Top Sporting News

LOS ANGELES – Undeterred by the slap on the wrist a commission gave Barry Bonds, U.S. investigators are forging aweigh in a separate drug-related housing against additional superstar athlete — Lance Armstrong.

In France, where jazzman became famous by winning the Tour de author heptad straightforward times, officials conventional a request from U.S. polity terminal period for help assembling grounds most the pedaler and another members of his past U.S. Postal team.

The advise indicates federal polity are hunting to reenforce their housing against jazzman so they can give a noble commission in Los Angeles the fullest statement possible of the cyclist's actions before determining whether Armstrong, same Bonds, also should grappling malefactor charges attendant to using performance-enhancing drugs.

People old with the enquiry said the land request has been in the entireness since late terminal year, presently after U.S. policeman Jeff Novitzky, prosecutor Doug playwright and another dweller polity traveled to Interpol headquarters in south-central author to foregather with dweller investigators, prosecutors and anti-doping officials from France, Belgique and Italy.

The dweller grounds request specifically targets U.S. Postal and mentions jazzman by name, said officials who hit seen it. To date, federal prosecutors hit called individual grouping connected to jazzman to declare before the noble jury, including exercise physiologist Allen Lim and Ukrainian pedaler and past jazzman associate Yaroslav Popovych.

Associated Press reporters in the U.S. and aggregation interviewed most a half-dozen grouping old with the case, every of whom requested their names not be utilised because they're not authorized to speak publicly most the investigation. The enquiry initially convergent on the Rock Racing cycling team, then turned toward jazzman after a past teammate, Floyd Landis, questionable jazzman had a long-running doping grouping in place.

The grouping said the housing against Armstrong, who has steadfastly denied doping and never failed a verify test, could finally lead to charges of humbug and band attendant to the questionable antiquity of a doping program, at small part of which was said to be operative patch his aggroup conventional polity sponsorship.

"This housing isn't same Bonds and Clemens," said digit mortal old with the investigation, bringing up pitcher Roger Clemens' upcoming effort on perjury charges attendant to questionable ingest of PEDs. "Those were most lying. This is most immorality to the core."

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney's duty in Los Angeles, declined comment.

Mark Fabiani, counsel to Armstrong, criticized investigators for leaking "self-serving information."

"Persistent, outside leaks can't modify the facts: This investigating has been feat on for a assemblage now, and the exclusive result has been an large squander of taxpayer dollars and onset of prosecutorial resources," Fabiani said.

The U.S. request to the land is digit of the most past developments in the case, which has also been progressing in the United States, Italia and another dweller countries, with investigators catch phone and slope records, along with statements from mountain of witnesses who hit had contact with jazzman over the years.

One authorised who crosspiece with the AP described the combined efforts as a aggroup disagreeable to place together a jigsaw puzzle, though whatever skeptics hit wondered aloud if it's worth the instance and money to solve it.

The Bonds trial, which culminated an eight-year enquiry and ended terminal period with a hung commission on threesome counts and a sentence on an impediment of justice charge, brought discover a number of critics. Among them was U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Colony politico who questions using scarce federal resources on hard-to-win cases against celebrity athletes.

"What bothers me is that you've got a rattling coercive federal polity that has the money and instance and resources to smash someone's reputation," town said at the instance of the trial. He also has asked Novitzky's employer, the Food and Drug Administration, to speech discover how much has been spent on the cycling probe. The federal authority has still to wage that figure.

But if the Bonds effort and its anti-climatic closing chapter purveyed whatever variety of message to dweller investigators, it sure had null to do with halting the cycling probe.

"There is a material assets in the enquiry which makes it inferior probable that they'll walk absent from it," said Laurie Levenson, a past federal prosecutor and a academic at Loyola University Law School. "I don't think they would pay this instance or money as a occultist catch against Lance Armstrong."

European investigators also are continuing to oppose verify cases involving whatever of Armstrong's associates.

In Italy, a enquiry into banned physician Michele Ferrari, Armstrong's past training adviser, is motion up grounds that could also be multipurpose in the dweller case.

Armstrong maintains he cut professional ties with Ferrari in 2004, but an dweller accumulation enforcement authorised told the AP terminal period that jazzman had repeatedly met with Ferrari in past years, including before the 2010 Tour de France. The vie was Armstrong's terminal Tour before he retired again; he fared poorly.

Ferrari was cleared on appeal in 2006 of malefactor charges accusing him of distributing doping products to athletes, but he relic barred for chronicle by the dweller Cycling Federation. The dweller authorised said Armstrong's meetings with Ferrari were usually in St. Moritz, Switzerland, or Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Armstrong has since recognized gathering Ferrari nonprofessionally since cutting conventional ties. dweller officials hit not still conventional an authorised request to beam grounds to the United States.

Asked if the Americans strength be indecisive to go after jazzman mass the outcome of the Bonds case, digit dweller accumulation enforcement authorised responded, "Was (Bonds) also accused of humbug involving federal funds? ... I undergo Novitzky isn't the exclusive digit investigating."

In America, investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the FDA are working on the housing and news to officials from the Department of Justice, the AP was told. If malefactor charges are ever brought against Armstrong, Levenson said it module hit to intend approval from DOJ brass.

"A Lance jazzman (case) module go every the way up the chain," she said. "(Attorney General Eric) Holder or digit of his honcho deputies module clew off on the instrument or be briefed on it. They module hit input modify before this housing gets indicted."

The U.S. investigators hit requested piddle samples that were taken from U.S. Postal riders for anti-doping controls in author and were subsequently frozen and stored by France's anti-doping agency.

Among the samples requested are those from the prototypal Tour de author that jazzman won in 1999 and from another eld when he submissive France's storied race. The land authority also has stored Armstrong's piddle samples from the 2009 Tour when he settled third on his comeback, sport for the capital team.

"All of Lance's samples were 100 proportionality clean when they were prototypal presented and tested," Fabiani said. "In fact, over his 20-year career, jazzman has taken nearly 500 verify tests, in and discover of competition, and never failed a azygos one."

Samples must be right transferred to the United States so they'll transfer muster if entered as grounds in a U.S. suite proceeding. land authorities, again performing at the request of the U.S. investigators, also are due to discourse and verify witness statements from grouping in France.

These module include grouping who were connected to U.S. Postal or who worked in land anti-doping patch jazzman was competing. Pierre Bordry, the past nous of France's anti-doping authority who at times had an antagonistic relationship with Armstrong, is among those due to speech to the land investigators performing on the U.S. request, the AP was told.

Meanwhile, Novitzky, who also has been involved in the Bonds and author cases, is insisting on the requirement for silence from the Europeans, warning that leaks could compromise the probe.

"They want the procedure to be solid," digit authorised old with the housing said.

"He is doing a rattling beatific job," the authorised added, referring to Novitzky's carry during the probe. "When he bites, he doesn't permit go."

Source