Saturday, January 5, 2013

Lance Armstrong: Sell Confession?

LANCE ARMSTRONG 7 Tour de France titles nixed.
Facing mounting law suits, particularly the anger of all those who falsely accused and cost money tying up in court, Armstrong, void of income, may now be considering what some wrote here:

Selling his story for money.  Selling his story in exchange for reduced prison time?  Marion Jones got 6 months.  

Selling his story to pay off the legion of lawsuits?

Should Armstrong decide to make a "confession", What should we expect?  

More deception.  It will be carefully scripted by lawyers in an attempt to satisfy certain legal requirements and, overall, to rehabilitate his image.  

He has not only lied, via false denials ("unreliable denials") but slandered and attacked the eye witnesses.  He paid off some, pummeled others, and was merciless to anyone who got in his way.

We should not expect him to be honest, even in his admission, but to minimize and soft peddle his destruction of others.  

It is not a confession to cleanse the soul, but to cash in...

again.  

Expect the following:

1.  "Everyone did it"
2.  "I was only making the playing field honest"
3.  "Everyone was willing"
4.  "I barely used; just enough to stay even with others..."
5.  "My training was more regimented than anyone else's in history"
6.  "I am going to donate the proceeds from this (movie, book, interview)..."  (in hopes of winning back a sponsorship)

He is a sociopathic liar who has destroyed lives and reputations. 

Let's hope America has had enough of the nonsense.  

2nd article beneath first



Lance Armstrong eyes peddling drug confession

He wants to come clean.
Cycling legend Lance Armstrong has told his associates he is considering a public admission that he doped during his athletic career, according to a published report.
Armstrong, 41, has spent recent months weighing his options while vacationing with family in Hawaii, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Possibilities include going on television, writing a book, or making a public statement in the near future about his alleged doping.
A public confession would allow Armstrong to begin restoring his badly damaged reputation
The former professional cyclist fell into disgrace last fall when his seven Tour de France titles were stripped and his major sponsors dropped him.
LANCE ARMSTRONG 7 Tour de France titles nixed.
Armstrong also quit as chairman of Livestrong, the cancer-fighting foundation known for its iconic yellow bracelets that he founded in 1997.
He has long denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs or blood doping, even as his teammates and anti-doping officials leveled accusations.
Armstrong’s lawyer told the Journal that discussions with the US Anti-Doping Agency “aren’t currently on the table.”
Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was 25, but fought back to win the Tour de France a record seven times.
A confession by Armstrong would also complicate multiple legal issues, including a whistleblower lawsuit filed by his former teammate, Floyd Landis.
The Sunday Times of London has also sued to recover a 2004 libel settlement that Armstrong won after the paper published claims he was doping.



Lance Armstrong, who this fall was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping and barred for life from competing in all Olympic sports, has told associates and antidoping officials that he is considering publicly admitting that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. He would do this, the people said, because he wants to persuade antidoping officials to restore his eligibility so he can resume his athletic career.

