Clemens, McNamee Face Off On The Hill | Baseball | CW11 New York

From the Los Angeles Times

Clemens, McNamee Face Off On The Hill

Lawmakers Focus On Pettitte's Statements Against The Pitcher As McNamee Reiterates His Accusations.

By Lance Pugmire And Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

February 13, 2008, 11:33 AM EST

WASHINGTON — Roger Clemens, arguably the greatest living pitcher, faced Brian McNamee, his former trainer and the man who publicly has accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs, in a highly anticipated House hearing this morning on former Sen. George Mitchell's report on drug use in Major League Baseball.

"I take great issue with the report's allegation that I used these substances," Clemens said in a prepared opening statement before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "Let me be clear again. I did not."

Yet Clemens' longtime teammate and friend Andy Pettitte provided the committee a sworn affidavit in which he said Clemens told him he had used human growth hormone.

Committee Chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) elaborated on Pettitte's statement, in which the pitcher reported that in "1999 or 2000 . . . Roger told me he had taken HGH. . . . He told me it did help the body recover."

Later, in 2005, Pettitte told Congress that Clemens changed his story to say that Pettitte misunderstood him, and that he was talking about Clemens' wife Debbie's HGH use.

"I said, 'Oh, OK, . . . because I didn't want to argue with him," Waxman quoted Pettitte as saying.

Pettitte said he was compelled to tell the truth because one day he will have to give "an account to God."

Pettitte's wife confirmed her husband's recollection of the stories, Waxman said.

In questioning, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) asked Clemens if he understood the importance of testifying under oath.

"I do," Clemens, wearing a dark blue suit, answered sternly.

Clemens then said that though he considered Pettitte "an honest fellow," he said the pitcher's recollection of Clemens' HGH use admission was not true.

"Andy Pettitte is my friend. He was my friend before this, he will be my friend after this," Clemens said. "I think Andy has misheard . . . on his comments about me using HGH. . . . I think he misremembers."

Cummings pressed Clemens on the clear memories of the Pettittes and said, "it's hard for me to believe you don't remember," and again reminded Clemens that he was under oath.

"If he was knowingly knowing I was taking the HGH, we would've discussed it later . . . our relationship was close enough," Clemens said.

McNamee originally alleged that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone 16 times between 1998 and 2001, when Clemens won a Cy Young Award and World Series. The trainer's opening statement included this passage: "The Mitchell Report documented the pervasiveness of steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball, and I was, unfortunately, part of that problem.

" . . . make no mistake, when I told Sen. Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I told the truth."

McNamee's statement also included an allegation that "the number of times I injected Roger Clemens . . . was actually greater than I initially stated."

McNamee elaborated in his statement on his decision to keep syringes he said he used to inject Clemens.

"While I liked and admired Roger Clemens, I don't think that I ever really trusted him. . . . I just had that sense that if this ever blew up and things got messy, Roger would be looking out for No. 1. I viewed the syringes as evidence that would prevent me from being the only fall guy."

Clemens maintained, "Brian McNamee has never given me growth hormone or steroids."

In Clemens' prepared opening statement, the pitcher said, "I am not saying Sen. Mitchell's report is entirely wrong and I am not trying to convince those who have already made up their minds based only on an allegation. For those with an open mind, however, I am saying that Brian McNamee's statements are wrong. Once again, I never took steroids or human growth hormone."

Waxman said in his opening statement that the hearing was called to respond to Clemens' denials of the report's credibility, including his attorney Rusty Hardin's description of the report as "horrible, disgraceful."

Waxman proceeded to say, "It's rare . . . to have the situation the committee faces today. They both insist they're telling the truth, but their accounts couldn't be more different."

The repercussions of the hearing's testimony were being watched closely throughout the country, by baseball brass, players, fans and attorneys.

If Clemens and McNamee today stand by their previous statements, one would be presumed to be lying under oath.

Rep. Mark E. Souder (R-Ind.) reinforced that point, telling the witnesses: "It's better not to talk about the past than to lie about the past."

The Pettitte disclosures put an even brighter spotlight on Clemens when he raised his right hand this morning and swore to tell Congress the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Clemens risks disgracing himself, a Justice Department move toward felony charges and gravely jeopardizing his own Hall of Fame chances if he were to lie under oath about his alleged use of steroids and human growth hormone.

Yet, by strongly challenging the accuracy of former Sen. George Mitchell's report on baseball's steroid era, Clemens has compelled Congress to debate the credibility of a renowned statesman.

Clemens has unequivocally denied using performance-enhancing substances, thus hanging "one big asterisk" on the Mitchell Report, Rep. Cummings said Tuesday.

McNamee told Mitchell, and federal agents, that he injected three players -- Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch with HGH, and Clemens with steroids and HGH. Pettitte and Knoblauch each told committee investigators that McNamee spoke truthfully about him, and each player was excused from testifying today, Marin said.

