Reason Magazine: Welch: Barry U.S. Bonds

Legrand jury records…indeed!

The thing to realize about the BALCO steroids scandal, which lurches into its most headline-grabbing phase yet today when baseball home run king Barry Bonds is arraigned on five counts of perjury and obstruction in a San Francisco courtroom, is that the federal government’s underlying criminal case has been closed for more than 28 months.

...To build that case, the government will likely subpoena yet another Murderer’s Row of professional ballplayers, put Greg Anderson on the dock once more (exposing him this time to criminal contempt, instead of just civil contempt), and leverage the soon-to-be released findings from a blue-ribbon steroids panel chaired by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell (with the charitable assistance of one Jeff Novitzky). Perjury traps will spring up like mushrooms, not just in Bonds’ proceedings, but in the forthcoming trials of Jones’ former coach Trevor Graham (for lying to a federal agent) and Olympic cyclist Tammy Thomas (perjury).