WHO'S LYING???
WASHINGTON -- Roger Clemens was told he didn't sound believable. Brian McNamee was branded a "drug dealer" and reminded of past lies. With Congress apparently split over which man's version of events is true, it could be up to the Justice Department to decide.
Clemens and McNamee, the accused and his accuser, traded contradictory stories under oath Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about whether the star pitcher was injected with steroids and human growth hormone by his former personal trainer.
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And while many baseball fans are turning their attention to Florida and Arizona for the first official workouts of spring training Thursday _ ready for cries of "Play ball!" instead of talk about foul play _ there is sure to be more discussion of Clemens and McNamee in the nation's capital.
"It's just sad," Clemens' former manager with the New York Yankees, Joe Torre, said in Vero Beach, Fla., on the eve of his first camp with the Los Angeles Dodgers. "I'd just like to see baseball move on right now."
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After the 400-page Mitchell Report, which contained the first public airing of McNamee's allegations about Clemens, and a 4 1/2-hour House hearing about their he-said, he-said, little is settled.
"They don't disagree on a phone call or one meeting," committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said during the hearing. "If Mr. McNamee is lying, he has acted inexcusably, and he has made Mr. Clemens an innocent victim. If Mr. Clemens isn't telling the truth, then he is acting shamefully and has smeared Mr. McNamee. I don't think there is anything in between."
Yet, afterward, Waxman told reporters: "I haven't reached any conclusions at this point" as to whether a criminal investigation is warranted.
Several congressmen said a referral from the committee isn't needed to trigger a Justice Department inquiry if prosecutors believe either man made false statements.
Sitting in the second row Wednesday was IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky, a key member of the team prosecuting Barry Bonds. Bonds, baseball's home run king, was indicted in November on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from his 2003 testimony to a grand jury in which he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
It was Novitzky who last month collected used needles and bloody gauze pads that McNamee's camp turned over for testing. The trainer's lawyers call the items evidence that contains performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens' DNA. Clemens' side call the items "manufactured."
Either way, the Justice Department has them.
McNamee told baseball investigator George Mitchell he injected Clemens 16 to 21 times with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2001. On Wednesday, McNamee said those numbers are low. Keep reading>>>