Potential New Photos May Damage Clemens' Credibility
If Canseco party photos exist, it may undercut Congressional testimony.
Washington, D.C., Feb 23, 2008— -- Lawyers for Roger Clemens say they have been alerted there may be a picture depicting their client at a party which he swore under oath in a congressional deposition that he did not attend. If true, the picture could put Clemens in legal jeopardy.
In his sworn deposition, Clemens adamantly denied attending the 1998 party held at the home Clemens' then-teammate, Jose Canseco. He was asked if he had been at Canseco's house at any time around the June 9 party and he replied "no."
But Friday evening, Rusty Hardin, a lawyer for Clemens, released a statement saying he had been contacted earlier in the month by a man who said he had pictures of Clemens at the party. According to Hardin, the man told him that one picture shows Clemens in the pool with the man's then-11-year-old son. Hardin said the man said he'd call back but never did.
Richard Emery, a lawyer for Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer who has said that he injected Clemens with performance enhancing drugs, said that he, too, learned about the existence of the photos.
In an interview with ABC, Emery said he told the federal prosecutors and Congressional investigators about the existence of the photos last week. Emery was told one picture was of the boy in a pool with Clemens, and the other was of the boy and Jose Canseco.
Contacted by ABC News, the man said to own the photographs, who wished to remain anonymous, said he couldn't comment because he was under subpoena from the federal government. Congressional sources tell ABC News that such a supboena did not come from Congress.
Said Hardin, "It is impossible for us to comment on the photograph itself because we haven't seen it."
Clemens' initial denial on attending the party had been an important part of his lawyers' attempts to undermine the accuracy of the Mitchell report, the explosive findings of an investigation led by former Sen. George Mitchell that accused Clemens of taking steroids. The Mitchell report claimed that Clemens was present at the party.
Although a small detail in the Mitchell report, the Clemens team initially seized on the fact that Mitchell had gotten the fact wrong in an effort to impugn the senator's other, more harmful findings.
During Clemens' closed door deposition, another one of his lawyers, Lanny Breuer, said, "We were able to establish and will be able to establish categorically, without question, that our client wasn't there."
The lawyers gave the committee receipts from a golf outing that day and also provided an affidavit from Canseco saying that the slugger was disappointed that Clemens had not attended his party.
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