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Speaker 1: When I was time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, and it's brought to

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Speaker 1: you by American Arbitration Association. Business disputes are inevitable, resolve

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Speaker 1: d r dot org. Today, Bloomberg lawhos Doing Grosso and

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Speaker 1: Michael Best discussed whether Attorney General Jeff's Sessions can be

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Speaker 1: brought up on perjury charges after he failed to disclose

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Speaker 1: meetings with Russian officials during his Senate confirmation hearing. They

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Speaker 1: seek with Jennifer Rogers, executive director of the Center for

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Speaker 1: the Advancement of Public Integrity at the Columbia Law School. Jennifer,

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Speaker 1: perjury requires a statement under oath that is false, material,

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Speaker 1: or significant, and that the speaker knows is false. Does

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Speaker 1: sessions testimony fit the legal criteria for perjury. I don't

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Speaker 1: think so. I think the question and answer are just

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Speaker 1: a little too ambiguous to make a perjury count out.

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Speaker 1: Just a very very hard statue to prove, and in

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Speaker 1: this case, it's just not a clean enough question and

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Speaker 1: answer to be able to say that for sure he

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Speaker 1: knew that he was being untruthful when he answered, well, Jennifer,

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Speaker 1: is is that the only question here though, whether or

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Speaker 1: not he committed perjury or because a lot of people

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Speaker 1: in Congress at least seemed to be upset with, um,

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Speaker 1: the veracity, whether or not it's a crime. Well, there

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Speaker 1: are a whole host of issues about whether the Attorney

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Speaker 1: General was misleading Congress and if so, whether he should resign.

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Speaker 1: And you know, there's a false statement statute also that

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Speaker 1: could be applied here. There's even a misdemeanor statute for

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Speaker 1: misleading Congress that was used back in the Watergate times. Um,

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Speaker 1: so I'm really just talking about perjury because it is

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Speaker 1: such a hard statute to prove. But there are a

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Speaker 1: whole host of other issues that you know, become a

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Speaker 1: little bit more of a political issue than a legal issue.

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Speaker 1: And so what what you know, let's say that you

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Speaker 1: can't prove per jury here, what what could Congress look

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Speaker 1: at if they wanted to investigate what is going on

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Speaker 1: here and what has happened here? Well, on the legal side,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's really just perjury and false statements, neither

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Speaker 1: of which I think is going to be actionable here

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Speaker 1: unless additional information came out. Um. And then there's the

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Speaker 1: misdemeanor about misleading Congress. That one is a possibility. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then of course they're a whole whole realm of

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Speaker 1: non legal actions. Right. They could continue to investigate him

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Speaker 1: and you know, seek his resignation and other other means

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Speaker 1: of removal other than criminal convictions under the legal system,

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Speaker 1: But as far as the law is concerned, the options

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Speaker 1: are pretty limited, at least on the evidence we know now,

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Speaker 1: unless something else comes out. As Jennifer Rogers, Executive director

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Speaker 1: of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at

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Speaker 1: the Columbia Law School, speaking with Bloomberg Law Hostjun Grasso

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Speaker 1: and Michael Best. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays

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Speaker 1: at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio,

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Speaker 1: and that's this morning's Bloomberg Lawberry. If you can find

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Speaker 1: more legal news at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: BNA dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and

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Speaker 1: business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot

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Speaker 1: com and Bloomberg b NA dot com for more information