Former All-Star Mark McGwire is refusing to cooperate with former Sen. George Mitchell's investigation into performance-enhancers in baseball, The New York Daily News reported Saturday.

The former slugger has refused to meet with Mitchell and his investigators, a source told the newspaper.

"They're getting no cooperation from McGwire," the source told the newspaper. "He wants nothing to do with this. He doesn't want to talk to them. He doesn't want his people to talk to them."

Unlike the federal prosecutors who recently investigated tax evasion and perjury allegations against Barry Bonds, Mitchell can neither issue a subpoena that would compel McGwire to talk nor threaten the embattled ex-slugger with prison time, the Daily News said.

"He wants nothing to do with their probe," the source added of McGwire.

Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader, was appointed in March by commissioner Bud Selig to lead the league's investigation into steroids in the sport.

The legal supplement androstenedione was found in McGwire's locker eight years ago, the season he broke Roger Maris' season home run record. When asked about steroids during a congressional hearing in 2005, McGwire said "I am not here to talk about the past."

McGwire has rarely been to a big-league park since he retired in 2001 and he has declined repeated invitations from the St. Louis Cardinals to become a hitting instructor, the Daily News said.

The newspaper said McGwire did make a donation to the Taylor Hooton Foundation, which was established to educate kids, parents and coaches about the dangers of steroids and reduce the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Taylor Hooton's father, Don, testified at the same congressional hearing as McGwire, and his testimony seemed to move McGwire to tears.

Hooton told the Daily News his organization has asked McGwire to publicly speak out against steroid use, but McGwire has refused to make public appearances or public-service announcements. "He's still a powerful personality and we'd love to have him speaking out on this," Hooton said.

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The newspaper said one reason for McGwire's reluctance may be that he fears criminal prosecution for his role in baseball's steroid scandal. A Daily News investigation published last year found that McGwire had used steroids and that his name had popped up during an FBI investigation into steroid dealers. Former teammate Jose Canseco, in his tell-all book "Juiced," also said McGwire was a regular steroid user.

Rep. Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican who chaired last year's hearing, told the Daily News in the spring that McGwire may be keeping a low profile until the statute of limitations passes.

"I think that if we could have provided him immunity he would have come clean," Davis told the newspaper. "But this guy had quit four years before and there was a five-year statute of limitations, and he would have subjected himself to criminal prosecution. We couldn't work out an immunity deal."

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