Judge holds private hearing in Clemens perjury case

A U.S. federal judge is considering whether to let the authors of the Mitchell Report that examined steroid use in baseball withhold some of their internal memos from star pitcher Roger Clemens and his criminal defence team.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton held a private hearing Wednesday with the lawyers who helped write the 2007 report to discuss their interviews with Clemens accusers Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee.

Clemens wants copies of the internal memos on the interviews to help defend against claims by his accusers that they supplied Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs.

The judge wanted to hear directly from lawyers at the New York-based DLA Piper firm where former Sen. George Mitchell used to work.

Walton did not rule immediately. The retired Clemens is scheduled to be tried next month.