Rocket lawyer makes charming pitch to potential ju...

Rocket lawyer makes charming pitch to potential ju...

Elisa Miller for New York Daily News

Roger Clemens (l.) and his attorney, Rusty Hardin, stroll into court on Monday for disgraced star pitcher's second trip to Washington to face perjury charges.

WASHINGTON -- Returning to the defendants table in a federal courtroom here Monday, Roger Clemens maintained a perfect silence that is likely to last the duration of his perjury trial.

That is easy to do when Rusty Hardin is your lawyer.

The silver-tongued Houston attorney trying to prevent Clemens from being sentenced to prison is famous for winning jurors over with his folk sy demeanor.

As jury selection got underway Monday, Hardin did his best to make a good first impression, even after prosecutor Courtney Saleski convinced U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton to tell Hardin to stop injecting personal details about himself and his client into his questions.

How did you get into it, Im just fascinated, Hardin said to one potential juror after she disclosed that she creates stained glass for a living.

In a process designed to uncover bias in potential jurors, Hardin found creative ways to plant seeds of doubt about the governments case, asking jurors if they knew the difference between saying something that is wrong and deliberately lying.

Walton has tightened the ground rules for the prosecution and the defense in the retrial, vowing at a pretrial hearing Friday to closely monitor what is said in his courtroom during jury selection and opening statements, but that didnt stop Hardin from dropping country-fried details into his voir dire questions.

Do you have anything against people from Texas? Cause we are, Hardin asked one potential juror.

It was Clemens second trip to Washington to face three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of Congress. A previous trial last July ended after just two days of testimony after prosecutors showed the jury evidence that Walton had barred from the proceedings.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, will feature testimony from Andy Pettitte, who prosecutors say will corroborate some of the claims of their star witness, former trainer Brian McNamee. Yankee general manager Brian Cashman was another prominent name on a list of potential witnesses that prosecutors put forward on Monday. Barry Bonds, who is also on the list of potential witnesses, is unlikely to testify according to a legal expert

There is no way Bonds lawyer is going to allow him to testify, sai d Paula Canny, lawyer for Greg Anderson, Bonds former trainer. He has a criminal appeal pending and there isnt a grant of immunity they could give Barry.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress when he appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committees Feb. 13, 2008, hearing on Major League Baseball and the Mitchell Report. Clemens faces up to 30 years in prison and a $ 1.5 million fine if convicted on all six counts, although it is unlikely that Walton will throw the book at him because the former pitcher does not have a criminal record. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Clemens would most likely face up to 21 months in prison.