Article:McNamee turns over evidence

The New York Daily News announced that Former personal trainer Brian McNamee has turned physical evidence that he believes will show Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs over to federal investigators, his attorneys told the newspaper. "This is evidence the government has that we believe will corroborate Brian in every significant way," McNamee lawyer Earl Ward told the paper.

The lawyers wouldn't discuss what the evidence is, but a source told the Daily News that McNamee gave vials with traces of steroids and human growth hormone, as well as blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that might contain Clemens' DNA, to the Justice Department's BALCO investigators. The evidence has been sent to a lab for testing, and prosecutors might seek a court order for a DNA sample from Clemens if the evidence contains traces of drugs and blood, the Daily News reported. McNamee kept the vials, gauze pads and syringes from the 2000 and 2001 seasons because he feared Clemens would deny using performance-enhancing drugs, the source told the Daily News.

"We will provide Congress with corroborative physical evidence that takes this case out of the he-said, she-said purview," another McNamee attorney, Richard Emery, told the Daily News. "From our point of view, this corroborates that Brian told the truth from Day One and Clemens has not." Other witnesses may also come forward with information that corroborates McNamee's, the source told the Daily News.

Clemens gave a sworn deposition for about five hours to congressional lawyers behind closed doors Tuesday, addressing his former personal trainer's allegations. And this time, Clemens was under oath. "I just want to thank the committee, the staff that I just met with. They were very courteous," the seven-time Cy Young Award winner said, wearing a pinstriped gray suit instead of a pinstriped New York Yankees uniform. "It was great to be able to tell them what I've been saying all along -- that I've never used steroids or growth hormone." Tuesday's deposition was the first time Clemens faced legal risk if he were to make false statements.

In the 1.5 months since former Senate majority leader George Mitchell released his report on drug use in baseball, Clemens strongly and repeatedly denied what McNamee said -- in statements by his lawyers, in a written statement, in a video statement, during a taped TV interview and in a live news conference.

Clemens' private testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform came one day after his Yankees teammate and workout partner, Andy Pettitte, gave a deposition to committee staff for 2.5 hours. Both players' interviews were preparation for a Feb. 13 public hearing expected to focus on McNamee's allegations in the Mitchell report that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with human growth hormone and steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

Clemens acknowledged he received injections from McNamee, but he said they were for vitamin B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine. His repeated rejection of contents in the Mitchell report drew Congress' attention. Clemens, Pettitte and McNamee all are slated to testify Feb. 13. McNamee will discuss his evidence with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday, when he is interviewed by its attorneys.