Reporters Ordered to Testify In Bonds’ Leak Case

By Mark Hoerrner

It’s not exactly Bob Woodward and Deep Throat, but it has the melody. Two reporters who have authored a series of articles and a book on the BALCO steroid investigations by the federal government have been subpoenaed to testify about who leaked them key inside information.

"Lance and I are firmly standing behind our sources," said Mark Fainaru-Wada after the decision was rendered. He and colleague Lance Williams, both of the San Francisco Chronicle, were ordered by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White to testify before a Grand Jury. Williams and Fainaru-Wada have both said they would indeed go to jail before revealing their sources.

White cited a 1972 Supreme Court precedent that allows no exceptions for testimony before a Grand Jury and that even Congress has not seen fit to protect journalists from giving testimony in federal cases.

"The court finds itself bound by the law governing this case to subordinate (the reporters') interests to the interests of the grand jury," White ruled.

Executives at Hearst Corp., the Chronicle’s parent company, were dismayed by the ruling, proponing that reporters should be immune to testifying because it impugns their ability to do their job and that it violates the first amendment. Hearst is filing an appeal.

"We are deeply disappointed with the Court's decision," said Eve Burton, Hearst’s general counsel, "but Judge White clearly felt constrained by the Court of Appeals' decisions and that is where we are headed next. We believe we will ultimately prevail and that is clearly what is in the public's best interest."

In addition to covering the Bay Area Lab Co-Operative investigation, which has been a long look by federal investigators into the suspicion that BALCO was actually a cover for a steroid ring, the two reporters wrote the book "Game of Shadows" that includes confidential Grand Jury testimony by San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, sprinter Tim Montgomery and others.

Since then, other grand juries have been formed to investigate specific athletes who may have perjured themselves, such as Bonds, when he denied taking steroids. The government has failed to prove their case against Bonds three times and appears to be running out of options as federal prosecutors said that the reporters are their only chance to finding the culprits.

If the reporters are imprisoned, they could remain in jail until the impaneled Grand Jury’s term expires.