Cite as: 520 U. S. 461 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
based on the court's independent review of the record and determination that there was "overwhelming" evidence of materiality and that "[n]o reasonable juror could conclude that Johnson's false statements about the source of the money . . . were not material to the grand jury's investigation." App. to Pet. for Cert. 9a ( judgt. order reported at 82 F. 3d 429 (CA11 1996)). Due to the conflict between this decision and the Ninth Circuit's en banc decision in United States v. Keys, 95 F. 3d 874 (1996), we granted certiorari. 519 U. S. 989 (1996). We now affirm.
I
Title 18 U. S. C. § 1623 proscribes "knowingly mak[ing] any false material declaration" under oath before a grand jury. Although we merely assumed in Gaudin that materiality is an element of making a false statement under 18 U. S. C. § 1001, and although we recently held that materiality is not an element of making a false statement to a federally insured bank under 18 U. S. C. § 1014, United States v. Wells, 519 U. S. 482 (1997), there is no doubt that materiality is an element of perjury under § 1623. The statutory text expressly requires that the false declaration be "material." Gaudin therefore dictates that materiality be decided by the jury, not the court.
Petitioner, however, did not object to the trial court's treatment of materiality. Rule 30 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides: "No party may assign as error any portion of the [jury] charge or omission therefrom unless that party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which that party objects and the grounds of the objection." This Rule is simply the embodiment of the "familiar" principle that a right " 'may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right before a tribunal having jurisdiction to determine it.' " Olano, supra, at 731 (quoting Yakus v. United States, 321 U. S. 414, 444 (1944)).
465
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