PrairiePundit

Houston Chronicle: Despite a lengthy, contentious battle to admit Dr. Bruce Goldberger as a witness, and U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton  limiting the scope of the forensic toxicologist’s testimony,  Roger Clemens’ defense team nabbed a victory this afternoon when Goldberger’s testimony cast doubt over key government evidence. The testimony raised questions about the only physical evidence linking Clemens to the steroid scandal. The evidence in question is the medical waste kept in a beer can by former Clemens strength coach Brian McNamee, who said the waste is left over from the times he injected the pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs. Both McNamee’s and Clemens’ DNA was found on the evidence, but the defense has argued that the conditions the evidence was kept in lead to cross-contamination. It’s an allegation Goldberger, a forensic toxicologist at the University of Florida, supported on the stand today. It would be “impossible” to rule out cross-conta...

CNN: Roger Clemens said Wednesday he received only vitamin shots from Brian McNamee, but the ex-trainer insisted before a House panel that every injection contained steroids or other performance enhancers. Clemens sat mere feet from his chief accuser as the two men, both under oath, offered lawmakers starkly conflicting accounts about the injections McNamee administered years ago. The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, said, "Someone isn't telling the truth." "If Mr. McNamee is lying, then he has acted inexcusably and he has made Mr. Clemens an innocent victim," Waxman said . "If Mr. Clemens isn't telling the truth, then he has acted shamefully and he has smeared Mr. McNamee. I don't think there is anything in between." Clemens told reporters afterward that he was "very thankful and very grateful" for the chance to answer the allegations. In a nearly direct exchange with McNamee, Clemens told the House panel that McName...

abc13: ... Canseco is now calling McNamee a liar. In a phone interview, he says, referring to McNamee, "I think he was pressured by someone into saying (that). I'm 1000 percent sure Roger never showed up at the party. We didn't talk then." Canseco does admit that he and Clemens did discuss steroids in a joking manner, but that he doesn't believe the Rocket ever injected HGH or steroids. Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, turned over evidence Saturday, including an affidavit signed by Canseco, which he says proves the pitcher never attended the party. According to Canseco, McNamee is a -- quote -- "dirty liar." ... Hardin was speaking about Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the steroid probe, when he told the New York Times, "If he ever messes with Roger (Clemens), Roger will eat his lunch.'' He also said it would be "brazen" if Novitzky showed up for the hearing Wednesday. Henry Waxman, the chairman of the committee which ...

Houston Chronicle: A lawyer for Roger Clemens said Saturday the pitcher can prove he didn't attend a June 1998 party at Jose Canseco's home described by Brian McNamee in the Mitchell Report. According to McNamee, Clemens first raised the subject of steroids not long after McNamee saw Canseco and Clemens meeting during the party. Clemens' side has turned over evidence to congressional investigators, including an affidavit from Canseco, to support that the pitcher wasn't present at Canseco's home that day, the attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Hardin said video footage from telecasts of baseball games around the time of the party also were given to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During the telecasts, Hardin said, TV announcers can be heard discussing Canseco's party and noting that Clemens wasn't there. ... As described by Hardin, the video footage turned over to the committee includes o...

NY Times: The syringes, vials and gauze pads that Brian McNamee has turned over to federal investigators to back up his contention that he injected Roger Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone will be the subject of a strenuous attack if they enter the courtroom, according to medical and legal experts. Scientific experts said there was no known method to date steroids or human growth hormone. The syringes, vials and gauze pads are said to date from 2000 and 2001, part of a four-year period in which McNamee contends he gave Clemens drug injections. But even if the physical evidence tests positive for Clemens’s DNA and, say, steroids, Clemens’s lawyers could argue that McNamee added steroid traces to the original evidence in a bid to incriminate Clemens, experts say. “You can test to figure out what the substance is, but you cannot figure out how old it is,” Dr. Don Catlin, the former director of the Olympic testing lab at U.C.L.A., said in a telephone interview. There is no way...