Clemens back on Capitol Hill; trainers lawyers claim photos prove steroid use

WASHINGTON -- Roger Clemens spent Thursday going door to door on Capitol Hill, lobbying congressmen investigating whether he used drugs. His accuser, Brian McNamee, gave a seven-hour deposition behind closed doors, and the trainer's attorneys presented photographs of evidence they said prove the star pitcher was injected with steroids.

McNamee headed straight for an exit when he emerged from his interview with lawyers from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. His attorneys wouldn't discuss the deposition, but they did talk about two color photographs they showed the committee for the first time.

One photo shows a crushed beer can that Richard Emery, one of McNamee's attorneys, said was taken out of a trash can in Clemens' New York apartment in 2001. Emery said the can contained needles used to inject Clemens. The other picture shows vials of what Emery said were testosterone, and needles -- items the attorney said Clemens gave to McNamee for safekeeping at the end of the 2002 baseball season.

"Roger Clemens has put himself in a position where his legacy as the greatest pitcher in baseball will depend less on his ERA and more on his DNA," said one of McNamee's attorneys, Earl Ward.

Less than an hour later, and a short walk away inside the Rayburn House Office Building, Clemens held his own news conference, during which his attorneys repeatedly attacked McNamee's character and scoffed at McNamee's newly presented evidence.

"This man has a total history of lying," Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin said

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner's repeated denials of McNamee's allegations in the Mitchell Report about drug use drew Congress' attention. Clemens spoke under oath to the committee Tuesday -- the first time he addressed the allegations under oath, and therefore the first time he put himself at legal risk if he were to make false statements.

There is a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, when Clemens, McNamee and other witnesses, including New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, are to testify. McNamee, also a former personal trainer for Pettitte, told Mitchell that he injected Pettitte with HGH. Pettitte confirmed in December that he used HGH for two days.

McNamee's attorneys said their client turned over physical evidence to a federal prosecutor for the Northern District of California last month, shortly after Clemens held a Jan. 7 nationally televised news conference at which he played a taped conversation between the two men with conflicting accounts at the center of the issue.

"At that point," Ward said, "[McNamee] decided there was no holds barred."

One photo shows a crushed beer can that Richard Emery, another of McNamee's attorneys, said was taken out of a trash can in Clemens' New York apartment in 2001. Emery said the can contained needles used to inject Clemens. That picture also shows what Emery said was gauze used to wipe blood off Clemens after a shot.

The other picture shows vials of what Emery said were testosterone, and needles -- items the attorney said Clemens gave to McNamee for safekeeping at the end of the 2002 baseball season.

While Clemens' camp called it "manufactured" evidence, Emery said the items were "just a collection of stuff" thrown in a box and "kept in a basement for seven years."

Emery said McNamee kept the items because he "had this inkling and gut feeling that he couldn't trust Roger and better keep something to protect himself in the future."

"We invite Roger Clemens to provide his DNA to the federal government," Ward said, "so a determination can be made whether or not the items we say were taken from him are, in fact, his DNA."