Grand Jury Explores Whether Clemens Lied to Congress

Prosecutors are also likely to confer with Food and Drug Administration agent Jeff Novitzky, the government's lead investigator in a series of sports-doping cases over the past five years. Novitzky attended the four-hour hearing last February during which Clemens and McNamee offered conflicting testimony about the pitcher's alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

It is not known whether Clemens himself will be invited to appear before the grand jury, though a former Washington federal prosecutor said the government could afford Clemens a chance to explain the contradictions and possibly avoid indictment. Should the grand jury eventually return an indictment, his appearance could also provide the prosecution a start in fleshing out Clemens's possible defense, the former prosecutor said.

"We have no knowledge of [the grand jury] one way or the other," Rusty Hardin, one of Clemens's attorneys, said Monday morning. "All I have heard is rumors from people saying something. But we have had no contact with anyone about it, and have no idea.''

Federal agents also have interviewed friends and acquaintances of Clemens in Houston over the past year, and it is possible some of them could be invited to Washington.

A Houston training center owner, Shaun Kelley, told The Associated Press Monday that he had been questioned by the FBI last April and denied meeting Clemens or providing the pitcher or any of the pitcher's associates with illegal substances. Kelley said he employed Clemens's stepsister Bonnie Owens for about a year.

Kelley said neither he nor his lawyers had been contacted by the grand jury.

"It is just not fair for me, because they just come down here and throw me under the bus, and I lose half-a-million of business," Kelley said Monday in a telephone interview with the AP.

"I know in my heart I passed it," he said of the polygraph, "but the FBI is not known for admitting their mistakes."

Another possibility is former Clemens teammate Pettitte. He and another former New York Yankees teammate, Chuck Knoblauch, confirmed McNamee's testimony that they used performance-enhancing drugs when he was their trainer.

Pettitte provided a sworn affidavit to a congressional committee, in which he claimed Clemens told him nearly 10 years ago that he used growth hormone. Pressed to address Pettitte's statement during the committee hearing, Clemens said Pettitte had "misremembered."

The grand jury is also likely to consider DNA samples on used needles and bloody gauze pads McNamee turned over to federal prosecutors last January. McNamee's lawyers have claimed he used those needles and gauze pads while injecting Clemens with steroids and HGH. Clemens's side has called that evidence "manufactured."