"Since Mr. Clemens was so adamant that part of the report was inaccurate, we gave him the opportunity to clear that up," Cummings said Tuesday. "We didn't want to have the report left open when there was such a major concern on the part of Mr. Clemens."

Hardin has challenged McNamee's credibility, questioning in part why Mitchell did not ask Jose Canseco to verify McNamee's claim that he saw Clemens at a party thrown by Canseco.

McNamee told Mitchell he discussed steroids with Clemens at the party, and later began injecting the pitcher during that 1998 season, as Clemens closed the season with a 14-0 record and won his fifth Cy Young Award.

Canseco denied that claim in an affidavit released to the Associated Press, further stating he had "never had a conversation with Clemens in which he expressed any interest in using steroids or human growth hormone." In his report, Mitchell wrote that Canseco "told members of my investigative staff that he had numerous conversations with Clemens" about steroids and how to use them for best effect.

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) asked both about that party, and McNamee said he remembered eating a sandwich poolside, watching a woman identified as Clemens' nanny in a peach bikini grabbing a young child identified as Clemens' near the pool.

"I saw him [Clemens] there at the house," McNamee told Davis. "We talked about how great a party that'd be if we didn't have a game that night."

Clemens told Davis he played golf that day, and "don't remember his party."

But Waxman revealed that committee staff found that Clemens invited the nanny to his Katy, Texas, home on Sunday, and told her, "The reason you don't remember the party is because I wasn't there."

However, the nanny, who was not identified, told the committee in a sworn statement that Clemens was there "at the relevant period," and that she and Clemens' wife even spent the night at Canseco's home.

Waxman said he was troubled that Clemens was possibly trying to "influence" the witness.

"I'm hurt by that statement," Clemens said.

Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Ma.) pressed Clemens to explain why he said that he had never discussed HGH with McNamee when Clemens also said in a deposition that he had discussed his wife Debbie's use of the substance.

"Prior to him injecting my wife, we had no discussion about HGH. We never discussed HGH in detail."

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) confronted McNamee about keeping for several years the gauze pads and materials he claims were used in Clemens' steroid use.

"Gee, whiz, are you kidding me?" Burton said.

Burton also mentioned McNamee's lies to police in a 2001 sexual battery case in Florida, and other untruthful statements in published newspaper reports.

"Are you lying about anything else?" Burton asked.

"You're here as a sworn witness . . . and yet we have lie after lie after lie. I don't know what to believe. I know what not to believe, and that's you. . . . Roger Clemens is a titan. How does he get his reputation back? If he's done something wrong, he ought to be punished. I don't see any evidence of that so far."

But Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) questioned Clemens about a medical report from Toronto Blue Jays team doctor Ron Taylor and trainers Scott Shannon and Tommy Craig that Clemens received treatment for an abscess on his buttocks during his time with the team.

Lynch said Taylor reported he had never seen a side effect like this from a B-12 injection.

McNamee testified the abscess came after an injection of the steroid Winstrol to Clemens, that the abscess emerged because he "could've given [the injection] too fast."

McNamee said Clemens responded by throwing the Winstrol into McNamee's locker and telling him, "Get rid of this stuff."

The committee also had Mitchell investigator Charlie Scheeler testify. He sat between Clemens and McNamee.

Waxman last month cited the Mitchell Report as the basis for referring Miguel Tejada to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation. Tejada had told committee staffers he never used performance-enhancing substances; the Mitchell Report linked him with steroids and HGH.

Waxman and Davis could then ask the Justice Department to investigate if the department does not launch an investigation on its own. The committee also could decide the public hearing satisfied its interest and drop the matter.

"If you have direct finger pointing, somebody is going to be lying," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor. "It's hard to believe they'll drop it at that. That doesn't necessarily mean there will be criminal charges, but they'll see what evidence there might be to see who's lying."

Levenson said the Justice Department could convene a grand jury and complete an investigation "within the year."

Clemens made continued rounds on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, meeting privately with individual committee members to explain his position, as the committee held a hearing in which doctors testified about the legal medical uses for HGH and risks of illegal use.

Federal law forbids doctors from prescribing HGH for adults, with exceptions for three relatively rare conditions.

McNamee said he was "ashamed" of his role in Clemens' case, but said he then "accepted it as a norm and part of the culture of baseball. It [drug use] was pretty prevalent among players."

McNamee also said in a deposition that former players' agent David Cone once told him in the late 1990s that: "The owners went to the union and said, 'We don't want to test, but we need to go to the media with a valid explanation.' "

Souder replied, "The wall of silence from baseball has been disgusting."

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

bill.shaikin@latimes.comPugmire reported from Los Angeles and Shaikin from Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.