Live blogging the Clemens hearing

Good morning. Your correspondent is jammed into a seat in a House of Represenatives office building that the people at Air Tran would envy. A line of onlookers hoping to get a glimpse of today's witness, star pitcher Roger Clemens runs down the corridor. (One woman is wearing a Yankee jersey and cap, as if she's attending a spring training game.) It's the biggest day on the Hill in a long time. And the Swamp will will be bringing you the play-by-play as it happens. Stay here.

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12:25. This hearing is taking on more and more of a partisan feel. Largely, the Republican members of the Government Reform Committee seem more sympathetic to Clemens, the Democrats more skeptical. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina just passed around a statement accusing Democrats in the House of wasting time on baseball instead of focusing on issues like immigration and the economy.

12:20. I'm hungry.

12:18. Rep. Carolyn Maloney is pointing out inconsistencies in Clemens' statements, saying that Clemens told Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes that he didn't speak to Mitchell during his investigation on the advice of his lawyer. But Clemens testified in his deposition repeatedly that he had no idea that Mitchell wanted to talk to him.

Clemens says he was never told by his lawyer or anyone associated with Mitchell that he was being implicated. Maloney wonders whether his agents did him a disservice.

12:13. Rep. John Mica is asking McNamee about the physical evidence he has. McNamee says that if the blood on the gauze is DNA tested, it will prove to be Clemens. Clemens doesn't deny that McNamee could have material with his blood on it.

"Brian McNamee has never given me growth hormone or steroids," Clemens says again, in case you just tuned in.

12:03. Waxman: "Just for the record, there was an injury to Mr. Clemens' buttocks." Sigh. This is where we are.

11:55. Rep. Tom Davis tries to rehab Clemens, saying that Lynch ambushed him with the medical expert report and that the committee had only seen the report that morning. "This is a new definition of lynching," Davis says. A soft groan rustles through the hearing room.

11:47. Now it is Clemens' turn to get it. Rep. Lynch is discussing an MRI obtained of Clemens after he suffered an injury to his buttocks. McNamee has testified that Clemens developed an abscess on his buttocks because he injected Winstrol, a steroid, too quickly. Lynch says that independent medical review of the MRI suggests that Clemens' injury was caused by an injection of a steroid, not B-12 or anything else.

"How can this all be wrong?" Lynch says.

There, apparently, is a separate expert report the committee has that reaches the opposite conclusion. "We've had a Dr. O'Malley review everything," Clemens says. "And he says there were no steroids."

Clemens says he has given the committee all documents and material it has requested. O'Malley is a physician at Baylor University in Texas who was retained by Clemens and his defense team.

11:36. Rep. Dan Burton is popping McNamee like a pinata. He presses him on why he saved gauze pads and needles used by Clemens for five years but then didn't turn them over the investigators working for George Mitchell. Then he smacks him for initially testifying that he had no physical evidence in his possession. "Do you just lie when it's convenient?" Burton asks him.

"Gee whiz, are you kidding me?" Burton says. "My goodness."

He pushes McNamee about why he originally would not implicate Clemens or Pettitte. He asks him about the Canseco barbeque. He has, by a quick count, gotten McNamee to admit he has lied at least six or seven times. "This is really disgusting," an irate Burton says. "We have lie after lie after lie after lie. I don't know what to believe. I know one thing I don't believe and that's you!"

Burton asks how Clemens can get his reputation back. "If he's done something wrong, he ought to be indicted, he ought to be punished for it. But I dont see any evidence of that so far."

11:25. Rep. Tierney attacks Clemens on credibility, saying that he told committee investigators that he had never discussed HGH with McNamee. But later Clemens said that he and McNamee talked about Debby Clemens using HGH. Clemens says he was referring to discussions with McNamee before that conversation.

Clemens: "I never had a detailed conversations with Brian McNamee about HGH."

But Clemens says that conversation about Debby was "extremely" heated. Clemens searched McNamee's luggage at the time to make sure there were no drugs in it.


11:18. Clemens said he had been taking B-12 since 1988, because of the advice from his mother. He said McNamee gave him three shots of B-12 in Toronto, two in New York.

McNamee replies: "The first time I heard of Roger Clemens taking B-12 was on 60 Minutes." (I believe the congressional term of art for that response is: Snap!)

11:15. More attacks on McNamee. The trainer has testified that Clemens attended a barbeque hosted by former Yankee outfielder Jose Canseco in 1998 in which he believes Clemens first came into possession of steroids. Davis says that neither Canseco, his wife, or other Yankees on the team, remember Clemens attending the barbeque. Clemens has produced a receipt showing he played golf that day.

