Print

Mail

wiki links

FBI investigates whether baseball star lied under oath

The FBI announced on Thursday that it had opened a criminal investigation into whether Roger Clemens lied under oath as part of a congressional investigation into his challenge to the Mitchell report.

The FBI's Washington field office said it had begun looking at statements Clemens made before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held a hearing Feb. 13 about his suspected use of steroids and human growth hormone. In Clemens' private deposition and in public testimony, he denied ever using the substances.

"The alleged incident happened on the grounds of the United States Capitol in the District of Washington and, as a rule, if there are any improper actions in Washington, our office looks into the matter," Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the Washington field office, said.

On Wednesday, the committee chairman, Henry Waxman and the ranking minority member, Tom Davis sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting that federal authorities investigate Clemens' statements. Weierman said the attorney general's office in Washington contacted the field office on Thursday to open the investigation.

"We've always expected they would open an investigation," said Rusty Hardin, a lawyer for Clemens.

Clemens is the second baseball player to be referred for a criminal investigation this year. In January, Waxman and Davis referred Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada on suspicion of making false statements to congressional investigators about his possible use of performance-enhancing drugs.

According to a lawyer familiar with the matter, officials at the Justice Department are interested in keeping the case in Washington, although the federal government's major steroid cases have been led by prosecutors at the US attorney's office in the Northern District of California.

"The Justice Department has the discretion regarding whether or not a grand jury would be convened in San Francisco or Washington, DC," Mathew Rosengart, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University Law School and a former federal prosecutor, said.

"The focus of the investigation right now is in Washington because that is where the alleged crimes have occurred, but the federal authorities who have prosecuted these types of cases are in Northern California," he said.

It was Jeff Novitzky, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and prosecutors in the US attorney's office in the Northern District of California who entered into a proffer agreement with Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee.
This story has been viewed 607 times.