Pettitte Will Discuss Clemens, Lawyers Say

[WMR]

Pettitte Will Discuss Clemens, Lawyers Say
By DUFF WILSON and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

WASHINGTON —Andy Pettitte will soon give a sworn deposition to staff members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and lawyers for his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, say they believe they know part of what he will say.

Pettitte and McNamee talked in 2001 and 2002 about Roger Clemens’s use of steroids and human growth hormone, McNamee’s lawyers, Earl Ward and Richard Emery, said Tuesday.

As a result, Ward and Emery said they believed that Pettitte, who has acknowledged receiving H.G.H. from McNamee in 2002, will provide the first account of contemporaneous conversations with McNamee about Clemens’s use of performance-enhancing drugs in earlier years.

Clemens’s lawyer in Washington responded Tuesday with another strong denial that Clemens had ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

“Regardless of what Mr. McNamee purports to have said, Roger Clemens’s remarkable success as a pitcher has everything to do with his extraordinary work ethic and his innate abilities, and nothing to do with H.G.H. or steroids,” the lawyer, Lanny A. Breuer, said in a telephone interview.

“Let me be clear: Roger Clemens never took H.G.H. and he never took steroids,” he added.

Pettitte’s deposition, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was moved to Monday, a day before Clemens is scheduled to talk to committee staff members, the committee announced Tuesday.

“Mr. Pettitte is cooperating voluntarily with the committee, and we look forward to his testimony on Monday,” Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is the committee chairman, and Tom Davis of Virginia, the ranking Republican, said in a statement. Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Waxman, said she could give no reason for the delay. Pettitte’s lawyers did not return calls for comment.

According to a lawyer familiar with the matter, an agent for Clemens, Jim Murray, has hired a lawyer and has been asked to meet with Congressional investigators in Washington about his conversations with McNamee concerning Clemens in 2003 or 2004, and more recently on Dec. 5, 2007. Murray did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

Chuck Knoblauch, the former Yankees second baseman, is scheduled to lead off the revised schedule for depositions or transcribed interviews. He will speak to committee staff members Friday. Pettitte will follow on Monday, Clemens on Tuesday, McNamee on Feb. 7 and Kirk Radomski, a former Mets clubhouse attendant who says he supplied drugs to dozens of major league baseball players, on Feb. 12. The depositions are private.

The committee has scheduled a Feb. 13 public hearing to receive testimony under oath from those five men.

The staff investigation is focused on Clemens’s denials of taking steroids or H.G.H. Waxman has said the panel is relying on the report on drugs in baseball by George J. Mitchell to set the stage for tougher drug testing policies in Major League Baseball. Clemens is under scrutiny because he challenged the report.

McNamee has spoken with federal investigators on the condition that he would be prosecuted only if he did not tell the truth.

In describing H.G.H. injections, McNamee told those investigators and Mitchell that he injected Clemens at least four times in the latter part of the summer of 2000, injected Knoblauch at least seven to nine times in the spring and early summer of 2001, and injected Pettitte at least two to four times in the spring of 2002.

McNamee also said he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001. He did not say he injected Pettitte or Knoblauch with steroids.

Since the players never talked with Mitchell, the Congressional depositions or interviews will be the first questioning they face outside their lawyers’ offices or, in Clemens’s case, the CBS program “60 Minutes” on Jan. 6. The stakes are higher now. False statements to Congressional investigators could result in criminal charges punishable by up to five years in prison.

“Pettitte is a stand-up guy,” said Emery, one of McNamee’s lawyers. “We expect him to tell the truth, and if he does so, he will corroborate Brian.”

Emery suggested that the reason for the delay in giving the depositions was to give Clemens more time to change his account, a suggestion rejected by Clemens’s lawyer.

Emery and Ward said that not only did McNamee and Pettitte talk about Clemens’s drug use on several occasions, but that Clemens might have influenced Pettitte the first time Pettitte asked to use a performance-enhancing drug.

“There was a conversation in the gym where Pettitte came over to Brian and told him, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about that stuff?’ ” Emery said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It appeared to be after a conversation with Clemens, but he didn’t know what was said in that conversation.”

Ward, in a separate telephone interview, said, “Brian discouraged him at first, and then less than a year later he came back and that is when Brian injected him.”

