Lawrence O'Donnell Quotes

The grand jury, composed of 12 eminent New Orleans citizens, heard our evidence and indicted the defendant for participation in a conspiracy to assassinate John Kennedy.

I've led a grand jury.

I spent time in, like, criminal courts, and covering murder trials for papers.

If we start exposing what gets said in a grand jury, you won't get anybody to testify.

We provided complete protection to witnesses - right of attorney, right of record, right to cross-examine, and open hearing if they desired. Only Mr. Lane asked for an open hearing.

I should have known. The first tip I got was when she rarely showed up in court for the second trial.

There are two other SLA members who have been granted immunity and then also, one of the SLA members had confessed to two other people, and those people, I'm sure, will be called as witnesses, as they were at the grand jury.

We were right about the slush fund. But Sloan did not testify about it to the Grand Jury.

I hardly expected the grand jury to sustain me, after they saw everything different from what it had been while I was there. Yet they did, and their report to the court advises all the changes made that I had proposed.

The expectations are that when this investigation is completed, Fitzgerald will make the appropriate decision, which is not to charge Karl with any criminal offenses.

He exists and we have four people who identified him and I know who he is, where he is, what his phone number is, everything about him that one needs. All I need is a criminal trial so I can have him subpoenaed.

That justice should be administered between men, it is necessary that testimonies of fact be alleged; and that witnesses should apprehend themselves greatly obliged to discover the truth, according to their conscience, in dark and doubtful cases.

That D.C. grand jury investigation of Abramoff can't go on forever. Eventually the lawyers at the Public Integrity Section will go to their bosses with some decisions about just who they want to indict. That's when Al Gonzales will have to show his cards.

[The decisions made by the prosecutors were] stunningly arbitrary. These decisions are shrouded in such complete secrecy that they make the proceedings of the former English Court of Star Chamber appear to be a model of criminal justice transparency. We as judges can and should do more [to change the situation.]

When a prosecutor makes a deal with someone and gives him immunity if he testifies, the prosecutor usually gets the testimony he wants.

Every witness withholds information from the Congress.

The government itself violates the law when it leaks grand jury proceedings in order to influence the prospective jury pool

Laymen ought not to be accused save by dependable and lawful accusers and witnesses.

We have far more plea bargains in our system than we do trials.

As a former prosecutor, I never presented a case in front of the grand jury that didn't result in an indictment. Bottom line: If a prosecutor wants to indict a case, the case gets indicted.

Investigations by special prosecutors can take on a life of their own.

The role of the federal prosecutor and the purpose of a criminal investigation are well-defined.

A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.

Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, I'm going to present the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

ATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice.