Federal Grand Jury Looking Into Barry Bonds Perjury Charge

Bonds Under Investigation For Possible Perjury

Giants head athletic trainer Stan Conte has been subpoenaed to testify on April 27 before a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in S.F. that is investigating whether Barry Bonds committed perjury during the BALCO grand jury investigation, according to three sources cited in a front-page piece by Williams & Fainaru-Wada of the S.F. CHRONICLE. One source said that the government “has demanded that Conte turn over the team’s training records related to Bonds.” The subpoena of Conte “represents the first time a Giants employee other than a player has been called to testify in connection with the government probe” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 4/18). On Friday, Williams & Fainaru-Wada cited two sources saying that the grand jury also subpoenaed Arthur Ting, Bonds’ personal surgeon. Federal investigators “believed Bonds lied under oath in part because documents seized in government raids on BALCO and on his trainer’s home included doping calendars that appeared to reflect Bonds’ drug use.” Bonds told the grand jury in ’03 that he had never knowingly used steroids (S.F. CHRONICLE, 4/14).

MLB: In N.Y., Jack Curry reported the perjury-investigation report “was discussed internally by [MLB] officials on Friday.” If Bonds is found guilty of perjury, “or even tax evasion, [MLB Commissioner Bud] Selig could act to address Bonds’ records in some manner” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/15). When asked about the perjury investigation, Selig said it is “inappropriate for me to comment on it and, frankly, there is nothing for me to comment on. Obviously, grand jury testimony is supposed to be secret.” Selig added MLB’s steroid investigator George Mitchell and his staff “are monitoring things” (MLB.com, 4/15).

BALCO BUNCH: Yankees RF Gary Sheffield and 1B Jason Giambi, who also testified before the BALCO grand jury in ’03, said that they “have not been subpoenaed” (USA TODAY, 4/17). Rufus Williams, who reps Sheffield, said, “I don’t know why he would be [subpoenaed]. There has been a lot of speculation from people but I’ve seen nothing that would indicate that anything has changed from what’s happened in the past” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 4/16).