The Bill Clinton "Perjury/Felony" Myth Debunked

http://mediamatters.org/items/200411200001

Throughout FOX News Channel's daytime coverage of the November 18 Clinton Presidential Center opening in Little Rock, Arkansas, FOX hosts and contributors strove to make up for what host Brian Kilmeade called "the lack of talk about the impeachment" in the library. In addition to fixating on the circumstances surrounding former President Bill Clinton's impeachment, FOX News Channel senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano falsely asserted on FOX & Friends First that Clinton "committed a federal felony by lying under oath."

In fact, the Senate acquitted Clinton. In order for a lie under oath to amount to perjury -- as Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) explained on the floor of the Senate on February 12, 1999 -- it must be "material" to the underlying case. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that Clinton's deposition in the Monica Lewinsky case was immaterial to the sexual harassment suit that Paula Jones brought against Clinton. As a judge, Napolitano almost certainly knows that as a legal matter, Clinton is not guilty of a felony.

Maybe that's our problem, I don't know. With THIS Administration anybody feels the need to defend Bill Clinton??? Maybe we're so busy playing defense we never get around to offense.