Tejada Charged with Lying to Congressional Staff

Major league shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to congressional investigators about the use of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia filed a charge today alleging that Tejada knowingly lied to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff in 2005 when he said he had never heard of any major league baseball player using steroids.

The report published by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine) in December 2007 listed Tejada as a user of performance-enhancing substances.

Tejada made the statements during an interview with committee staff in Baltimore in August 2005, in the presence of his lawyer and a Spanish language interpreter (Tejada, a native of the Dominican Republic, speaks English as a second language).

The committee was investigating major league steroid use after Rafael Palmeiro testified before the panel in 2003 that he had never used steroids, then subsequently tested positive for steroid use in a test conducted by Major League Baseball.

Tejada currently plays for the Houston Astros.

See Tejada’s statements below, as listed in the document filed by the U.S. attorney’s office:

11. Specifically, during the August 26, 2005, interview, Committee staff asked defendant
TEJADA about his awareness of any discussions among baseball players about steroids. The
following exchange took place:

Committee Staff: Has there been discussions among other players about steroids?
TEJADA: No, I never heard.
Committee Staff: You never heard any of that?
TEJADA: No.

12. Specifically, during the August 26, 2005, interview, Committee staff asked defendant
TEJADA whether he knew any other player on the Oakland Athletics who used steroids. The
following exchange took place:

Committee Staff: When you were playing with the Oakland A