Alex Rodriguez’s lawyer is going on the attack.
David Cornwell, the attorney representing the Yankees third baseman and several other players embroiled in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal, told USA Today that Major League Baseball’s investigation “despicable” and that the evidence being gathered is “irreparably tainted.”
“The conduct of Major League Baseball with the Tony Bosch investigation is despicable, unethical and potentially illegal,” Cornwell said. “Paying for evidence. Offering to pay for evidence. Intimidating witnesses. One thing we know: that evidence is unreliable. They have tainted the evidence beyond the point that you can rely on it, from their own conduct. And it’s because of this hysterical reaction to the concept [that players procured performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch’s anti-aging clinic]. It’s absurd.”
MLB has confirmed that it paid for records from Biogenesis and Porter Fischer, an associate of Bosch, said baseball offered him $125,000 for his sworn testimony and affidavit, according to the Miami News Times.
Interviews with players are expected to be concluded in the next two to three weeks, a source told USA Today. MLB officials will have to determine whether their findings in this probe will hold up in front of independent arbitrator Frederic Horowitz.
“At the conclusion of this investigation we hope that there will be a full airing of what we have learned about what Mr. Cornwell and his clients have done, so that the public can decide who has behaved despicably, unethically and illegally,” MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred said.