Filed under: CyclingThe attorney for Lance Armstrong said "several" riders have been offered reduced doping bans by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency if they agree to testify or provide proof that the seven-time Tour de France champ used performance-enhancing drugs.
"What they are doing is providing an incentive for people to go in there and tell [investigators] or the grand jury what they want to hear," Armstrong's lawyer, Tim Herman, told FanHouse on Monday. "It's my belief this violates federal law."
Herman declined to disclose which riders have been approached and said he was told of the offers in confidence. USADA spokeswoman Erin Hanan could not immediately be reached for comment, but she declined to provide specifics to Armstrong's case when contacted by The Associated Press, the first outlet to report such offers may have been made to Armstrong's colleagues.
Federal investigators, led by Food and Drug Administration investigator Jeff Novitzky, are looking into whether Armstrong and his teammates took part in a conspiracy to purchase and use illegal performance-enhancing drugs -- and it's not the first time such charges have been levied.
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Floyd Landis, whose allegations made last spring sparked a new round of questions about whether Armstrong used PEDs, was offered the same sort deal in 2007, but refused to take it. Landis was in the midst of a legal battle at the time that sought the return of his 2006 Tour de France title; it was stripped after he failed a doping test .
"I saw this coming," Herman said. "I wrote the USADA back in 2007 telling them what they were doing was against the law. A federal statute prohibits private parties giving anything of value in exchange for testimony."
Under USADA rules, the agency can't ask one athlete about the specifics of another.body solid
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