Brian McNamee sat hunched forward on the witness stand in a Washington courtroom, his eyes directed away from Roger Clemens’ defense lawyer as the questions kept coming.

Russell “Rusty” Hardin Jr., the Houston attorney who has long represented the former professional baseball pitcher, was standing a few feet away, his right arm propped on the podium. “One day in your world it’s an exaggeration,” Hardin said to McNamee, the chief prosecution witness in the perjury case against Clemens. “Another day it’s a lie.”