman, William M. Gibson Jr., a retired state insurance investigator, said the Travis County grand jury waited until Wednesday, the final day of its term, to indict him because it was hoping he would accept jurors’ invitation to testify.
DeLay said in interviews that the grand jury never asked him to testify
Oops. Here’s an example of DeLay obfuscating:
In a Wednesday night appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, he (DeLay) said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle never talked to him or asked him to testify.
“Never asking me to testify, never doing anything for two years,” DeLay said in the interview.
And DeLay’s lawyer hardly has his back:
Dick DeGuerin, the attorney representing DeLay, said Thursday that DeLay actually was invited to appear before the grand jury, where he would have been under oath. The Houston attorney was not yet on the legal team when DeLay was asked to appear, but he said other attorneys advised him not to testify, a decision DeGuerin supports.
Are we splitting hairs here, dude?
DeGuerin said that DeLay may have been referring in the interviews to the fact that the grand jury did not subpoena him to testify.
Gibson said there was an open invitation, but the grand jury decided not to force him to appear.
Invite, subpoena, what’s the difference?