Baseballer Clemens indicted for lying about steroid use

WASHINGTON - Former star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he lied before a congressional panel about his alleged steroid use.

Clemens was indicted by a district court in Washington, more than two years after he testified before the US Congress that he never took performance-enhancing drugs.

Brian McNamee, a former trainer, testified before the same congressional panel that he injected Clemens dozens of times between 1998 and 2001 with steroids and human growth hormone.

Clemens, who retired in 2007, was indicted by the grand jury on six counts of perjury and making false statements before the Congress. The 2008 hearing came as the Congress worked to clean up a sport that had been sullied by reports of dozens of players engaging in doping.

Clemens was considered one of baseball’s greatest ever pitchers, playing for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros over a career that spanned more than two decades.