A US judge has ordered that Lance Armstrong undergo three more hours of testimony under oath as part of the whistleblower case against him. He was questioned in a deposition for seven hours in July and his lawyers tried to block additional testimony, saying their client has already answered 1,600 questions about doping in that session.
District judge Christoper Cooper said in a statement that the deposition will reopen after several lines of enquiry were decided to have been unexplored in the initial questioning.
“Having reviewed the July 23 deposition transcript, the Court agrees that the Government is entitled to reopen Armstrong’s deposition. The Government has identified several lines of inquiry that it was not able to fully explore in the first seven hours, most notably Armstrong’s own prior statements addressing allegations that he had used PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs).
“These statements ‘many of them unequivocal denials’ are relevant to the Government’s theory that Armstrong concealed his drug use from (the U.S. Postal Service). The Government is entitled to explore whether Armstrong will seek to disavow or qualify those earlier assertions at trial.”
Armstrong’s lawyers say the government has already covered the ground. The government seeks to prove Armstrong concealed his drug taking from the US Postal Service his team’s sponsor. He accepted $30 million.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers.