"I have two distinct recollections of that party," McNamee says. He says he saw Roger and Debby Clemens at the party.


11:11. TMI alert! McNamee said that Clemens began travelling with small band aids to put on his rear after he bled through his designer pants from the injections. Clemens denies this occurred.

11:08. Davis continues to attack McNamee's credibility, asking why during a phone conversation after the Mitchell Report was made public, he never told Clemens that he had told the truth about Clemens' drug use. Instead, McNamee just said, "It is what it is." Clemens sent McNamee an email after that conversation saying that if McNamee would not tell the truth, they had nothing to talk about. McNamee never responded to the email.

11:05. Rep. Tom Davis asks McNamee why the number of times he says he injected Clemens, Knoblauch and Pettitte keeps growing each time he talks about it.

"The ballpark for Knoblauch went from 7 to 9 times to 50 times," Davis says.

McNamee says he injected Knoblauch four times a week.


11:03. Pettitte said he told McNamee about Clemens' use of HGH and that McNamee grew angry, saying Clemens use was supposed to be confidential. McNamee confirms this.

11:00. From Andy Pettitte's affidavit:

In 1999 or 2000 I had a conversation with Roger Clemens in which Roger told me he had taken human growth hormone. This conversation occurred at his gym in Memorial, Texas. And he did not tell me who he got the HGH from but he did tell me that it helped the body recover.

10:52. Under questioning, Clemens says Pettitte misheard him. He again denies taking steroids or HGH. Clemens says that when Pettitte told him about his own HGH use, "I was shocked."

10:47. Theme of the morning: It's all about the kids.

10:44. McNamee: "I now believe that the number of times I injected Roger Clemens and Chuck Knoblauch was actually greater than I initially stated.

I don't think I ever really trusted (Clemens). I just had that sense that if this ever blew up and things got messy, Roger would be looking out for number one."

10:40. "I'm not just a ballplayer," Clemens says. "I am a human being." As has been the case, it's hard for Clemens to keep an undercurrent of anger from his voice. "I've been accused of something I'm not guilty of. How do you prove a negative? I am never going to have my name restored."

"Let me be clear," he says. "I have never taken steroids or HGH."

10:36. The money shot. Clemens and McNamee swear under oath to tell the truth. Clemens to start with an opening statement.

From McNamee's opening statement.

And make no mistake. When I told Senator Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance enchancing drugs, I told the truth. I told the truth about steroids and human growth hormone. I injected those drugs into the body of Roger Clemens at his direction.

And let me be clear, despite Roger Clemens' statements to the contrary, I never injected Roger Clemens -- or anyone else -- with lidocaine or B-12.

I have no reason to lie and every reason not to. If I lie, I will be prosecuted.

10:25. Waxman basically has accused Clemens of lying in his depostion to the committee. He points to Clemens denial of conversations with McNamee about HGH. Clemens said they never happened. "There is also a direct conflict in the testimony of Mr. Clemens and Mr. Pettitte," Waxman says. Pettitte said he had at least two conversations with Clemens about HGH, which Clemens denies.

Clemens said he told Pettitte that his wfie, Debby, used HGH, not him. Clemens said the injections by McNamee to Debby Clemens occurred without his knowledge. McNamee said Clemens asked him to do it.

In an affidavit, Pettitte described conversations with Clemens about Clemens use of HGH, which Clemens now denies occurred. Pettitte told his wife about the conversations.

Pettitte's wife told the committee about two conversations she had with Pettitte, years apart, in which Pettitte said Clemens told him he used HGH.


10:19. Of Clemens and McNamee, Waxman says "They both insist they are telling the truth. But their accounts couldn't be more different. Someone isn't telling the truth.

10:15. Waxman says that during his deposition, former Yankee infielder Chuck Knoblauch used Human Growth Hormone more times than specified in the Mitchell Report. And Andy Pettitte said he also injected HGH into himself more times than described in the Mitchell Report. The last in 2004.

"I have to tell you the truth," Waxman quotes Pettitte as saying. "Mr. Pettitte's consistent honesty makes him a role model on or off the field."

10:10. Waxman says the hearing is intended to probe into the section of the Mitchell Report that deals with McNamee's allegations that he injected Clemens with illegal steroids during his playing career. Waxman says that by denying the allegations so vociferously, Clemens basically asked for this hearing.


10:05. Clemens just entered the room to a whir of cameras. He is sitting with Brian McNamee at a table before the House Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman of California.