The Persecution of Barry Bonds

[Upton]

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than five years the national media coverage of the BALCO investigation has been fed by a national obsession to shame, humiliate and prosecute athletes for alleged lies about sports doping. In "The Persecution of Barry Bonds" San Francisco based author and journalist Jonathan Littman takes a different view of the greatest steroid sports scandal in history, one that asks what it was all about, and whether the point of the whole multi-million dollar investigation has been to divert attention from the real villains, Bud Selig, the Commissioner of Major League baseball and the owners who profited for more than a decade by a culture of rampant steroid abuse. The full report is available online now at http://www.playboy.com/steroids and will be printed in the April issue of Playboy, on newsstands Friday, March 20.

Littman broke the inside story of BALCO in May 2004 for Playboy in "Gunning for the Big Guy." He has reported on this story for nearly six years, filing more than fifty stories on the topic. Littman has met and interviewed the key players in this drama dozens of times over the past half decade. The only journalist to have interviewed three of the four original BALCO investigators, Littman has attended nearly every trial and hearing in the sprawling, massively covered scandal, from the BALCO trials to the hearings in the perjury case against Barry Bonds, to the Clemens Congressional hearing. Previously unknown facts uncovered in Littman's report include:

1. NOVITZKY'S GAME: How Agent Jeff Novitzky got the green light for an
unprecedented multi-million dollar IRS witch hunt. Before the 2003
raid on BALCO, before a single headline was ever written, Littman knew
that Agent Novitzky, a then unheralded IRS agent, was obsessed with
bringing down Barry Bonds.

2. PROTECTING BUD: How Novitzky and the BALCO federal prosecutors
seemingly protected Bud Selig and Major League baseball, by not
calling the Commissioner or baseball's owners to testify to their
knowledge of rampant steroid use in baseball.

3. HIDING THE CLEAR: Previous press reports repeated the government
account that The Clear, the centerpiece drug in BALCO was an illegal
steroid. Secret grand jury testimony of Jeff Novitzky himself reveals
that the government knew early on that it was not an illegal drug.

4. PERJURY TRAP: The BALCO investigation, far from an attempt to clean up
sports, was designed to entrap one man, Barry Bonds. How the
government misled Bonds on the day of his Grand Jury testimony and
appears to have to set up baseball's all-time home-run king on a
perjury charge.

5. TRUTH TELLER UNMASKED: At the very time Agent Novitzky was given
unprecedented powers and funds to trip up athletes in lies, the
Treasury opened an investigation that questioned his credibility. The
origins of a five-year-old secret investigation that has already
caused the lawyer for one BALCO defendant to ask a judge to set aside
a conviction and may imperil the Bonds case.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/090226/aqth508.html?.v=34

[trumad]

1. Agan---you bring up this case to try and proves Bonds did not do Steroids.

He did---and you know he did. Hence---he's a cheater.

[Upton]

4. Read the entire piece

It supports much of what cboy and I have been saying...Bonds has been singled out and used as a scapegoat by the government.

[flvegan]

2. When was The Clear not an illegal drug?

The Clear is THG, IIRC. That means that it's a Schedule I narcotic. Not legal.

[Upton]

3. Check it out

It was legal when Bonds used it..

Not only was the performance-enhancing drug tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) not specifically banned when athletes squirted “The Clear” under their tongues to gain an edge, the testimony also indicates that the drug wasn’t categorized by the Justice Department as a steroid until January 2005, long after the drug laboratory had been shuttered.



http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=li-clear011409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[flvegan]

5. Thanks. Didn't know that.

I knew it took them a while to catch onto the "prohormones" but I never knew THG was a legal substance. Interesting.

[trumad]

6. Again---the "Dumb Motherfucker" cult beleives that he only used the Clear.

Yeah---- Sure---uh huh.

[Upton]

7. You obviously are beginning to feel the pressure

the kind of heat one who rushes to judgment feels when in danger of being proved wrong.

You've said you don't care how the trial turns out, but that's only because you can see the writing on the wall. A not guilty verdict will be a serious blow to all the Bonds haters, and you and the others will be left with attempting to resurrect what will have become a losing argument.

[trumad]

9. More talking points from the "Dumb Motherfuckers" cult

The 99 percenters are feeling pressure because a non-guilty verdict will somehow exonerate Barry from using steroids.

[Upton]

11. That percentage of yours will drop

significantly if and when Bonds is found not guilty, though truth be told it's nowhere near 99% anyway.

Keep pretending the outcome of the trial doesn't matter...because we both know it does.

A not guilty verdict will be a punch in the gut to all the Bonds haters....and a victory for all those who believe in the presumption of innocence.

[cboy4]

8. Another nail in the coffin.....I'm almost feeling sorry for the

Bonds haters.

They had their obsessed hearts and minds so set on victory.

Now they're starting to pretend conviction has never been important.

They're clearly beginning the 7 stages of the Kübler-Ross grief cycle

#1 SHOCK STAGE: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news.

Bless their hearts.

[Upton]

10. Yep..and the Bonds haters are running scared

I remember a time when they were touting the perjury indictment as justification for their Bonds hate, now all of a sudden a conviction doesn't matter.

How things have changed.

[TZ]

12. I've always hated Bonds

WAAAAY before any kind of Jury action.
Especially after the way I heard he treats women..which of course doesn't matter to y'all I guess.

[Upton]

13. At least you've admitted your bias

which has obviously affected your judgment when it comes to his alleged use of steroids.

I have a feeling most of the rest of the Bonds haters had preconceived notions about Barry as well.

[PRETZEL]

14. Not addressing the other claims in this article except #4

with this question,


How could it be a perjury trap when Bonds was given immunity in his grand jury testimony of Balco and Anderson?

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/sports/usbonds111507ind.html

Bottom of page 2 of the indictment clearly indicates that Bonds had immunity but could face perjury charges if he didn't tell the truth.

[Onceuponalife]

15. Oh! Snap!