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Baseball fights inquiry into steroids: Leaders balk at subpoenas of players by House panel (Gordon Edes, March 10, 2005, Boston Globe)

Stanley Brand, legal counsel for Major League Baseball, harshly criticized the committee for asking players to testify while there is an ongoing federal grand jury investigation regarding illegal steroid distribution, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case in California. New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, who reportedly admitted to the grand jury he used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, was among the players issued subpoenas by the House Government Reform Committee.

Baseball has been under increased pressure to toughen its drug policy in the wake of the BALCO case. In addition to Giambi's admission, disclosure of grand jury testimony -- as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle -- revealed that San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds may have used steroids provided by BALCO. Bonds says he used the steroid cream unwittingly.

''The legal audacity of subpoenaing someone who's been a grand jury witness before there has been a trial in the case in California is just an absolutely excessive and unprecedented misuse of congressional power," Brand said in a conference call with reporters late yesterday afternoon. ''Not even the Iran-contra committee attempted to do that, and when it did, it tainted irreparably the prosecution that came out of that investigation." [...]

''It is not clear to us how the committee's jurisdiction encompasses the privately negotiated drug policy," Brand wrote, adding that the committee was requesting ''highly private and sensitive information."

Brand said the committee request ''goes to the unprecedented and, we must add, destructive length of seeking actual testing results [and] shows no consideration for the legitimate privacy concerns of MLB, the MLBPA, individual players, and other members of the bargaining unit."

Addressing the same matter in the conference call, he said: ''There is no public policy reason that has been advanced to me by the committee as to why we should breach that policy just so they can satisfy their prurient interest as to who may or may not have engaged in this activity before there was an agreement."

Canseco, Fehr, and Manfred (speaking for baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who had originally been requested by the committee), all had accepted invitations to address the committee. But in a joint statement issued by committee chairman Tom Davis and ranking Democratic member Henry A. Waxman, the committee said subpoenas were issued because the remaining witnesses either rejected the invitation to testify or did not respond.

''The Committee will conduct a thorough, fair, and responsible investigation," the statement said. ''It is important the American people know the facts on baseball's steroid scandal. And it is important that all Americans, especially children, know about the dangers of drug use.

''Consistent with our jurisdiction over the nation's drug policy, we need to better understand the steps MLB is taking to get a handle on the steroid issue, and whether news of those steps -- and the public health danger posed by steroid use -- is reaching America's youth."

If the subpeonas are not complied with, the committee could vote contempt citations, which would have to be approved by the full House of Representatives and certified by a US attorney. The fight over the subpoenas would then head to US District Court, according to Brand. He said it would be up to the individual players how they intended to respond to the subpoenas.

One recalls with some amusement now that the less politically and morally aware wondered why George W. Bush discussed steroids in his 2004 State of the Union, just one of many instances where he's been way ahead of the curve. Last night on ESPN radio they were discussing various poll results show that 60-70% of people think Congress needs to look into this and that, if you break it down, majorities in 37 states think so.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2005 8:23 AM