San Francisco- Barry Bonds’ attorney said Friday that the Giants’ home run king was saddened by news reports linking him to possible steroid use, but he insisted that his client was an innocent victim of a government smear campaign.

“He did not take anything illegal. His best friend in the world (strength trainer Greg Anderson) did not give him anything illegal,” attorney Michael Rains said, surrounded by about two dozen reporters and news crews on the steps of an Oakland courthouse.

Rains was responding to a story in Friday’s Chronicle detailing Bonds’ testimony last year before a federal grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, known as BALCO. Federal prosecutors accuse the firm’s top officers and Anderson of distributing undetectable steroids to elite athletes in the form of a rubbing cream and clear substance taken orally. Anderson and three other men were indicted in February on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute steroids.

As reported in The Chronicle Thursday, New York Yankees star Jason Giambi admitted to the grand jury that he used undetectable steroid drops and cream provided by Anderson.

Bonds testified that he had received similarly described substances from Anderson, his boyhood friend and trainer, but believed them to be flaxseed oil and arthritis cream.

“He does not believe any of those substances were any type of anabolic steroid or had any such properties,” Rains said. He said it was common for Bonds to use lotions and other supplements, and he had no reason to distrust his longtime friend.

He said Bonds had used the substances only sporadically after the death of his father, former Giants All-Star Bobby Bonds, in August 2003 and saw no physical effect.

“He did not take these items in concert,” Rains added. “He did not take them systematically. He did not take them in a cyclical fashion like steroids have to be taken to have an effect.”

Despite the unequivocal denials, Rains pointed out that if the substances had contained the undetectable steroid THG, it was not a banned substance at the time.

“My client is hardly a chemist,” he added.

He said Bonds was saddened by the news reports about himself and Giambi.

“He was sorry this has happened for a lot of reasons,” said Rains, who said he had spoken with Bonds Thursday night and Friday. “He understands the potential tarnish on the game and on his friends and certainly on his own stature.”

He said Bonds also was concerned about the impact on his longtime friend, Anderson.

Rains said Bonds had been unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors who had been gunning for the slugger from the start. He said they had reneged on a deal to let Bonds review documents before his grand jury testimony, as others who testified were allowed to do.

Prosecutors wanted to “get Barry in front of the grand jury, sandbag him with documents he had never seen before and hope he would stutter, stammer and fail somehow to satisfactorily explain or he would make some other mistake and it would be incriminating,” Rains said.

Asked about the government’s motivation, he said maybe the BALCO defendants weren’t “sexy enough.”

“Maybe there’s a lot of hatred and ill will toward Barry Bonds, and God only knows there is,” he added.

Rains said he has not seen a copy of Bonds’ testimony or the documents Bonds was questioned about before the grand jury. “They may be wholly fictitious,” he said. “They may be creations by the government itself. We simply don’t know.”

Rains accused the government of leaking Bonds’ testimony, though he said he had no proof. While U.S. District Judge Susan Illston and U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan, head of the San Francisco office, have requested that the Justice Department investigate the leaks, Rains said he seriously doubted the government “will rigorously look into the source of the leaks.”

“The confidence of my client in the justice system has been eviscerated,” Rains said. “He has been betrayed.”

Rains said he had not been in contact with Major League Baseball about the recent revelations and said he had no indication the league was conducting its own investigation of Bonds.

He said Bonds had passed drug tests the past two seasons and looked forward to being tested again.

“We know what the results are going to be,” he said. “Barry Bonds is clean. Barry Bonds is a great athlete. Some people will never accept it.”