WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for Roger Clemens' former personal trainer yesterday showed a House committee photos of vials, gauze and a needle that they allege was used to inject the seven-time Cy Young Award-winner with steroids.
Attorney Richard Emery told reporters that the photos - one showed a half-crushed beer can said to contain spent needles - depict "hard evidence" from 2001 and 2002 showing that trainer Brian McNamee is telling the truth about steroids and Clemens is lying.
"The issue is clear. Did Roger Clemens take steroids and is he lying about it?" Emery said after he and McNamee met privately with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform six days before it holds a public hearing on the matter. "That's all there is here. It's not about Brian McNamee. This hard evidence we believe will define and finish this matter."
Attorneys for the pitcher, who was also on Capitol Hill yesterday pressing his case with committee members, dismissed the material in the photos as "fabricated waste stuff."
"What fair-minded human being, what honest person keeps syringes and blood and the like since 2001?" Lanny Breuer, one of Clemens' attorneys, said at a news conference. "He [McNamee] is a sad, tragic obsessed man."
Emery said the actual needle and other drug paraphernalia has been turned over to the Justice Department for testing and that "it would certainly make sense that there would be DNA and proof of connection to Roger Clemens if the test is done properly."
"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," said Earl Ward, another of McNamee's attorneys.
Emery handed the photos to media members in a House office building. One photo depicts a needle, appearing to protrude from gauze, that Emery said "was used to inject Roger Clemens with steroids" in late 2001. A half-crushed beer can in the picture "comes from Roger Clemens' trash can and was used to store other broken needles," Emery said.
The other photo shows vials - Emery said they contained testosterone of several types - and needles strewn about that Clemens allegedly gave to McNamee at the end of the 2002 season.
The photos add another bizarre twist to the story of the complicated relationship between Clemens and McNamee.
McNamee told investigators for former Sen. George Mitchell last year that he repeatedly injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone between 1998 and 2001.
