Clemens Grilled for Five Hours

Feb. 5, 2008 — -- WASHINGTON -- Roger Clemens exited the House hearing room at 2:40 p.m., more than five hours after he first arrived Tuesday morning to give private, sworn testimony Tuesday to congressional lawyers about whether he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Upon exiting, accompanied by his lawyers, he made a brief statement to waiting reporters and media.

"I just want to thank the committee, the staff I just met with. They were very courteous," Clemens said. "It was great to tell them what I've been saying all along. I've never used steroids or human growth hormone. Thanks very much."

Roger Clemens, followed by one of his attorneys, Lanny Breuer, arrived Tuesday morning to give testimony in front of house committee lawyers.

Clemens had declined to take questions from reporters on his way in, saying only, "Good morning," before heading into the offices of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Wearing a pinstriped gray suit instead of a pinstriped New York Yankees uniform, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner had paused briefly to look around the House hearing room where he is to testify next week.

Clemens was scheduled to give the deposition to committee lawyers behind closed doors one day after his former Yankees teammate and workout partner Andy Pettitte delivered sworn testimony for about 2½ hours.

Both pitchers' private interviews with staff members from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are part of preparation for a Feb. 13 hearing. That public session is expected to focus on allegations made in the Mitchell report by his former trainer, Brian McNamee, that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with performance-enhancing drugs

Clemens, 45, ranks eighth in major league history with 354 career wins. He put off retirement yet again in 2007, returning to the Yankees in June and going 6-6 with a 4.18 ERA.

"Roger is not going to take the Fifth Amendment," one of Clemens' lawyers, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement e-mailed Monday by spokesman Joe Householder. "He is going to answer the committee's questions truthfully under oath."