Washington- Brian McNamee told congressional investigators Thursday in a sworn deposition that Roger Clemens’ wife used human growth hormone, according to a source familiar with McNamee’s testimony.
The source said McNamee testified that he injected Debbie Clemens with growth hormone and believed she took the drug to get in shape before she appeared with the pitcher in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue in 2003. She appeared with her husband in a photograph taken in Central Park in the magazine’s Feb. 18, 2003, issue wearing a bikini and holding a bat over her shoulders while Roger Clemens reclined on the ground in his Yankee uniform.
“McNamee discussed his wife’s use before the committee,” according to the source. “She was trying to get in shape for the SI cover. He told them the story that Debbie took growth.”
McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, testified that he injected her at the pitcher’s direction, according to the source.
McNamee was speaking under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which will hold a hearing on the Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball on Wednesday.
Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, called the claims that Clemens directed the injections “a colossal lie.”
Hardin reacted angrily to the story, which was first reported Friday on the Daily News Web site, while Lanny Breuer, another Clemens attorney, expressed disdain for McNamee’s claims.
“Did Roger get the Cy Young because his wife took the HGH?” asked Breuer.
“Let me repeat one more time – this guy is a colossal liar and he has absolutely no shame,” Hardin said. “This guy never ceases to amaze me. I think it reveals what he’s really about. First, he throws out waste and then he wants to talk about this.”
Hardin was referring to the release Thursday by McNamee’s lawyers of two photographs showing needles, vials and bloody gauze McNamee says contain Clemens’ blood and DNA mixed with steroids and human growth hormone. McNamee, who turned the evidence over to federal investigators last month, said he had saved the material since 2001.
McNamee’s attorneys, Richard Emery, Earl Ward and Mark Paoletta, said Friday they have not discussed or released their client’s testimony and will not do so.
“The issue is Roger Clemens and his use of steroids and why he’s not telling the truth,” Emery said. “The issue is not Debbie Clemens.”
Debbie Clemens, who is active in charity work in Texas and designs high-end baseball-themed clothing, was one of several athletes’ wives who appeared in pictorials in the 2003 swimsuit issue.
She discussed the photo shoot on her Web site.
“Roger came to me one day and told me that we had been asked to do a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated,” Debbie Clemens recalls. “I had major anxiety! I was a 39-year-old mother of 4! Once I realized that this WAS going to be a reality, I decided I had to give it everything I had.”
“My mind was set,” Debbie Clemens continued. “I am not a risk-taker, but have since learned that with great risk, sometimes comes great reward. The responses from that experience have been wonderful and I feel it was a turning point in my life.”
Roger and Debbie Clemens were married in 1984 and have four sons.
Roger Clemens met with members of the committee Thursday and Friday in an attempt to convince them that he did not use steroids or human growth hormone, as claimed by McNamee.
Following McNamee’s seven-hour testimony before congressional investigators Thursday, Ward challenged Clemens to give up a sample of his DNA for a laboratory that is examining the materials, which may also carry the Rocket’s fingerprints as well as his genetic coding.
“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 Ward.
In an early evening press conference Thursday, Clemens and his lawyers shot back, questioning McNamee’s motives and reliability and accusing him of manufacturing evidence.
“In my view, you’re about to see the second edition of the Duke case,” Hardin said, referring to the now-discredited rape charges filed against lacrosse players at the school. “I warn you all now, that five to six or seven months from now, any of you that have jumped on this bandwagon about Roger taking steroids and assumed that anything Brian McNamee has to say about Roger is true, will be embarrassed. This is a fabricated story.”
Friday, Emery stood firm by his claims that evidence will determine the course of the case.
“This case to me is about science now,” Emery said.