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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 497
400+ posts
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OP
400+ posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 497 |
Mitchell staff will be at spring training
February 22, 2007 NEW YORK (AP) -- Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell is sending his investigators to spring training as part of his investigation into steroids use in baseball.
Mitchell told baseball owners last month that his work has gone more slowly than expected and threatened to seek congressional help if he doesn't get better cooperation in his probe, which started nearly a year ago.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said some teams had been more cooperative than others.
"I can confirm that members of my investigative staff have been, and will be, conducting interviews during spring training of various individuals who are involved in baseball," Mitchell said in a statement Wednesday. "Our interviews are being conducted in both Arizona and Florida. "
His staff spoke Tuesday with members of the Minnesota Twins' front office and medical staff, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday.
"The interviews are being conducted at this time because a number of witnesses are together in one place and the spring training sites for the major league clubs are close together," Mitchell said. "It has been and continues to be my practice not to comment on the details of the investigation. We will answer as many questions as possible in our final report."
Mitchell has said he will seek to have his staff interview active players.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 497
400+ posts
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OP
400+ posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 497 |
Mitchell urges players to cooperate in steroids inquiry; Bonds won't
February 26, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds and other players under suspicion of using performance enhancing drugs have been asked by Major League Baseball's lead steroids investigator to turn over medical records and submit to interviews.
A letter urging the cooperation of Bonds and other players tied to the BALCO scandal was sent Feb. 1 by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who is leading baseball's steroids inquiry. The letter, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday on it Web site, was accompanied by medical waiver forms that, if signed, would allow investigators to view Bonds' and other players medical records.
Members of Congress have told Mitchell they might intervene if baseball's own investigation is hampered by lack of player cooperation.
Bonds' lawyer Michael Rains told the Chronicle that Bonds cannot cooperate as long as he remains the focus of a possible perjury indictment. Rains did not immediately return calls from the Associated Press on Sunday night.
Rains said Bonds wanted to help but could not do so while facing possible indictment on perjury charges related to his testimony before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the Northern California lab that allegedly provided performance-enhancing drugs to the athletes.
Bonds reportedly told the grand jury he thought Anderson had given him flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, rather than the BALCO steroids known as "The Clear" and "The Cream." A federal grand jury is investigating him for possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
The Chronicle published stories in 2004 that reported Bonds and former New York Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield testified they didn't knowingly take the drugs.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig ordered baseball's investigation in March 2006.
While he has never been charged, suspicion continues to dog Bonds, who will enter the season 22 home runs short of breaking Hank Aaron's career record of 755.
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