Pettitte Will Not Testify at Public Hearing

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/sports/baseball/12clemens.html

February 12, 2008
Pettitte Will Not Testify at Public Hearing
By DUFF WILSON and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

WASHINGTON — Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee will face off at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, without any testimony from two other ballplayers or a steroids distributor who had also been scheduled to testify, the committee announced Monday night.

Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, says he never used performance-enhancing drugs. McNamee, the former trainer, says he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone. They will be joined by Charlie Scheeler, a Baltimore lawyer, who led the staff work on the investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball that was compiled by former Senator George J. Mitchell.

Dropped from the witness list were Andy Pettitte, Clemens’s longtime friend, former teammate and training partner; Chuck Knoblauch, a former major league infielder and outfielder; and Kirk Radomski, a former clubhouse attendant and drug distributor who became an informant for federal investigators and the Mitchell report.

Pettitte’s recusal came amid growing indications that he made statements that linked Clemens with steroids or H.G.H., or both, in his deposition to the committee on Feb. 4. A congressional staff member and several other people familiar with the case said that Pettitte did not want to have to testify publicly, on national television, and perhaps be forced to reiterate statements that would not be in Clemens’s interest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The statement excusing Pettitte, Knoblauch and Radomski was issued Monday evening by the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, and the panel’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis of Virginia. It said, in part: “Kirk Radomski, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch will not be testifying at the Feb. 13 hearing. Charlie Scheeler of Senator Mitchell’s staff will be testifying. Mr. Knoblauch and Mr. Pettitte answered all the committee’s questions and their testimony at the hearing is not needed.”

One person who is a friend of Clemens’s and who also knows Pettitte said the two pitchers had not spoken since shortly after the release of the Mitchell report on Dec. 13. In the Mitchell report, McNamee asserted that he injected Clemens with steroids and H.G.H. on at least 16 occasions from 1998 through 2001, an allegation Clemens adamantly disputed. Meanwhile, Pettitte has confirmed McNamee’s statement in the Mitchell report that he injected Pettitte with H.G.H. in 2002.

Lanny A. Breuer, one of Clemens’s lawyers, said in a telephone interview Monday night that Clemens would not seek a way out of Wednesday’s hearing, regardless of the absence of others.

“Whether Roger is asked questions about Andy Pettitte’s deposition or anything else whatsoever, he will answer the questions,” Breuer said. “He’s going to continue to answer them forthrightly. He never took steroids, he never took H.G.H., and that is abundantly clear and will be abundantly clear throughout the hearing.”

He added: “It’s my view that Andy Pettitte should do whatever makes sense for Andy Pettitte, and whatever makes him most comfortable.”

Pettitte’s lawyers declined comment.

Breuer said that Clemens planned to meet with about a half-dozen more members of the oversight committee privately on Tuesday afternoon. Last week, Clemens met with 19 of the committee members, and, in some instances, signed autographs for committee staff members, actions that have drawn criticism.

Clemens’s denials of drug use include the statements he made in a sworn deposition to committee lawyers last week. His lawyers say Clemens will testify Wednesday that he never talked with Pettitte about drug use and that he never used steroids or growth hormone.

After Pettitte gave a two-and-a-half-hour deposition to committee lawyers Feb. 4, he emerged looking shaken. Since then, many people involved in the case say they think he gave testimony that could hurt Clemens.

Because Pettitte’s deposition is available to all committee members, the information he provided can still be used by them to question Clemens during Wednesday’s hearing and to evaluate his answers. If that occurs, Pettitte will not be there to witness it.

Rusty Hardin, one of Clemens’s lawyers, reacted angrily to the idea that Pettitte sought to be excused from public testimony because of discomfort he felt over what he had said in the deposition about Clemens. He said such a notion was “a tremendous disservice to both Andy and Roger.”

“Look, we’ve always welcomed Andy’s comments publicly, as well as Roger’s comments publicly,” Hardin said in a telephone interview Monday night. Hardin said Clemens still considered Pettitte a good friend.

Hardin also had some strong words for Waxman, who is leading the investigation. Hardin and Waxman exchanged letters over the weekend after Hardin criticized Jeff Novitzky, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, for planning to attend the hearing. Waxman said it sounded as if Hardin were trying to intimidate a federal officer.

“You have a chairman who is going down the tubes because his own committee doesn’t support what he is doing,” Hardin said in the phone interview.

He added, “You guys are being used by people that want to get Roger Clemens, and you should be looking deep within yourselves.”

Radomski did not want to give a scheduled deposition Tuesday or testify Wednesday because of concerns that he would incriminate himself, according to two other people familiar with the proceedings.

Radomski was sentenced to five years’ probation in a plea agreement last week, but was concerned that he could be prosecuted for other acts within the past five years.

Pettitte, 35, who often seemed to consider Clemens a big brother, signed a one-year, $16 million contract with the Yankees on Dec. 12, one day before the release of the Mitchell report. Two days after the report, Pettitte admitted the truth of the allegations about him.

Pettitte has a career record of 201-113 in 13 seasons with the Yankees and the Houston Astros. Last year, he was 15-9 with a 4.05 E.R.A. with the Yankees, and, for the part of the season, Clemens was again his teammate.

Now the two men seem to stand apart. Instead, it will be Clemens and McNamee on Wednesday, with Scheeler no doubt sitting in between them.