Raymond H. Lancaster appeals from his convictions for conspiracy and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 & 1343, based on guilty pleas before Judge Keenan. The appeal raises two issues: whether the district court properly denied appellant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea and whether it erred in imposing a two-level sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice based on an allegedly perju-rious affidavit. See U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. We affirm the denial of appellant’s motion to withdraw his plea but hold that he did not commit perjury by claiming in an affidavit that he had been “coerced” into pleading guilty. Because the sentencing enhancement was unwarranted, we vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing.
BACKGROUND
This appeal arises out of a scheme to issue a fraudulent surety bond. The scheme involved the bogus assignment of $500 million in U .S. Treasury Securities, ostensibly owned by Red Rock Dragon, Ltd., a company owned by codefendant John G. Juncal, to Investor’s Guaranty Group, Inc. (“IGGI”), a company controlled in part by appellant. Red Rock Dragons’s claim that it owned the securities, which were to serve as collateral for the bond, was false. A four-count indictment charged appellant with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three substantive counts of wire fraud. The conspiracy count recounted the bogus assignment of the U.S. Treasury Securities; negotiations among appellant, his code-fendants, and an undercover FBI agent; the use of fax machines to transmit documents relating to the fraudulent surety bond over interstate wires; and the issuance of the fraudulent bond itself. The substantive wire-fraud counts charged three specific wire transmissions in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme.
In the course of pretrial preparation, appellant and his attorney had five in-person meetings and some sixty telephone conversations. Frequent communication *169 by phone was necessary because appellant lived in California, while his attorney was located in New York, the site of the upcoming trial. During pretrial preparations, appellant adamantly rejected suggestions that he plead guilty rather than go to trial. As jury selection got underway, however, he was persuaded to plead guilty to all four counts of the indictment. Appellant signed a plea agreement on January 20,1999.
The district judge held a plea allocution that day. At the allocution, the court ascertained from appellant that he had received copies of the indictment and the plea agreement, had reviewed those documents with his attorney, and had understood them. Appellant waived the reading of his indictment and affirmed that he was satisfied with his attorney’s representation and that the plea was fully voluntary.
The court asked appellant whether he had “been induced to offer to plead guilty by any threat, pressure or force or anything like that?” Appellant answered in the negative. The court then asked appellant to describe the conduct that served as the basis for his plea. In response, appellant explained his role in the scheme, including the use of fax machines, misrepresentations about the nature of his company, and his deliberate avoidance of any attempt to learn whether the scheme was fraudulent. With regard to his knowledge of fraud, appellant admitted that while the scheme was ongoing, he learned of a federal investigation into the transaction but “deliberately failed to heed the red flag that federal law enforcement officers brought to [his] attention.” The district judge accepted appellant’s plea.
Almost a year later, appellant, represented by new counsel, moved to withdraw his guilty plea and proffered an affidavit stating that: (i) the court failed to inform him of the nature of the charges to which he was pleading guilty; (ii) the court had not ascertained an adequate factual basis for the plea; and (iii) his former attorney had “coerced” him into pleading guilty by refusing to defend him, “seldom mafking] any effort to listen to” him and failing to follow up on information that appellant had provided him.
Appellant’s affidavit recounted the events that in his view amounted to coercion causing him to plead guilty. According to the affidavit, appellant perceived his trial attorney to be ill-prepared for trial. There were disagreements over calling certain witnesses. The attorney repeatedly predicted that the jury would convict appellant, told appellant that the attorney “would not be able to present a defense” at trial, and advised appellant that he would receive more jail time if he went to trial rather than agree to a plea. Defense counsel facilitated a meeting in which the prosecutor told appellant that securing a conviction would be easy and that the prosecution would seek the maximum penalty if appellant were to force a trial. However, the prosecutor also stated that if appellant were to accept the plea, the prosecutor “would go easy on” him. Appellant’s attorney then arranged a meeting between appellant and a supervisory attorney at the Federal Defenders’ office. The supervisor also advised appellant that he “would certainly [lose] if [he] were to continue forward with the trial.” Appellant described his mental state at this point as “frightened” and “under duress” as a result of the meetings. Appellant next asked his attorney whether he would have any time to prepare for incarceration if he were to be convicted at trial. His attorney explained that he would be immediately incarcerated upon a conviction, but that, if he were to enter a plea, he could remain at *170 liberty for several months. Appellant then agreed to plead guilty.
The district court held a hearing on appellant’s motion to withdraw the plea at which appellant’s former attorney testified, after appellant waived the attorney-client privilege. The attorney’s version of events was, except with regard to the adequacy of his trial preparation, not greatly at odds with appellant’s version. The attorney expected to lose if a trial were held, regarded the witnesses proposed by appellant as more dangerous than helpful, and believed it was very much in appellant’s interest to plead guilty. He conveyed these views to appellant in no uncertain terms. He generally verified appellant’s descriptions of meetings with the prosecutor and the supervisor in the Federal Defenders’ Office.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the district court found that the attorney had done nothing improper, that no one had improperly induced appellant to plead guilty, that appellant’s plea was knowing and voluntary, and the appellant’s allocution had fully complied with Fed.R.Crim.P. 11. He therefore denied his motion to withdraw the plea.
Before sentencing, the government requested a two-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, for obstruction of justice based on appellant’s “submitting a perjurious affidavit in connection with a motion to withdraw his guilty plea on the alleged ground that ... his then court-appointed counsel ... engaged in coercive tactics to force a guilty plea.” Specifically, the government pointed to three assertions in the affidavit that it regarded as perjurious: (i) “I did not enter this plea of guilty voluntarily [but] under the coercion exercised upon me by my attorney at the time”; (ii) “I was being pressured by my attorney and everyone he had talk with me [and] was under duress during these conversations”; and (iii) “because of [my attorney’s] coercive tactics, I reluctantly pled guilty”.
