Phil Maddocks: Lawyers for the lawyers of Roger Clemens unleash furious attack

The lawyers for the lawyers of Roger Clemens unleashed a furious legal attack Thursday on the lawyers for Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee at a press conference called by the lawyers of Mike Wallace, saying their client had been tricked into playing a tape recording of a conversation between their client's client and the client of the lawyers they are attacking.

"I'm going to Congress and I'm going to tell the truth about what I think my clients and their client were thinking and what I think my client's client's accuser's lawyers were thinking he was up to," one of the lawyer vowed at the press conference shortly before he got angry at a question about his feelings about the feelings of his clients' client's chances to make the Hall of Fame and bolted off stage and out of the room.

McNamee's lawyers responded to the day's events through their lawyers, vowing to "take down" the lawyers for Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, and the lawyers for his lawyers when all of them appear before the House Government Reform Committee on Jan. 16.

"It's war now," one of the lawyers for McNamee's lawyers, said in a phone interview. "I mean that of course in the strictly legal and bombastically meaningless sense of the phrase."

Nonetheless, he went on to lambaste Clemens' lawyers for allowing Clemens to secretly tape the phone call between their clients' client and the pitcher. He also blasted the lawyers for Clemens' lawyers, saying they were trying to take advantage of the situation in a way that was even despicable by his profession's ethos.

"These guys will stop at nothing," he said of the opposing legal team.

Experts in both criminal and civil law were warning yesterday that the rapid spread of lawyers throughout this case will likely continue.

"There is plenty of money, plenty of publicity, and plenty of room for wild legal speculation. It is the perfect breeding ground for lawyers," said one expert who spoke on the condition that he could speak through his lawyer.

Wallace, who is friends with all the lawyers involved, and many who are not, agreed to let the other lawyers appear at his lawyers' press conference as long as the lawyers for Clemens and McNamee and the lawyers for those lawyers agreed that during their testimony before the House Government Reform Committee they would play a recording of a secret conversation between Wallace and one of his lawyers.

"I know this is largely about Roger, and to some extent, about Brian and baseball, but I can't help but notice that I am trying to make it about me, too. So to that extent, I'd like to keep myself in the game, so to speak, at every opportunity and as much as I can," Wallace said through one of his lawyers, who sounded quite energetic considering he was speaking for an 89-year-old television reporter.

He said Wallace had to excuse himself for his daily shot of B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine.

In a related development, the lawyer for Andy Pettitte, a close friend and former teammate of Clemens who has admitted that McNamee told the truth about Pettitte's links to human-growth hormone, has now hired a lawyer to represent him at the Congressional hearing, saying he was concerned about what the tape of the secret conversation between Wallace and his lawyer might reveal about him and his client.

The question now, he said, is what questions Pettitte may be asked next week, and whether any of them will be about Clemens and Wallace.

A person who is familiar with developments in the Clemens-McNamee dispute, said he was certain that Clemens and Wallace had talked in the past about human growth hormone, known as H.G.H.

"Let's face it," Pettitte's lawyer said through his lawyer, "Wallace looked and sounded pretty good for a guy approaching 90. Maybe he isn't the same reporter he was 40, 30, even 20 years ago. I know he still works hard at maintaining his connections - and he has a hardworking team around him. But the fact that he is still able to compete at his age makes you wonder."

Clemens, speaking though one of his lawyers, said he was "shocked to learn about Andy's situation" of hiring a lawyer.

Pettitte said he regretted having done it, but he hoped this one instance wouldn't undermine an honorable and otherwise lawyer-free career.

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddock@cnc.com.