Barry Bonds was only convicted of obstruction of justice based on rambling answers given to the grand jury. A three judge panel upheld the conviction, but now the eleven judge en banc Ninth Circuit seems poised to reverse.

Pamela MacLean has a succinct article up describing the tough day the en banc court gave the government's appellate lawyer. Trial Insider.

Fletcher asked what happens in civil litigation if lawyers respond to interrogatories and they give truthful but evasive answers. “Are they guilty of a crime?” he asked.

“Yes,” responded Chan.

“Well that is a common practice in civil litigation and you may have criminalized half the bar. “Half the bar may be in serious trouble,” he said.

Judge Susan Graber said, “Speaking for myself, I don’t see how there is sufficient evidence [of obstruction] when the question was asked and answered repeatedly.”

Kozinski asked, “Can you cure a misleading answer?”

“Not if the intent was to mislead at the time,” Chan said.

“But wasn’t it cured in this case?” asked Judge Jacqueline Nguyen?.