WASHINGTON (AFP) — Baseball star Roger Clemens denied taking steroids here on Tuesday during five hours of sworn testimony to Congressional lawyers ahead of next week's showdown hearing on doping in the sport.
Clemens began answering questions for the House of Representatives Oversight Committee at about 9:30 in the morning then briefly repeated the denials he has made regarding accusations that he was a dope cheat by his former trainer.
"It was great to be able to tell them what I have been saying all along, that I never used steroids or human growth hormone," Clemens said after the deposition.
The 45-year-old Major League Baseball pitcher, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner as best pitcher, said he looked forward to declaring his innocence once more on February 13 in a public committee hearing.
Brian McNamee, who will give his statements to the committee on Thursday, told a probe into Major League Baseball doping that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone over several years.
Clemens has denied the allegations, saying he was injected only with painkillers and vitamins.
Should neither man change his story, one of them could face prison time for perjury for lying in a sworn deposition or when testifying under oath to Congress.
Athletics star Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison on perjury charges and baseball home run king Barry Bonds has been charged with perjury for denying he was a dope cheat to a grand jury in the BALCO steroid scandal.
Clemens or McNamee could avoid self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment of the US constitution, but that avenue would undermine the public statements already made and make the case in the court of public opinion.
Rusty Hardin, Clemens' attorney, had said his client would not plead the fifth and would answer all questions put to him by the committee lawyers, who want background information to aid lawmaker inquiries next week.
When baseball slugger Mark McGwire avoided repeating his denial of taking steroids to the same committee at a hearing three years ago, many saw it as confirming their worst fears about his then-record 70 home runs in 1998.
Steroids had not been banned by Major League Baseball at the time Clemens is accused of taking them, but they were illegal without a prescription.
Andy Pettitte, Clemens' former New York Yankees teammate, answered questions for the committee for 2 1/2 hours on Monday and Chuck Knoblauch, a former Yankee slugger, went to Congress last Friday for a 90-minute deposition.
Pettitte, who has already signed a one-year deal worth 16 million dollars to pitch for the Yankees next season, admitted using human growth hormone provided by McNamee, supporting at least that much of his trainer's doping story.
Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse employee who has admitted distributing steroids, will be sentenced on Friday and speak to the committee on the eve of the hearing, where he will appear with Clemens, McNamee, Pettitte and Knoblauch.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
