Lawyers: McNamee has physical evidence linking Clemens to steroids

[WMR]

Lawyers: McNamee has physical evidence linking Clemens to steroids

By TERI THOMPSON, CHRISTIAN RED, NATHANIEL VINTON and MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS

Wednesday, February 6th 2008, 3:32 PM

Brian McNamee has turned over physical evidence to federal investigators that he believes will show Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, according to McNamee's lawyers.

"This is evidence the government has that we believe will corroborate Brian in every significant way," said McNamee lawyer Earl Ward.

McNamee's attorneys would not discuss the details of the evidence, but according to a source close to the former Yankee strength and conditioning coach, McNamee gave the Justice Department's BALCO investigators vials with traces of steroids and growth hormone, as well as blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that may contain the Rocket's DNA.

Justice Department officials have sent the evidence to a lab for testing, and if the materials do indeed contain traces of drugs and blood, prosecutors may attempt to get a court order for a DNA sample from Clemens.

McNamee plans to discuss the evidence with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform tomorrow, when he is interviewed by the panel's attorneys in preparation for next Wednesday's congressional hearing on the challenges Clemens has raised about the Mitchell Report.

"We will provide Congress with corroborative physical evidence that takes this case out of the he-said, she-said purview," said another McNamee lawyer, Richard Emery. "From our point of view, this corroborates that Brian told the truth from Day One and Clemens has not."

Clemens' attorneys Rusty Hardin and Lanny Breuer did not return calls for comment.

The explosive evidence could pose big problems for the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who emerged from a five-hour deposition with committee investigators yesterday and told reporters that he had testified under oath that he had never used illict drugs.

Clemens has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs ever since the Mitchell Report was released on Dec. 13, but if he did indeed reiterate his denials under oath, the stakes become significantly higher. Clemens could be charged under a federal law that penalizes anyone who knowingly and willfully lies to Congress. The law, 18 U.S.C. 1001, allows prison terms up to a five-year in length.

"We're not going to make any judgments until we see all the evidence," said Keith Ausbrook, the committee's Republican general counsel. "We're going to have to wait to see what Mr. McNamee tells us."

Other witnesses may also come forward with information that corroborates McNamee's account in the Mitchell Report, the source said. McNamee told former Sen. George Mitchell he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs at least 16 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

McNamee kept syringes, gauze pads and vials from the 2000 and 2001 seasons because he feared Clemens would deny illicit drug use if the matter was ever investigated, the source added.

McNamee has not talked about the evidence in the past, the source said, because he did not want to implicate Clemens in Major League Baseball's ongoing steroid scandal. But Clemens has left McNamee no choice: The Rocket filed a defamation lawsuit naming McNamee as a defendant shortly after the Mitchell Report's release, and Clemens' legal and public relations team have spent weeks attacking the Breezy Point resident's credibility.

Although Clemens has repeatedly denied steroid use, he has said McNamee, his longtime personal trainer and the Yankees assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2000 and 2001, did give him B-12 and lidocaine injections. But the source said the government's lab tests could prove the vials and syringes contained illict drugs, not a vitamin or a pain killer.

The House Oversight Committee has already shown it will not tolerate ballplayers who lie to lawmakers. The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada lied on Aug. 26, 2005, when Tejada told congressional aides investigating then-Baltimore Orioles teammate Rafael Palmeiro them that he didn't use steroids and didn't know other players who did.

Tejada is now the focus of an FBI investigation, likely to center on the transcribed interview in question, and the contradictory evidence laid out in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs and baseball, which includes photographed reproductions of a signed check Tejada wrote in 2003 to his then-teammate Adam Piatt, who told Mitchell the check was for drugs.

McNamee will be the fifth person interviewed by congressional investigators preparing for next week's hearing.

One key witness against Clemens could be his longtime friend and teammate Pettitte, who met with the same congressional investigators for 2 1/2 hours on Monday.

Committee staff members and Pettitte's lawyers declined to talk about his interview, which was expected to focus on Pettitte's admission that he used human growth hormone as noted in the Mitchell Report. But Pettitte's testimony could also be devastating for Clemens. The pitchers have been famously close friends in their years together with the Yankees and Houston Astros. Both used McNamee as a trainer.

