The lawyers for Brian McNamee dropped a bombshell yesterday that may blow up Roger Clemens’ denials.
McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, has physical evidence that he believes proves Clemens used steroids as he has alleged, his lawyers said. They would not comment specifically on what the evidence is, but a source said McNamee has syringes he claims contain trace amounts of Clemens’ blood, steroids and growth hormone.
He turned these over, along with blood-stained syringes and gauze pads, to federal investigators last month, according to sources.
McNamee plans on telling staff members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about this evidence this morning during a deposition in Washington. This would be the first physical evidence linking Clemens to steroids.
“We will turn over evidence to Congress which will corroborate Brian McNamee’s truth-telling and make it clear he administered steroids to Roger Clemens,” McNamee’s lawyer Richard Emery said.
Until now it has been McNamee’s word against Clemens’. If this evidence is indeed what it is cracked up to be, McNamee’s case becomes stronger.
“This will take it out of the ‘he said, she said’ of disputes, in our view,” Emery said.
Lanny Breuer, Clemens’ lawyer, returned fire in a statement, calling McNamee a “troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens.”
He said McNamee has, “manufactured evidence.”
“It has no credibility at all,” Breuer told The Post by phone. “It is a vehicle for character assassination and a cheap stunt.”
Clemens has scheduled a series of one-on-one interviews with members of the committee today. A source close to Clemens said he began scheduling these earlier this week and it is not a reaction to this latest development. Many of the congressmen’s offices are in the Rayburn Building where McNamee will be giving his deposition, meaning Clemens and McNamee could be in the building at the same time.
The pitcher gave a deposition under oath to committee staffers Tuesday. Afterward, he told reporters that he denied ever using steroids or HGH, repeating the denials he has made since McNamee’s claims were made public on Dec. 13 in the Mitchell Report.
Breuer said Clemens is looking forward to testifying before the committee on Wednesday.
“He will not waiver, nor will he shrink from this because he is telling the truth,” Breuer said.
McNamee hopes that tests on the evidence will turn up Clemens’ DNA along with evidence of steroids to prove his claims that he injected Clemens with the drugs.
Clemens could face charges of lying to federal officials if the congressional committee believes he was untruthful in his deposition Tuesday or in next week’s hearing.
McNamee’s evidence may be shaky, though. Apparently, the samples were obtained in 2000 or 2001 and McNamee held onto them. There will be questions of chain of custody, how these syringes and gauze pads were stored and whether McNamee is just determined to bring down Clemens, as Clemens’ lawyers believe.
“As a forensic scientist, those syringes are worthless,” said forensics expert David Black, the president of Aegis Sciences Corp. “If the individual producing them has some agenda to harm Clemens, this it is suspect.
“As a forensic scientist, I find this to be preposterous.”
Hypothetically, Black said there would be no way to prove if drugs were added to a syringe that contained a sample of Clemens’ blood obtained earlier.
“You don’t have to be a television creative writer to come up with this,” Black said.
McNamee never told federal investigators or former Sen. George Mitchell, who interviewed McNamee, about the physical evidence. Sources said McNamee turned the evidence over to federal agent Jeff Novitzky and two assistant U.S. attorneys on Jan. 10. It may have been in response to Clemens playing a taped phone conversation between he and McNamee for reporters earlier in the week.
Sources close to Clemens question why McNamee would have kept this medical waste and question whether he did so for other baseball players he claims to have injected.
In his statement, Breuer said the idea that McNamee saved these materials for seven years, “defies all sensibility.”
“It is just not credible,” Breuer said. “Who in their right mind does such a thing?”