United States v. Porter

Porter (defendant) operated investment clubs. Porter pleaded guilty to falsifying newsletters sent to investors and agreed to testify before a grand jury. In response to questioning, Porter testified that to keep investors advised, he sent out a monthly newsletter that detailed the trades and the amount of money that had been made together with a dividend check, and that he was responsible for preparing the newsletter. After sentencing, Porter filed a habeas corpus petition to vacate his sentence. At the evidentiary hearing, Porter testified that it was not correct that he pled guilty because he was guilty; he was not aware that he mailed out newsletters; he had not admitted that the newsletters he mailed to investors were misrepresentations; he did not mail them; he did not know who mailed them on his behalf; and he did not know who generated them. The district court denied Porter’s petition. Porter was indicted for making irreconcilably contradictory statements in his grand jury and habeas hearing testimonies in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623(c). At trial, Porter testified that he was responsible for falsifying the newsletters and sending them out but denied that he had mailed them. A former employee testified that Porter provided the information for the newsletters but other employees, at Porters’ request, typed them, duplicated them, placed them in envelopes, and took them to the post office. Porter’s motion for a judgment of acquittal was denied. Porter was convicted and appealed on the ground that the evidence at trial was insufficient to show irreconcilable inconsistency between his declarations.