McNamee had told Mitchell he injected Pettitte in the spring of 2002 to help speed his recovery from elbow tendinitis.

Michael S. Schmidt reported from New York.

[WMR]

Pettitte is a deeply religious man. I do not expect him to lie to cover for Roger.

I didn't expect Roger to be proven a liar so quickly.

[RedLegSuperStar]

Oops..

[Chip R]

Looks like Andy isn't going to be invited to any more Clemens family barbecues.

[traderumor]

Originally Posted by WilyMoROCKS

Pettitte is a deeply religious man. I do not expect him to lie to cover for Roger.

I didn't expect Roger to be proven a liar so quickly.

He is? I recall reading on here that he cheated on his wife, not that religious people don't make mistakes, but...

[jojo]

Originally Posted by WilyMoROCKS

Pettitte is a deeply religious man. I do not expect him to lie to cover for Roger.

I didn't expect Roger to be proven a liar so quickly.

What say ye if Pettitte says, "I have no idea why McNamee would say that about Roger"?

[WMR]

Originally Posted by jojo

What say ye if Pettitte says, "I have no idea why McNamee would say that about Roger"?

Hope he has a good lawyer and no one else knows anything.

[pedro]

Originally Posted by jojo

What say ye if Pettitte says, "I have no idea why McNamee would say that about Roger"?

"oh yeah, I used to be in the olive oil business with his father... a long time ago..."

[savafan]

Originally Posted by traderumor

He is? I recall reading on here that he cheated on his wife, not that religious people don't make mistakes, but...

He is both a very strong man of faith, and he did cheat on his wife. Both of these are true statements. Everyone does make mistakes.

IIRC, it was to appease his wife that he left New York to go to Houston.

[TeamBoone]

02/04/2008 12:51:22

Pettitte Talks to Congress for 2 1/2 Hours
By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte talked for about 2 1/2 hours Monday with lawyers from a congressional committee looking into drug use in baseball.

After the deposition, Pettitte did not take questions from reporters as he walked out of the offices of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Wearing a pinstriped gray suit and bright striped tie, Pettitte was accompanied by his wife and at least one lawyer.

His interview is part of preparation for a Feb. 13 public hearing expected to focus on Roger Clemens' denials of allegations about his use of performance enhancers made in the Mitchell Report by former personal trainer Brian McNamee.

Pettitte lent credence to former Senate majority leader George Mitchell's findings by acknowledging he received two injections of human growth hormone from McNamee.

A former Yankees teammate of Pettitte and Clemens, Chuck Knoblauch, spoke to committee staff Friday. The day before, an employee of the sports agency that represents Clemens and Pettitte went to Capitol Hill to be interviewed.

McNamee said he injected Clemens with HGH and steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner has denied the allegations repeatedly and in various settings — but not under oath.

McNamee also told Mitchell he injected Pettitte two to four times with HGH — and two days after the report was released in December, Pettitte said he took HGH for two days to deal with an elbow injury in 2002.

The 35-year-old Pettitte, who won four World Series championships with the Yankees, returned to the team last season and went 15-9. This offseason, he put off retirement and agreed to a $16 million, one-year contract to play for the Yankees next season.

McNamee also said he acquired HGH from former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski for Knoblauch in 2001 — and McNamee said he injected Knoblauch with HGH. Radomski pleaded guilty in April to federal felony charges of distributing steroids and laundering money. He is scheduled to be sentenced next Friday.

Last week, a lawyer representing McNamee said he believed Pettitte would tell Congress he discussed HGH with Clemens between the 2001 and 2002 seasons. The lawyer, Earl Ward, said Pettitte talked about HGH with McNamee following a conversation with Clemens.

Richard Emery, another lawyer for McNamee, has said the trainer and Pettitte also discussed steroids use by Clemens.

Clemens is scheduled to give a deposition or transcribed interview to committee lawyers Tuesday, followed by McNamee on Thursday, and Radomski on Feb. 12.

Letters sent by committee chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis to Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch on Jan. 16, requesting their appearances both at the hearing and a pre-hearing deposition or interview, said: "The committee asks that you provide testimony about allegations in Senator George Mitchell's report ... that you and other Major League Baseball players used performance enhancing drugs during your professional baseball career."

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