A FQ about the Comey indictment

[CoolHandCox]

@md-2000

IIRC the current charges relate to 2020 testimony on a second committee hearing, because testimony from the original hearing (and the contradictory testimony) is beyond the statute of limitations?

Right. The indictment is misleading. The actual words Comey said in 2020 were (paraphrasing) “I stand by my prior testimony”. Thats it. The prior statement, the “lie” quoted in the indictment, was from 2017 (outside the SOL).

Forgetting any SOL issues, it’s really hard to make that 2020 statement a material lie. It’s not. And it’s too disjointed to the 2017 testimony. It’s not like Ted Cruz was asking legit honest questions.

[Procrustus]

@md-2000

but my understanding is that to prosecute perjury - which I presume “lying to congress” is an equivalent charge - the prosecution needs to produce two separate independent sources of evidence that contradict the testimony.

The “two witness” rule for perjury is not a universal requirement; it applies to prosecutions under 18 U.S. Code § 1621