To report perjury to the court, collect the sworn transcript and the documents that prove the statement was a deliberate lie about something that mattered, then bring that package to your attorney, the judge in the case, or the prosecutor’s office with jurisdiction. Private citizens cannot file criminal charges themselves; only a prosecutor can. And because perjury prosecutions are slow and uncommon, the more useful remedy is often confronting the false testimony inside the case where it happened.
What Has to Be True Before It’s Perjury
Not every lie under oath is prosecutable perjury. Four elements must all be present. The statement was made under a legally administered oath or affirmation, in a setting like a trial, deposition, or grand jury proceeding.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1621 – Perjury Generally The statement was false. The person knew it was false when they said it, meaning an honest mistake or bad memory does not count.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Ch. 79 – Perjury And the false statement was material.
Materiality is where many complaints stall. The Supreme Court defines a material statement as one with “a natural tendency to influence, or capable of influencing, the decision of the decision-making body to which it was addressed.”3Justia US Supreme Court. Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759 (1988) Lying about an alibi is material. Misstating the color of a shirt probably is not.
There is one more boundary worth knowing before you invest time in a report. A statement that is technically true but deliberately misleading is not perjury. In Bronston v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a witness who gives a literally truthful answer, even one crafted to dodge the real question, has not committed the crime.4LII / Legal Information Institute. Bronston v. United States, 409 U.S. 352 The burden was on the questioning attorney to pin the witness down. Many perjury allegations collapse here: the answer felt like a lie but was technically accurate.
Federal law reaches perjury through two statutes. Section 1621 is broad, covering false statements under oath before any federal tribunal, agency, or officer. Section 1623 is narrower, applying only in or around federal courts and grand juries, but it drops the older “two-witness rule.”5United States Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 1749 – Comparison of Perjury Statutes 18 USC 1621 and 16236Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1623 – False Declarations Before Grand Jury or Court Both carry up to five years in federal prison.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1621 – Perjury Generally State perjury laws follow the same basic framework, with felony sentences that commonly fall between two and ten years.
Build the Evidence File First
A perjury report without evidence is a complaint. A report with evidence is something a prosecutor can act on. Before you contact anyone, put together the strongest package you can.
Start with the official transcript or deposition record. This is the foundation, because prosecutors compare exact words against provable facts. Your memory of what was said is not enough.7United States Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 1745 – Elements of Perjury Federal Proceeding Under Oath
Then gather the documents that directly contradict the sworn statement. The most useful categories are:
- Emails, texts, or letters showing the person knew facts they denied knowing, or had contact with people they denied speaking to.
- Financial statements, phone logs, medical records, or employment files that prove the opposite of what was testified.
- Contracts, applications, or prior affidavits where the person previously said something inconsistent.
If your proof comes from another person rather than documents, remember the two-witness rule for Section 1621 cases. One contradicting witness alone is not enough. You need that witness plus independent corroboration, or a second witness who also contradicts the statement on the specific point that was lied about.8United States Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 1750 – Comparison of Perjury Statutes 18 USC 1621 and 1623
Organize chronologically: the sworn words first, the proof they were false next, then any evidence that the person knew the truth. A prosecutor who opens your file and immediately sees a false statement lined up against clear proof is far more likely to take the next step.
Where to Take the Report
There are three channels, and using more than one is often the right move.
Your Attorney
If you have a lawyer in the case where the perjury happened, this is almost always the best first move. Your attorney can raise the issue with the judge through a formal motion, put the contradictory evidence on the record, and ask the court to refer the matter for investigation. Judges who see clear evidence of perjury in their own courtrooms sometimes make that referral themselves. A structured filing by counsel carries more weight than a letter from a private citizen.
The Prosecutor’s Office
You can report directly to the local district attorney for state cases or the U.S. Attorney’s office for federal cases. Write a factual statement that identifies the person, quotes the specific false statement with transcript page numbers if you have them, names the proceeding, and lists the evidence proving the lie. Keep it short. Attach copies of your evidence, not originals.
Law Enforcement
For federal perjury, the FBI has primary investigative responsibility in most cases involving federal departments and agencies.9Department of Justice Archives. Criminal Resource Manual 1742 – Perjury Cases Investigative Responsibility Filing with the FBI puts the matter in front of investigators who can refer it to a federal prosecutor. For state perjury, contact local police or the state attorney general’s office. Even a slow-moving report creates an official record.