Ward, moreover, told the Daily News last week that he expected Pettitte to tell investigators about a conversation he had with Clemens and McNamee about performance-enhancing drugs during a workout session at Clemens' Houston-area home before the 2002 season.

Former Met clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, meanwhile, meets with the House Oversight Committee investigators on Tuesday, the same day the panel will hold a hearing entitled "Myths and Facts About Human Growth Hormone, B-12 and Other Substances." That hearing is being held prior to the Mitchell Report hearing to help lawmakers understand the "true effects" of the substances, according to a statement from the committee.

[WMR]

He has already testified under oath...

What is Perjury for $500, Alex.

[NJReds]

Interesting that this all turned up after the Mitchell report. I guess it wasn't important enough to share with Sen. Mitchell.

[icehole3]

Will Roger become Micheal Vicks roomate?

[mbgrayson]

Interesting strategy. They wait till the day AFTER Clemens tesities under oath, then let the word out that they have physical evidence.....

If Roger is lying, looks like he may be in big trouble. He and Barry Bonds may make quite a nice prison baseball team....We can just say they will be in the "Federal League"....lol.

Sad, actually. But perhaps richly deserved.....

[savafan]

Maybe they'll get to play with Rick Vaughn in the California Penal League.

[MWM]

No move either side has made makes any sense to me. I have no idea what to think at this point.

[fearofpopvol1]

Couldn't Clemens use the defense that he admitted to being injected with B12 and Lidocane? And that the syringes contained DNA from that?

I guess I'm just not sure how this necessarily proves anything.

[NDRed]

Originally Posted by MWM

No move either side has made makes any sense to me. I have no idea what to think at this point.

I think the moves by the Feds make perfect sense. They wait for Roger C. denials and then break out the physical evidence. If all is true Roger will face time- Congress does not like being lied to.

[NDRed]

Originally Posted by fearofpopvol1

Couldn't Clemens use the defense that he admitted to being injected with B12 and Lidocane? And that the syringes contained DNA from that?

I guess I'm just not sure how this necessarily proves anything.

If they have a syringe/used needle with the DNA of Roger Clemens and the sample/syringe also contains performance enhancing drugs it seems pretty clear cut. I think that is what the evidence will turn out to be.

Kinda like a stained dress...If this is true Roger Clemens is cooked! He should have found out what the other side had before he went before Congress! Who would have thought the trainer would save needles for years. YIKES

This looks to be huge!!! If true, the Feds have actual physical evidence that one of the greatest players of all time got there by taking performance enhancing drugs. Roger Clemens you are the new poster-boy for steriods.

Barry Bonds dances a jig.

[MrCinatit]

But...Roger swore he never used them. A man doesn't just swear out of the blue....right?

[fearofpopvol1]

Originally Posted by NDRed

If they have a syringe/used needle with the DNA of Roger Clemens and the sample/syringe also contains performance enhancing drugs it seems pretty clear cut. I think that is what the evidence will turn out to be.

Kinda like a stained dress...If this is true Roger Clemens is cooked! He should have found out what the other side had before he went before Congress! Who would have thought the trainer would save needles for years. YIKES

This looks to be huge!!! If true, the Feds have actual physical evidence that one of the greatest players of all time got there by taking performance enhancing drugs. Roger Clemens you are the new poster-boy for steriods.

Barry Bonds dances a jig.

I do understand that and all, but again, I'm not sure how you prove that. I would think Clemens could argue that yes, his DNA was on the syringes. However, McNamee could've taken one of the old syringes that he (supposedly) injected Clemens with B12 or Lidocane, filled it up with PED's and then pushed it into thin air. It may sound like a crazy theory, but I don't think it's that crazy.

I guess I'm just not sure how it's clear cut and how it proves anything.

[Topcat]

God I want Roger owned as a Liar. Then there is a fact I grew up hearing all the time. Nobody likes a Rat.

[SunDeck]

He kept used syringes around for seven years?

[Always Red]

Originally Posted by SunDeck

He kept used syringes around for seven years?

Yes, that's creepy.

It tells you what kind of guy McNamee is, if he was thinking about the end game all along. Smart, but creepy.