US government details why it wants Lance Armstrong’s medical records
Federal authorities are seeking documents as part of a whistle-blower lawsuit to recover more than US$30 million in sponsorship the US Postal Service paid rider and his teams
The federal government says it wants Lance Armstrong’s medical records from his 1996 cancer treatments because they could prove just how far he was willing to go to conceal performance-enhancing drug use from the public and his sponsors.
The former cyclist is vigorously fighting release of his medical records from the Indiana University School of Medicine as part of a whistle-blower lawsuit in which the government wants to recover more than US$30 million in sponsorship the US Postal Service paid Armstrong and his teams. Penalties could reach as high as US$100 million.
Despite his admissions publicly and under oath to using steroids and other drugs as far back as 1993, the government is still pursuing a key allegations that had dogged Armstrong for years: whether he told doctors in 1996 he was using a host of performance-enhancing drugs and later sought to bury any evidence of the conversation through lawsuits, threats and charitable donations.
Armstrong’s efforts to “blunt this allegation ... were critical to hiding the truth of his doping from, among others, the United States Postal Service”, the government said in documents filed last week in a Washington court.
Armstrong’s lawyers have asked Judge Christopher Cooper to dismiss a subpoena for records, calling it “harassment” and an invasion of privacy because Armstrong admits to doping to win the Tour de France seven times. Cooper could rule on the records this week.
In its arguments to get the hospital records, the government questions whether they could contradict a 2005 sworn statement from Dr Craig Nichols, one of Armstrong’s physicians, who said there was no record of performance-enhancing drug use.
