A federal grand jury has been convened to hear testimony from witnesses as early as this week to decide on pressing charges of lying under oath against baseball star Roger Clemens, ESPN reported.
Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner as top pitcher, denied taking performance-enhancing drugs at a Congressional hearing last February in which he and former trainer Brian McNamee gave conflicting sworn testimony.
US attorney Daniel Butler was expected to present evidence to see if there was probable cause to make a perjury indictment against Clemens, ESPN reported.
"We have no knowledge one way or the other," Clemens attorney Rusty Hardin told ESPN. "All I have heard is rumors from people saying something. But we have had no contact with anyone about it and have no idea."
Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, Clemens' former New York Yankees teammates, have said McNamee was correct when he declared that each of them took performance-enhancing drugs.
After Pettitte told US lawmakers in a sworn statement that Clemens told him almost a decade before that he had indeed used human growth hormone, Clemens told a Congressional hearing that Pettitte "misremembered" the conversation.
McNamee claimed in an investigation by former US Senator George Mitchell that he injected Clemens with growth hormone and steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Clemens denied the report's claim, prompting the Congressional inquiry.
Major League Baseball's top pitcher and hitter could face perjury trials over doping denials in 2009.
US all-time home run king Barry Bonds is set for trial in March on perjury and obstruction of justice charges from his 2003 testimony in the BALCO steroid case wherein he denied knowingly taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
