MLB

‘Absolutely not’: A-Rod camp finally denies PED usage

BOSTON — For months, Alex Rodriguez has refused to answer the most basic of questions: Has he or has he not used illegal performance-enhancing drugs since his 2009 confession of earlier usage?

On Monday, his attorney Joseph Tacopina finally went there.

Tacopina told CNN that Rodriguez had “absolutely not” taken illegal PEDs recently and challenged the notion that MLB possesses any evidence to the contrary.

Rodriguez made such a statement back in January, when the Miami New Times first reported of a connection between Rodriguez and Biogenesis, the shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic. However, when Major League Baseball suspended him for 211 games on Aug. 5, Rodriguez began to decline comment on the subject.

Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch testified during the first five days of the appeal hearing that he had extensive text messages and e-mails documenting conversations with Rodriguez about illegal PED usage from 2010 through 2012, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.

Tacopina also admitted to CNN the Yankees’ beleaguered third baseman had paid $305,000 for evidence concerning his appeal hearing, which is on hiatus and will resume on Nov. 18.

Here’s the twist, though: According to a person briefed on the matter, that money didn’t go toward actual evidence from Biogenesis, but rather toward efforts to discredit MLB’s investigators.

If true, such purchases would not constitute obstruction, one of the charges MLB is trying to prove against Rodriguez in the hearing. It is possible MLB presented different documentation to support its obstruction charge.

Tacopina told CNN his camp had paid $105,000 for “actual documentation from two witnesses” and deposited $200,000 for a videotape that had not yet been received. The Post reported last week that A-Rod’s camp had testified to the $305,000 purchase in the hearing.

A source said the $105,000 went for a cell phone purportedly containing sexually suggestive text messages between MLB investigator Dan Mullin and a female witness who worked at Biogenesis. The $200,000 went for a tape of the exchange of $125,000 in cash from an MLB investigator to Gary Jones, a former Biogenesis employee, for documents from the clinic. Both charges were featured in Rodriguez’s lawsuit against MLB, which was filed on Oct. 4.

The Post reported exclusively on Oct. 18 that MLB COO Rob Manfred had testified, during the appeal hearing last week, that he had authorized the cash payment to Jones. Manfred has since confirmed such an authorization.