WASHINGTON — Roger Clemens spent Thursday going door-to-door on Capitol Hill, lobbying congressmen investigating whether he used drugs.
His accuser, Brian McNamee, gave a seven-hour deposition behind closed doors, and the trainer’s lawyers presented photographs of evidence they claim prove the seven-time Cy Young Award winner was injected with steroids.
McNamee did not speak to reporters after his interview with lawyers from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. His attorneys wouldn’t discuss the deposition, but they did talk at length about two color photographs they showed the committee for the first time.
“Roger Clemens has put himself in a position where his legacy as the greatest pitcher in baseball will depend less on his ERA and more on his DNA,” lawyer Earl Ward said.
Less than an hour later, Clemens held his own news conference, during which his lawyers attacked McNamee’s character and scoffed at McNamee’s newly presented evidence.
“This man has a total history of lying,” Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin said.
McNamee’s attorneys said their client turned over physical evidence to a federal prosecutor for the Northern District of California shortly after Clemens held a Jan. 7 nationally televised news conference at which he played a taped conversation between the two men with conflicting accounts at the center of the issue.
“At that point,” Ward said, “(McNamee) decided there was no holds barred.”
One photo shows a crushed beer can that Richard Emery, another of McNamee’s attorneys, said was taken out of a trash can in Clemens’ New York apartment in 2001. Emery said the can contained needles used to inject Clemens. That picture also shows what Emery said was gauze used to wipe blood off Clemens after a shot.
The other picture shows vials of what Emery said were testosterone, and needles — items the attorney said Clemens gave to McNamee for safekeeping at the end of the 2002 baseball season.
While Clemens’ camp called it “manufactured” evidence, Emery said McNamee kept the items because he “had this inkling and gut feeling that he couldn’t trust Roger and better keep something to protect himself in the future.”
There is a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, when Clemens, McNamee and other witnesses are to testify.
