EPAA former congressman who helped spark the Justice Department's investigation of Roger Clemens for possible perjury says he believes that the 7-time Cy Young winner will face charges very soon, USA Today reported Wednesday.
"I think you need to cut your losses," said former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican from Virginia and ex-chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Frankly, I think we'll see charges in the Clemens case and they will come around pretty quickly. Lying under oath is serious. It's not like A-Rod lying to Katie Couric in an interview. When you're under oath, you have to tell the truth."
Davis and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who was chairman of the committee, asked Justice to investigate Clemens for possibly lying to Congress about the use of steroids in baseball.
Davis made his comments on the same that day that Houston Astros shortstop and former American League MVP Miguel Tejada pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and admitting that he had bought human growth hormone but threw it out before using it.
"I don't think it bodes well for Roger," said Earl Ward, defense attorney for Brian McNamee, Clemens' former personal trainer who told federal investigators that he injected Clemens with steroids and HGH from 1998 through 2001, the New York Daily News reported. "How can they go after Barry Bonds and Miguel Tejada and not indict Roger Clemens?"
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Richard Emery, another McNamee attorney, agreed that Clemens is in trouble, the Daily News reported.
"It means they're hot on the trail and working hard on both cases," said Emery, referring to the Clemens and Tejada cases. "That means Clemens is in harm's way. The prosecutors are acting as professionally and aggressively as they can."
Tests link Clemens' DNA to blood in syringes
Tests have linked Roger Clemens' DNA to blood in syringes that his former personal trainer says he used to inject the pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs, according to a report.
Citing two unidentified sources familiar with the investigation, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the DNA results are preliminary and subject to verification tests. The newspaper said Clemens voluntarily gave a DNA sample to federal authorities, according to the sources, and it still remains to be determined whether the syringes ever contained steroids or human growth hormone.
The test results could prove important to the investigation into whether Clemens lied under oath to Congress last year when he denied using steroids or HGH.
Prosecutors have asked a federal grand jury in Washington to decide whether to indict the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. McNamee has told federal agents, baseball investigator George Mitchell and a House of Representatives committee that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and HGH from 1998-2001.
Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, told the Post that the DNA testing "won't matter at all."
"It will still be evidence fabricated by McNamee," Hardin was quoted as saying. "I would be dumbfounded if any responsible person ever found this to be reliable or credible evidence in any way."
The Associated Press reported last week that, according to a person close to the case, the world-renowned UCLA Olympic doping lab — where the "clear" and the "cream" of BALCO infamy first were uncovered - has in hand the physical evidence McNamee turned over to federal prosecutors in early 2008 that his side says will link Clemens to drug use.
For the items to play a role in the case — to help settle the he-said, he-said between Clemens and McNamee — investigators must know what, exactly, they contain.
At the time, Clemens' camp called it "manufactured" evidence, while the trainer's side said the items were thrown in a box by McNamee and kept for years in case he needed to "protect himself" somewhere down the line.
"The defendants will undoubtedly claim it was tampered with. But the jury will decide whether that's true or not," one of McNamee's lawyers, Richard Emery, said in a telephone interview Friday. "I don't think there's any doubt that it'll be admitted in the case, assuming that it reveals that Clemens' DNA is mixed with steroids or HGH."
Asked last week to comment on the UCLA lab's role, Hardin said through a spokesman: "We're happy that they're using such great resources, but it doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day, this is just a bunch of junk that was put together in a dark, dusty basement years ago by McNamee."
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