[cassbot]

IANAL but my understanding was that lying to the police opens you up to obstruction of justice charges -- or perjury.

For instance, I learned from law professor James Duane's video that Martha Stewart would have completely avoided prison time if she had not lied to investigators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE&feature=emb_titl...

[CodeAndCuffs]

Lying in court is always* illegal. Lying in general, e.g "I didn't steal anything", "I only had 2 beers", "These aren't my pants", is not inherently illegal. All of these are lies I've been told.

As a cop, if you get caught lying, i.e. intentionally false testimony in court, your career is effectively over. Any defense attorney can bring that one time you got caught lying up in court, discounting your entire testimony on every case forever, making you useless. No matter how bad you screw up as a cop, the number 1 rule is don't lie about it in court.

*Maybe not in some jurisdictions? But realistically yeah, always

[chrisseaton]

> Lying in court is always* illegal.

So if you plead not guilty to some crime, and they find you guilty, do you get prosecuted for lying in court with your plead as well as for the original crime?

[epx]

In Brazilian (Roman?) law, you can lie if you are one of the sides, not if you are a witness.

[mirimir]

> "These aren't my pants"

I'd love to hear the context for that one :)

[mirimir]

She lied to federal investigators. That's illegal. Lying to local or state police, not so much.

[kjs3]

Since local or state don't prosecute securities violations, yeah, I guess your right. But there are perjuries that can be committed at the local level, depending on the jurisdiction. Don't assume you can blow smoke and get away with it.