A Fistful of Dollars for Barrakhan Bonds

FEBRUARY 29--A federal judge today ordered the unsealing of the transcript of Barry Bonds's December 2003 testimony before a San Francisco grand jury, an appearance that resulted in the baseball star's indictment last year on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. The 149-page Bonds grand jury transcript, which U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ordered released, can be downloaded here (PDF file). The unsealing order came following a court hearing during which Illston cited deficiencies in the Bonds indictment and directed prosecutors to either redraft the document or head back into a grand jury to seek a new indictment. While the entire Bonds transcript is worth a read, we particularly enjoyed his answer to a question posed by one juror about Greg Anderson, the athlete's beleaguered friend and trainer. "With all the money you make, have you ever thought of maybe building him a mansion or something?" Bonds replied, "One, I'm black. And I'm keeping my money. And there's not too many rich black people in this world. And I'm keeping my money. There's more wealthy Asian people and Caucasian and white. There ain't that many rich black people. And I ain't giving my money up. That's why."