updated 8:19 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2008

NEW YORK - Federal prosecutors are considering charging the wife and mother-in-law of Barry Bonds’ personal trainer in an effort to pressure Greg Anderson to testify against the slugger during his perjury trial, The New York Times reported.

A lawyer representing Anderson’s wife, Nicole Gestas, and others familiar with the matter told the newspaper that prosecutors are considering charging her and her mother, Madeleine Gestas, with tax-related crimes.

“There are violations that both Nicole and Madeleine are worried about,” Nicole Gestas’s attorney, Charles J. Smith of Redwood City, Calif., told the Times.

“They are matters that I don’t believe would rise to the level they would prosecute under the current standards of the U.S. Attorney’s office. But in this circumstance, perhaps they’ll ignore their own standards to prosecute Madeleine or her daughter to get what they want.”

The newspaper reported in June that Nicole received a “target letter” from federal prosecutors in November, shortly after Bonds was indicted on perjury charges for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Anderson spent three months in prison after pleading guilty to steroids distribution as part of the investigation into a sports doping ring at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, known as BALCO.

Anderson also spent more than a year in prison after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Bonds for perjury. Prosecutors told a judge that Anderson’s testimony about Bonds’ alleged drug use was vital to their perjury case and asked that he be jailed to coerce him to talk.

He was released the same day Bonds was indicted and has vowed to keep his silence, even if ordered to testify at Bonds’ trial.

Anderson could be sent back to prison if he resists a government order to testify.

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