For more than a decade, Armstrong has vehemently denied ever doping, even after antidoping officials laid out their case against him in October in hundreds of pages of eyewitness testimony from teammates, e-mail correspondence, financial records and laboratory analyses.
When asked if Armstrong might admit to doping, Tim Herman, Armstrong’s longtime lawyer, said, “Lance has to speak for himself on that.
Armstrong has been under pressure from various fronts to confess. Wealthy supporters of Livestrong, the charity he founded after surviving testicular cancer, have been trying to persuade him to come forward so he could clear his conscience and save the organization from further damage, one person with knowledge of the situation said.
Several legal cases stand in the way of a confession, the people familiar with the situation said. Among the obstacles is a federal whistle-blower case in which Armstrong and several team officials from his United States Postal Service cycling team are accused of defrauding the government by allowing doping on the squad when the team’s contract with the Postal Service clearly stated that any doping would constitute default of their agreement.
Herman said the option to confess to antidoping officials was not currently on the table. However, the people familiar with the situation said Armstrong, 41, was in fact moving toward confessing and had even been in discussions with the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Armstrong had met with Travis Tygart, the agency’s chief executive, in an effort to mitigate the lifetime ban he received for playing a lead role in doping on his Tour-winning teams, according to one person briefed on the situation.
Armstrong was also seeking to meet with David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, that person said.
Herman denied that Armstrong was talking to Tygart and said he was not looking to speak with Howman, either.
None of the people with knowledge of Armstrong’s situation wanted their names published because it would jeopardize their access to information on the matter.
Tygart declined to comment. Howman, who was on vacation in New Zealand, did not immediately respond to a phone call and an e-mail.
Armstrong has hopes of competing in triathlons and running events, but those competitions are often sanctioned by organizations that adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code, under which Armstrong received his lifetime ban.
According to the World Anti-Doping Code, an athlete might be eligible for a reduced punishment if he fully confesses and details how he doped, who helped him dope and how he got away with doping. But a reduced lifetime ban might decrease only to eight years or four, at best, antidoping experts said.
Marion Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Olympics, denied doping for years until giving a teary-eyed confession on the steps of a Westchester County, N.Y., courthouse in 2007. She spent six months in prison for lying to federal investigators about her doping and for her involvement in a check-fraud scheme.
The timeline for Armstrong’s deciding whether to confess is unclear, but it is partly based on whether the United States Justice Department will join the whistle-blower lawsuit, which was filed under the False Claims Act. The sole plaintiff of that lawsuit is Floyd Landis, Armstrong’s former Postal Service teammate, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping.
If the Justice Department joins the lawsuit as a plaintiff, the case would be more formidable than if Landis pursued it alone. Landis stands to collect up to 30 percent of any money won in the case, which could be in the millions. The team’s contract with the Postal Service from 2000 to 2004 was more than $30 million.
Armstrong is also facing two other civil lawsuits, one that involves the Dallas-based insurance company SCA Promotions, which is trying to recoup millions of dollars it covered when Armstrong won multiple Tours.
The company withheld a $5 million bonus from Armstrong after he won the 2004 Tour because of doping accusations that surfaced in the book “L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong,” which was published in France. Armstrong sued the company, and the case was settled for $7.5 million. SCA Promotions is now asking for $12 million back — the $7.5 million plus $4.5 million it paid for Armstrong’s other Tour victories.
Armstrong is also being sued by the British newspaper The Sunday Times for more than $1.5 million over the settlement of a libel case. In that matter, the newspaper had paid Armstrong nearly $500,000 after it published claims from “L.A. Confidentiel” that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
But what worries Armstrong and his lawyers most, two of the people with knowledge of the situation said, is that he could face charges of perjury if he confesses because in sworn testimony in the SCA case he said he had never doped.
Before coming forward, Armstrong would need assurances from the Justice Department that he would not be prosecuted for those crimes, those two people said.
Herman said he has plans to discuss Armstrong’s next move when Armstrong returns from Hawaii, where he has been spending time with his family out of the public eye. He has been in limbo since antidoping officials issued their report on him. A week after the report was released, Armstrong’s sponsors, including Nike and other longtime supporters, abandoned him. Soon after, he cut all ties with his charity.
He’s doing O.K. for a guy that has had his livelihood and his life torn from him, but he’s very strong,” Herman said.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anti cancer drugs can be diagnosed as "performance enhancers"so he's innocent.

Frannie said...

I felt he was a jerk when he left his first wife, the mother of his older children, after he got some "fame".

Randie said...

Peter, Sorry this is off the topic, but didn't you do a piece on Jodi Arias? I can't find it. Will you report on her??

Anonymous said...

Sell it to who? Lance Armstrong is a nobody now, just a former big time loser one points the finger and snickers at, on a downhill treadmill with multiple lawsuits staring him in the face.

It's only a matter of time until he is finacially reemed out by his attys and is left flat broke and unable to file appeals on the massive amounts of monies he will be ordered to repay, plus damages and more legal fees.

He will be staring bankruptcy in the face sooner rather than later. He'll be lucky to be able to afford breakfast at Denny's occasionally, paid for with income from where, doing what? The stress of it all could even lead to reactivation of his cancer.

So what's the value in him selling his confession now, Peter, or does it even have any value? To who, and why would they pay for a confession when the whole world already knows he doped all those years, lied about it the whole time and even sued and bullied others for daring to say he doped?

Where's the value in a confession coming from him now? Furthermore, who would believe that he wasn't doping even as he confessed?

Trigger said...

Why not just tell the truth, Lance?

All he has to say is, I used performance enhancing drugs because they gave me more stamina, so I could train more than my competition. That extra training will give me an advantage in competition, if no one else trains as much.

Winning is my goal, so I will do what it takes to win, even if it means using banned substances for more aggressive training sessions.



LisaB said...

PETER!
I can't find a way to contact you directly, but would like to see you analysis of the statement
made at the following link:
http://www.rollredroll.com/

Pak31 said...

Frannie, I have to totally agree with you. I forgot about that, for some reason when he did leave her I felt so bad for his wife. It was a selfish thing on his part. He had cancer and a great life then he ditched her, and it went to his head. Then getting in trouble with the drugs, and not coming clean about it. I have just lost all respect for the guy. He had everything and he blew it big time.

