Tejada charged with lying to Congress about steroids
The steroids-in-baseball spotlight shifted from Alex Rodriguez to Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada, who was charged Tuesday with lying to Congress about the banned substance.
In January 2008, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the former American League MVP lied to House committee staff when he was interviewed in August 2005 in connection with the Rafael Palmeiro steroids case.
"Tejada told the committee that he never used illegal performance-enhancing drugs and that he had no knowledge of other players using or even talking about steroids," House oversight and government committee chairman Henry Waxman said at the time.
Tejada is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday where he is expected to plead guilty.
The charges against Tejada of making misrepresentations to Congress were outlined in documents filed in Washington federal court on Tuesday.
The documents, indicating a plea agreement has been reached with Tejada, were filed a day after Rodriguez admitted to past use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The FBI also is investigating whether Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young winner, lied to Congress last year when he denied using steroids or human growth hormone.
When the same House panel held a hearing in March 2005, Palmeiro pointed at the panel and declared: "I have never used steroids, period." Palmeiro was suspended by baseball later that year after testing positive for a steroid.
The committee later looked into whether Palmeiro should face perjury charges, but eventually dropped the matter.
Palmeiro said his positive test must have resulted from a B-12 vitamin injection given to him by Tejada. That prompted Congress to talk to Tejada, who at the time was a Baltimore Orioles teammate of Palmeiro's. Tejada was traded to Houston in December 2005.
Two years later, he was advised by attorneys not to comment on the Mitchell Report about drug use in baseball or an FBI investigation looking into his alleged link to steroids.
In the report, Adam Piatt claimed he gave steroids to Tejada in 2003, when the two were teammates in Oakland. The report included cheques Tejada wrote to Piatt to allegedly pay for steroids. The report said Tejada refused to meet with Mitchell's investigators.
Last January, Waxman opened a hearing into the Mitchell Report by announcing that he and ranking minority member Tom Davis sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The letter contained excerpts from the Aug. 26, 2005, interview of Tejada at a hotel in Baltimore.
"Has there been discussion among other players about steroids?" a committee staffer asked, according to the letter.
"No, I never heard," Tejada replied.
"You never knew of any other player using steroids?" Tejada was asked.
"No," he replied.
"Have you ever taken a steroid before?" he was asked at another point.
"No," he said.