Opinion ID: 359553
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Factual Basis for Count X.

Text: 18 In September, 1975 the defendant had appeared before the grand jury. During his appearance he was asked (D)id you ever travel in interstate or foreign commerce to transport proceeds illegally obtained from the Water Pollution Project? The indictment charged that his No response was a  knowingly false declaration in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623. Defendant contends that this is a divisible or multiple question, and that while he admitted at the plea hearing that he had answered falsely to one part, or one question, i. e., he had traveled in foreign commerce, he did not admit that he did so with funds he knew to be illegally obtained. He claims the record is deficient in that it does not show what his understanding of the question was at the time he answered. United States v. Bronston, 409 U.S. 352, 93 S.Ct. 595, 34 L.Ed.2d 568 (1972). Defendant apparently seeks to imply that he could have understood the question only to be asking whether he had ever traveled in interstate or foreign commerce, not whether he had done so with funds illegally obtained from the project and thus that his response to the grand jury could have been literally accurate, and thus not a violation of the statute. Blumenfeld v. United States, 306 F.2d 892, 897 (8th Cir. 1962). We feel such an interpretation conflicts with the obvious meaning and purpose of the question, for clearly the grand jury was not interested in finding out merely whether the defendant had ever traveled in interstate or foreign commerce, and for defendant to suggest that this is how he may have understood the question strains credulity. Furthermore, the record establishes that the defendant understood both at the time of the grand jury questioning and at the plea hearing that the question was not so limited. The question in its entirety was read at the time of the hearing, and when he was asked (T)hat was not true was it? the defendant answered (T)hat was not true. The district judge, apparently to clarify that his response was not limited only to the statement, You have traveled in foreign commerce, as phrased by his attorney, asked, At the time you made the statements, you knew They were false? (Emphasis supplied). To which the defendant answered, Yes. We find that this inquiry established not only the essential fact that at the time defendant answered he knew his answer to be false, but also that he knew his answer to the entire question, i. e., all statements in the question, to be false, and that he was admitting this conduct to the court. We find that while more detail would perhaps have been desirable, the record does reveal a sufficient factual basis for acceptance of the guilty plea on Count X.