It’s actually worse than what we think of as perjury.
In a court of law you must be found to have lied about something material to “the case” to be charged with perjury.
Conversely, there is no such standard for lying to a federal agent. The FBI can conduct a fishing expedition over the course of five interviews, they might discover an inconsistency that is completely irrelevant to the case and you can still be charged.
Let’s say your a witness to a drive-by shooting on the corner of Broadway and First Street. In court your asked where I was coming from. You lie and say you had been at a work meeting, when you were actually having an interlude with your mistress. That’s not perjury in court, because it’s not material to your testimony about what you saw. However, that is more than enough for the FBI to charge you, even though it’s not remotely or in any way material to what happened on the corner of Broadway and First Street.
Agreed. I think Flynn got caught up in something like you describe and/or was greatly fearful about his son being charged.
Agreed.
I went back and forth with someone the other day, who stated that cops make those charges all the time. As I made my case, the response was that in smaller jurisdictions, cases like that are made all the time, because the cops don’t have as much going on, whereas, working in a major city, like I did, that stuff would clog the system.
My response was, that if I had ever brought a, False Statements charge to Superior Court, as my sole charge, I’d be laughed out of the courtroom and the judge would probably recommend a lawyer to have me sued for false arrest. That is, if I could even get a warrant for such a ridiculous charge, which is highly unlikely.
If the Feds didn’t have, 18 USC 1001, a good deal of their cases would never see the inside of a courtroom.
I was recently interviewed for a security clearance. After introductions, the first thing I was told was that I could be charged under that code section. Of course, that could have come from the recent arrest of Reality Winner and others, but I was a little surprised by it.