The district court agreed with the government, finding:
The evidence here is clear and convincing that the defendant committed perjury in his affidavit when he wrote, ... “under the coercion exercised upon me by my attorney at the time Mr. Jonathan Bach, Esq., who very seldom made any effort to listen to me and did not follow up on information I provided him.”
The guilty plea in the minutes of the March 7, 2000, hearing demonstrates beyond question that the guilty plea was knowing and voluntary. I find by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant intentionally gave false testimony as to a material matter, because he willfully and materially made false statements in his February 29, 2000 affidavit....
Accordingly, the district court imposed a two-level enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, for obstructing justice by “providing materially false information to a judge or magistrate.” U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, App. Note 4(f). After various other Guidelines calculations not pertinent to the issues on this appeal, the court determined an offense level of 19, a Criminal History Category of I, and a sentencing range of 30-37 months. The district judge sentenced appellant to 30 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by two year's of supervised release, and imposed a mandatory $400 special assessment.
This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
a) Motion to Withdraw) the Guilty Plea
We review a district court’s denial of a motion to withdraw a guilty plea for
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abuse of discretion and any findings of fact in connection with that decision for clear error.
See United States v. Goodman,
First, he contends that the district court failed to discuss with him the elements of the charged conspiracy, to read the indictment to him, and to explain that the plea agreement constituted a waiver of his right to appeal. As a result, he contends that his plea was not knowingly made. The record belies these claims. The indictment was exceptionally detailed and clearly explained the charges and their elements. The plea agreement clearly explained the waiver of appeal. Appellant testified at his allocution that he had reviewed the indictment and the plea agreement with his attorney, that his attorney had explained those documents to him, and that he understood those documents. This testimony cames such a strong presumption of accuracy that a distinct court does not, absent a substantial reason to find otherwise, abuse its discretion in discrediting later self-serving and contradictory testimony as to whether a plea was knowingly and intelligently made.
See Blackledge v. Allison,
Second, appellant contends that his plea lacked an adequate factual basis because he never admitted knowing that his acts were illegal at the time he committed them. Appellant claims that his statements at the allocution at best demonstrated that he had reason to suspect that the surety bonds were fraudulent but then ignored the suspicion rather than inquiring further. However, even with the gloss he puts on these statements, they provided a sufficient basis for his plea.
Rule 11(f) requires only that the trial court “determine that the conduct which the defendant admits constitutes the offense charged in the indictment or information or an offense included therein to which the defendant has pleaded guilty.”
United States v. Livorsi,
*172 b) Sentencing Enhancement
In light of the ample evidence that appellant’s plea was knowing, voluntary, and not improperly induced, his later claim that he was improperly “coerc[ed]” by his attorney into pleading guilty is legally meritless. However, while appellant was not “coerc[ed]” to plead guilty in a legal sense, it is clear from reading his affidavit as a whole that appellant was using “coerc[ed]” in a layman’s sense and was simply but truthfully describing the reasons for his agreeing to the plea.
To be sure, appellant’s affidavit does not set out adequate grounds to withdraw the plea on the basis of voluntariness. Appellant’s plea was not coerced “by physical force or threat of physical force” or “the improper use of economic power to compel another to submit to the wishes of one who wields it.” Black’s Law Dictionary 252 (7th ed.1999) (defining “coercion”). Nor do his circumstances suggest a guilty plea that might be considered involuntary because it was induced by what the Supreme Court has termed “mental coercion,” such as being “gripped by fear of the death penalty or hope of leniency” such that a defendant “could not, with the help of counsel, rationally weigh the advantages of going to trial against the advantages of pleading guilty.”
Brady v. United States,
It does not follow from any of this, however, that the affidavit’s use of the
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term “coerc[ed]” was necessarily perjurious. Read as a whole, the affidavit was clearly conveying an accurate description of the reasons Lancaster entered the plea.
See, e.g., United States v. Markiewicz,
The affidavit used the word “coerc[ed]” to describe appellant’s state of mind at the time of his plea. Guilty pleas are generally the result of a weighing of highly undesirable — coercive—alternatives rather than a soul-cleansing urge to confess. Appellant’s affidavit suggests that his plea was no exception. After stating that he entered his plea “under the coercion exercised upon me by my attorney at the time,” the affidavit went on to explain exactly what he meant by coercion. He had the impression that his lawyer “seldom made any effort to listen to” him, had given up any hope of winning his case, and had not done enough to prepare his defense. Appellant also had disagreements with his attorney over witnesses. The affidavit further stated that his lawyer predicted a longer prison term if he went to trial rather than plead guilty. It described the disheartening conversations with the prosecutor and a supervisory attorney at the Federal Defenders’ office. Finally, it set out the attorney’s (accurate) prediction that a guilty plea would delay the start of his prison sentence. It is noteworthy that the attorney’s testimony is, save for the trial preparation question, not greatly at variance with the affidavit’s description of the details of the conversations that took place.
We believe that the affidavit’s description of appellant’s mental and emotional states immediately after these conversations as “frightened,” “pressured,” and “under duress,” and its characterization of his attorney’s efforts to persuade him to plead guilty as “coercive tactics,” must be viewed in light of the details described above that accompanied them. So viewed, the characterizations are truthful. A criminal defendant facing trial and a prison sentence typically perceives that his attorney has not done enough in preparing the case-even if professional observers might deem the attorney’s efforts as exceptionally diligent.
See e.g., Moree,
Accordingly, the imposition of the two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice was unwarranted.
CONCLUSION
We affirm the denial of appellant’s motion to withdraw his plea. We vacate the sentence, however, and remand to the district court for resentencing.
Notes
. We note that, after argument in the present matter, we decided
United States v. Samaria,