The legal fight between Lance Armstrong and the federal government is "now threatening to drag Nike into the fray," as both parties "want to grill the sportswear company under oath as a witness to find out more about the company’s previous sponsorship of Armstrong," according to Brent Schrotenboer of USA TODAY. Both Armstrong and the government "recently have issued subpoenas to the company." But Nike "is fighting back at both and has asked a federal judge in Oregon for help protecting its information." The subpoenas are part of the federal government’s $100M "civil fraud suit against Armstrong on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service, which sponsored Armstrong’s cycling team" from '98-'04. Armstrong "is interested in testimony and documents from Nike to boost his defense in the case." He argues that the government’s lawsuit against him is "baseless because the USPS suffered no damages and instead profited greatly from the publicity generated by his success at the time." The government "sees it differently." It argues that Armstrong’s cycling team "violated its sponsorship contract by doping and concealed those violations to continue receiving" more than $30M in payments it "wouldn’t have received if the government had known about what was really going on." Nike said that none of this is "relevant to its business." A judge has "set a hearing for the matter in September" (USA TODAY, 8/27).