One reality to accept up front: you cannot file criminal charges yourself. Only a government prosecutor can decide whether to bring a case. Your role is to report, provide evidence, and cooperate.
Challenging the Testimony Inside Your Case
Waiting for a perjury prosecution to vindicate you is usually a losing strategy. These cases are hard to prove, slow to develop, and often declined. The faster path is normally handling the false testimony inside the case it damaged.
If the case is still active, your attorney can impeach the witness with contradictory evidence. Federal Rule of Evidence 613 allows cross-examination on prior inconsistent statements, so a witness who said one thing in a deposition and another at trial can be confronted with the contradiction on the stand. Rule 608 allows attacks on a witness’s character for truthfulness, and Rule 609 permits certain prior convictions to be used against credibility. Documents that flatly contradict the testimony, shown to the jury, are often more devastating than any future criminal charge.
If the case has already ended, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(3) allows a motion for relief from a final civil judgment based on fraud or misconduct by the opposing party, and perjured testimony qualifies. The motion must be filed within one year of the judgment.10LII / Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 60 Relief from a Judgment or Order Rule 60 also preserves a court’s inherent power to set aside a judgment for “fraud on the court” without the one-year limit, but that standard is much harder to meet and generally requires a deliberate scheme that corrupted the judicial process itself, not just one witness’s lie.
In a criminal case, a defendant convicted partly on perjured testimony may be able to challenge the conviction through a habeas corpus petition, though the standard is steep: newly discovered evidence must show by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable fact-finder would have found the defendant guilty.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC Chapter 153 – Habeas Corpus
What Happens After You Report
Once your report lands with a prosecutor, the decision to investigate belongs entirely to them. Prosecutorial discretion means a strong report can still go nowhere. Prosecutors weigh the clarity of the evidence, the materiality of the lie, its effect on the underlying case, and whether their office has capacity to pursue it.
If authorities move forward, the FBI or local law enforcement conducts the investigation. Investigators review your evidence, interview you and any witnesses you named, and may interview the accused person about intent. In federal felony cases, the prosecutor may present the evidence to a grand jury, which needs at least 12 jurors to agree before returning an indictment.12Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure – Rule 6 The Grand Jury
The uncomfortable truth is that perjury is underenforced. The gap between how often people lie under oath and how often anyone is charged is enormous. Proving what someone believed at the moment they spoke is inherently difficult, and prosecutors usually reserve charges for lies that were brazen, well-documented, and consequential. A clean transcript, unambiguous contradictory evidence, and a clear explanation of why the lie mattered give you the best odds. Even then, be prepared for a decline.
The Clock Is Running
Federal perjury charges must be brought within five years of the offense, under the general statute of limitations for non-capital federal crimes.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3282 – Offenses Not Capital State limitations vary but often fall in a similar range. If the testimony you want to report is several years old, delay hurts both the legal window and the practical quality of any investigation.
Reporting Someone Who Coached the Lie
Sometimes the witness is not the only person at fault. If someone persuaded, coached, or pressured a witness to lie under oath, that person has committed subornation of perjury under 18 U.S.C. ยง 1622, and the penalty is the same five-year maximum.14GovInfo. 18 USC 1622 – Subornation of Perjury If you have emails pressuring the witness to change their story, texts coordinating a false narrative, or the witness’s own account of being coached, include it. Prosecutors take the orchestration of false testimony at least as seriously as the testimony itself.
You Cannot Sue the Witness for Lying
Suing the person who lied is not an option. Witnesses in judicial proceedings have absolute immunity from civil liability for the content of their testimony, a principle rooted in common law and affirmed by the Supreme Court in Briscoe v. LaHue (1983). It applies to private and government witnesses alike. The reasoning is that witnesses must be free to testify without fear of retaliatory lawsuits, even if the protection occasionally shields dishonest ones.
That immunity does not block criminal prosecution for perjury. It only bars a civil damages suit built on what the witness said on the stand. Your remedies are the ones above: reporting to prosecutors, impeaching the testimony where it was given, and moving for relief from any judgment the lie affected.