Congress hears Clemens’ side of the story

WASHINGTON -- Former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens met for five hours Tuesday with the House committee investigating drug use in baseball, telling reporters afterward that he had never used banned substances.

“I just want to thank the committee -- the staff that I just met with here -- they were very courteous,” Clemens said after his deposition with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “It was great to be able to tell them what I’ve been saying all along. I’ve never used steroids or human growth hormone and I look forward to being here, I guess in this room, next week.”

The committee will hold a public hearing Feb. 13 that is scheduled to include testimony from Clemens, his longtime teammate and friend Andy Pettitte, and their former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, who told baseball investigators that he had injected both players with performance-enhancing substances.

In contrast to the more reserved Pettitte, who appeared nervous while clutching his wife’s hand as he entered the hearing room for a deposition Monday, Clemens brought no family with him and appeared unfazed by a media contingent of at least 50 that greeted him in the Rayburn House Office Building.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner, dressed in a pinstriped gray suit, pink dress shirt and red tie, maintained a pleasant demeanor with reporters -- unlike the angst and condescending tone that defined his news conference in Houston last month. At that event, Clemens was so defiant that his attorney, Rusty Hardin, passed him a note that said, “Lighten up!”

Upon entering Tuesday, he smiled while exiting the elevator and walking down the corridor of the Rayburn building, through the committee’s public hearing room and into a back room where committee staffers deposed him. He said “good morning” to reporters at his 9:25 a.m. entrance, paused to look around at the site of the hearing next week, and said “it’s beautiful” to his attorneys.

After the deposition, someone yelled “Rocket!” in the hallway, drawing a quick wave and the response “hey” from the right-hander before the elevator doors closed.

Committee members and staffers did not immediately comment.

Clemens, who was named 82 times in the Mitchell Report on illegal drug use in baseball, has denied all accusations of steroid and human growth hormone use leveled against him in the report, which was released Dec 13. Thus far, the case against him has effectively been a he-said, he-said debate between the potential Hall of Famer and McNamee, who said in the Mitchell Report that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids or HGH in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

But Tuesday’s deposition marked the first time he was questioned under oath about the allegations.

“[Clemens] is not going to take the 5th Amendment,” Hardin said Monday in a statement. “He is going to answer the committee’s questions truthfully under oath.”

It appeared Monday that Clemens would submit a transcribed interview, but he switched gears in the final hours and agreed to be deposed instead. While the line of questioning is similar in both, the most notable difference between the two is that a deposition takes place under oath while a transcribed interview does not. Although Clemens would face potential criminal prosecution for lying to Congress in either format, not going under oath could potentially have dealt another blow to his image.

The Feb. 13 hearing might also mark the first time Clemens learns details of Pettitte’s nearly three-hour testimony, which McNamee’s lawyers say could be damaging to Clemens. It is not known whether committee investigators challenged Clemens on Tuesday about any possible discrepancies with Pettitte’s testimony.

Earl Ward, a lawyer for McNamee, told the Associated Press last week that he expected Pettitte to tell Congress that he discussed human growth hormone with Clemens before the 2002 season. According to Ward, the discussion occurred at Clemens’ house and in the presence of McNamee.

That is contrary to claims by Clemens, who said last month he had no knowledge of what Pettitte was doing.

Both Ward and the Mitchell Report stated that McNamee discouraged Pettitte from using HGH at that time. But Ward told the AP that Pettitte re-approached his trainer later that year after a midseason elbow injury and was injected with HGH twice, a number Pettitte confirmed in a statement.

As a result, Pettitte’s testimony may prove critical as the third party to corroborate one of the accounts. He and Clemens shared McNamee as a trainer, completed workout sessions together and were considered close, spending nine seasons together with the Yankees and Houston Astros.

“We have nothing to fear about what Andy may testify to,” Hardin told the New York Times before Pettitte’s testimony.

If Clemens or any witness is found to have lied, they could potentially face criminal prosecution. The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), opened an investigation last month into whether Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada lied to investigators under similar circumstances in 2005, when he claimed to have had no knowledge of players’ using or discussing steroids. Key elements of the Mitchell Report contradicted Tejada’s testimony.

Clemens was one of five witnesses named in the report who were invited by the House committee to testify at the Feb. 13 hearing. He was initially scheduled to give his deposition Jan. 26, but came to an agreement with the committee to delay his appearance until Tuesday.

The other witnesses include former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch, who met with the committee for 1 1/2 hours Friday, and former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski, who will submit his deposition Feb. 12. Radomski was named in the report as one of McNamee’s sources for HGH.

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ben.dubose@latimes.com