Victor Conte E-mails Suggest He Was S.F. Chronicle Source

Report Names Conte As One Source In BALCO Leak

The U.S. Attorney’s office “apparently accidentally released confidential grand jury testimony and court documents identifying [BALCO Founder] VICTOR CONTE as one of the [S.F.] Chronicle’s sources for its reporting on the BALCO steroids scandal,” according to Quinn & Thompson of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The document “does not say Conte provided the reporters with the transcripts, but it does include E-mail exchanges discussing the testimony” of Giants LF BARRY BONDS, Yankees 1B JASON GIAMBI, U.S. Olympians TIM MONTGOMERY and MARION JONES, and others, including one in which Conte apparently jokes that [Chronicle reporter MARK FAINARU-WADA] should put the BALCO founder ‘on your payroll’ for his confirmation that Giambi told the grand jury that he had used steroids.” Conte “denied being a source.” Conte’s attorney, MARY MCNAMARA, said, “Mr. Conte did not leak grand jury transcripts. It is unclear why the government’s submission discusses E-mails that plainly prove no breach of the law by Mr. Conte.” Quinn & Thompson note Conte “would have had access to the sealed transcripts because they were available to the BALCO defendants, their attorneys and government authorities connected to the case” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/23). In L.A., Lance Pugmire reports if Conte “shared any grand jury information with a reporter, he would be subject to a criminal contempt of court charge.” Prosecutors said that Conte signed a protective-order agreement “promising not to make public any details of grand jury hearings” (L.A. TIMES, 6/23).

PROOF OF BONDS PROBE? In San Jose, Elliott Almond reports Bonds’ personal trainer, GREG ANDERSON, appeared in S.F. federal court Thursday and “spent an hour in the grand jury chambers.” Although the government has “neither confirmed nor denied the existence of a grand jury investigation of Bonds, the appearance of Anderson and the BALCO prosecutors supports multiple sources’ claims that a probe is under way” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 6/23).