Clemens at House Hearing Denies He used Performance-Enhancing Drugs
STEROIDS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jason Millman
Boston University Washington News Service
Feb. 13, 2008
WASHINGTON – Facing new charges from a former teammate, Roger Clemens on Wednesday continued to deny at a House hearing that he ever used performance-enhancing drugs, while committee members repeatedly raised questions about his credibility and that of his accuser, Brian McNamee.
During a sometimes tense exchange with committee members, Mr. Clemens denied he ever spoke to friend and former teammate Andy Pettitte about using human growth hormone, contradicting sworn depositions and written affidavits Mr. Pettitte and his wife gave to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week. Mr. Pettitte told the committee he and Mr. Clemens had a conversation about Mr. Clemens’s use of human growth hormone in 1999.
Mr. Clemens said he was talking about his wife, Debbie, using the hormone during that 1999 conversation with Mr. Pettitte and that he clarified this with Mr. Pettitte in a 2006 conversation.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., pressed Mr. Clemens hard during questioning, reminding him several times he was speaking under oath. He asked Mr. Clemens if he thought Mr. Pettitte – who was scheduled to appear at the hearing until he was excused Monday – lied to the committee.
“I think he misremembered,” Mr. Clemens said.
Mr. Clemens sat two seats away from Mr. McNamee, who first told federal investigators in the Mitchell Report he injected Mr. Clemens with human growth hormone. Mr. Clemens and Mr. McNamee, who have been trading barbs through the media since the Mitchell Report was released in December, gave consistently contradicting testimony.
“It’s impossible to believe this is a simple misunderstanding,” committee chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., said during his opening remarks. “Someone isn’t telling the truth.”
Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Peabody, aggressively questioned Mr. Clemens about why in his sworn deposition he denied three times ever talking to Mr. McNamee about human growth hormone before admitting he had two heated conversations about injecting Mr. Clemens’ wife with the drug without Mr. Clemens’s knowledge.
The five-hour hearing saw some awkward moments, including several occasions when Mr. Clemens’s lawyers rose from their seats behind the former New York Yankees pitcher to directly address the committee though Mr. Waxman told them they were only allowed to speak directly to Mr. Clemens.
The hearing room became tense when leading members probed Mr. Clemens about whether he might have tried to influence witness testimony. Mr. Waxman said the committee asked Mr. Clemens’s attorneys to produce the name and contact information for the family’s former nanny last Friday because they believed she could provide testimony whether Mr. Clemens had attended a party at former baseball player Jose Canseco’s Florida home, where Mr. McNamee said he first approached Mr. Clemens about steroids in 1998. Mr. Clemens said he did not attend the party, and Mr. Canseco gave a written affidavit that Mr. Clemens did not attend.
Mr. Waxman said Mr. Clemens’s legal team did not provide the committee with the nanny’s name until Monday. The nanny, whose name was withheld, told the committee Mr. Clemens was at that 1998 party and Mr. Clemens contacted her on Sunday and invited her to his Texas home even though they had not spoken in eight years.
“I was doing you all a favor,” Mr. Clemens said about contacting the former nanny, adding he was “hurt” by any suggestions he might have tried to sway her comments to the committee.
Some information seemed to corroborate Mr. McNamee’s previous statements. Mr. Pettitte and former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch both admitted in their private meetings with committee members last week to taking human growth hormone.
Committee members questioned Mr. McNamee about why he waited until last week to reveal he had syringes and gauze pads which he said had performance enhancing drugs and Mr. Clemens’s blood on them dating back to 2001.
“I felt horrible to be in the position I was in,” said Mr. McNamee, explaining why he hadn’t turned over the physical evidence when Mitchell Report investigators asked him if he had any.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., pointing out inconsistencies in Mr. McNamee’s previous statements to federal investigators and the committee, was visibly upset while questioning Mr. McNamee before launching into a tirade against him.
“This is really disgusting. You’re here as a sworn witness. You’re here to tell the truth,” Mr. Burton said. “You’re here under oath, and yet we have lie after lie after lie after lie, of where you’ve told this committee and the people of this country that Roger Clemens did things. I don’t know what to believe. I know one thing I don’t believe and that’s you.”
After the hearing, Mr. Waxman would not say if the committee would pursue perjury charges against either Mr. Clemens or Mr. McNamee despite their starkly contradicting testimonies.
“That’s a very different complicated legal question,” he said to reporters. “We knew from the beginning they both couldn’t be telling the truth.”
###
