McNamee lawyer expects criminal investigation

NEW YORK -- One of Brian McNamee's lawyers said Sunday he believed the Justice Department will open a criminal investigation into Roger Clemens' denials of doping.

Meantime, the chairman of a congressional committee said comments attributed to one of the pitcher's lawyers could be interpreted as trying to intimidate a federal law enforcement official.

Clemens gave a five-hour deposition last week to staff lawyers of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform prior to Wednesday's public hearing. McNamee, former personal trainer to the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, gave a seven-hour deposition.

"I think there will be a criminal prosecution after Wednesday, and that means there will be grand jury proceedings and subsequent proceedings," said Richard Emery, one of McNamee's attorneys. "I don't see there's any possibility that Brian has any jeopardy. I only see the possibility of Clemens getting investigated by Justice, whether or not Congress refers it."

A message left Sunday night requesting Justice Department comment was not immediately returned.

Told of Emery's comments, Rusty Hardin, Clemens' lead lawyer, said: "They have consistently acted and indicated that they have a pipeline to agents of the Department of Justice. Whether they do or not, it certainly raises a lot of questions of whether what's going on here is proper. So I'm not going to express any predictions of what will or will not happen."

McNamee says he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001, accusations Clemens has repeatedly denied. Both are set to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill in what figures to be a day of high drama.

"Our position is very simple: Roger did not take steroids, he did not use human growth hormone, and he has demonstrated that he is willing to repeatedly testify under oath as to the truth of those matters," Hardin said.