Unknown said...

If it was rife with in the sport as stated
Not just in the Lance Armstrong erea.Cycleing has been notorous for drugs since its inception.
Especialt the gruelling European Tours Spain Tour DE France Italy an others
Races last weeks over thousands of kilometer .An all terrains Mountain .Time trial also factor into this most grueling of sports

An athletics with the Ben Jhonstones an Flo Jos of the word has also had it share of enhanced athletes useing steroids ect to improve.
I propose just as we have amatuer sports as oppose profesional sports
Sporting events should be set up so athletes whom want to use roids or dopeing all the little tricks the dr feelgoods have got to enchance there performance.
An thease athletes should perform in competions only with others whom also utilise drugs or whatever it is they use to improve perfrmance
At the other end of the spectrum Athletes whom train an perforn without any substances or artificial stimulants to enchance there performance shall compete and only compete against one another.
This would ensure that in either type of events
Natural vs Enchanced there always is a level playing feild
Think of the brilliant mucic we would have lost over the years
If they drug tested musicians an only allowed songs written
Without the aid of drugs.

Skeptical said...

Lance Armstrong is a big disappointment to his fans. RG3 and Johnny Football have lessened the pain. Gig 'em Aggies!

Anonymous said...

Not sure I remember what Lance did to his first wife as I wasn't into his sport at the time, didn't know or care who he was.

It sure wasn't difficult though to assess him as a cold hearted self-centered bastard when I saw the way he totally ignored his daughter as he came into the finish line on one of his triumps.

He biked right by her, close enough to reach out and touch her, then ignored the poor little girl running behind him screaming his name. How humilating for the child. The Pig.

So what did he do to his first wife? Nothing would surprise me. But maybe she'll come out for the better in the long run. At least she won't lose her home (hoping it's free and clear and in her name) when he has to file for bankruptcy.

Skeptical said...

Lucy, 'splain me something. The sociopathic behavior displayed by Lance Armstrong is reviled and yet the same type of behavior is admired in Steve Jobs. Is it because Steve Jobs admitted to being an asshole (his words not mine) that he appeared to be less of one? Just asking.

Jo said...

Isn't the statement "considering admitting" basically a confession?



Tania Cadogan said...

Jo said...
Isn't the statement "considering admitting" basically a confession


Yes

He is considering a public admission that he doped
This implies there has already been a PRIVATE admission he has doped.
Embedded is the phrase admission he doped.

Reading the article, indicates he has admitted he doped privately albeit it to his associates.
I take this to mean his lawyers.
Given the number of lawsuits he is facing currently and also lawsuits that may be to come he has had to admit the truth to his lawyers in order for them to be able to defend him to the best of their abilities.
His defence may boil down to pedantics.
His lawyers knowing the full facts as given to them by armstrong (well, his version of the full facts) may decide to plea deal and make an offer of recompense which won't effectively bankrupt their client, although, given the huge amounts involved from sponsors and from the Sunday Times he will likely have to declarew bankruptcy anyway.
He will also likely face suits from those individuals he sued, defamed, perjured, threatened, blackmailed etc.

I expect the lawsuits will include gag orders so that anything that came out during then suits cannot be revealed in public.
He can then concentrate on his public image and a well laundered admission and worm his way back to public support whilst those who won their cases against him can't say anything that would reveal his deception or the real facts of what he did.

There will be rumors flying around as to the full extent, armstrong though knows he is safe due to the gag restrictions knowing he can sue if anyone says that's not what happened this is what really happened.

I also wonder if he will start a campaign to allow certain drugs to be permitted, a doped tour de france as opposed to a clean one.
As i have said before, it is getting harder and harder to detect dopers and the detectors will always be one step behind and playing catchup so it is easily possible for sport to eventually break into 2 sections, doped and clean.
There is only so much the human body can achieve with training, attire etc, at the peak of perfection in any race all the athletes would finish at the same time, the only variable being stuff such as wind conditions, altitude, teperatures etc.
With doping the human body could achieve a bit more limited only to how much muscle,lung size etc the athlete can bear without major or lethal damage.
Clean athletes could compete in both clean and doping events.
Doped athletes could only compete in doped events, even if they subsequently cease doping they are still limited to doped events.

It would also be of interest to medical science in regard to what the human body can achieve and also the difference in the times, stamina etc between the competitiors of both sides.
It may also lead to advances in medicine for patients with physical disabilities.

Trigger said...

I agree with your analysis, Hobnob.

I also predict that close examination of Lance Armstrong's body and cellular function will be of great value to the medical profession to advance and/or enhance the treatment/recovery of patients with disabilities and degenerative problems.

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