Race Radio said:
So what is next?
In the next 2 weeks USADA will release a torrent of information. In addition there will be over 300 pages of info in another form coming sooner then expected. Follow this up with interviews with some of the key witnesses and the UCI stripping lance of everything as they know the risk is too large
And then come the lawsuits.....
and then come the investigation and exposure of
multiple coverups
And then come the Feds
.....it's not over
I know that last night I wrote that under the WADA Code, the USADA is pretty limited in terms of what they can release to the public. I also looked at USADA Protocol 16, which also suggests that USADA is somewhat limited in what they can release to the public. But that same Section of the Protocols also allows them to "comment upon any aspect of the case."
Then we have the Velonation interview of Travis Tygart in which he unabashedly says that USADA will release the evidence to the public. I don't think he'd make a statement like that unless USADA really intended to release the evidence. While he might want to check with Bock before doing so, at this point, Tygart, who is also a lawyer and fully conversant with USADA's own Protocols, should be taken at his word. I think RR is right, there will be much more information released to the public about the details and the reasoning and rationale for the sanctions USADA has recommended be imposed in the next few weeks.
Not so sure which lawsuits are coming. SCA? I don't know, but I'd bet that even if a suit was filed by SCA, it's only got a minimal shot of succeeding. Any other lawsuits? Perhaps by ASO to recover the prize money paid for the 7 TdF wins that will be erased? Any other suits?
RR also says the Feds will continue to investigate. I'm not so sure about that. There is the
qui tam suit filed by Landis, but that case has its own impediments, not the least of which is the named-Plaintiff's own difficulties. But you never know, someone in the justice department may have already made a decision that recovering sponsorship money paid by USPS is well-worth the time and effort it would take.
Criminal investigations? I don't see that. Not with the prior abandonment of the criminal investigation and the fact that any SOL would have run (and no, there's no Hellebuyck principal that would apply to any federal criminal investigation as far as I know).
I think it's going to be interesting to see how the rest of the USPS squad is treated by USADA and USAC in terms of sanctions. If USADA doesn't also issue lifetime bans to Vaughters, Hincapie, Leipheimer, etc., guys who, if they really testified they knew about Armstrong's systematic doping all these years and thus themselves participated in the same coverup and conspiracy that USADA says also justifies a lifetime ban for Armstrong, that could provide a basis for a further legal challenge to the sanctions (and that might be brought in federal court, since even if no CAS action is possible, it might still constitute a basis for a real denial of due process claim). From a pure PR point of view, for USADA any real disparate treatment of Armstrong's teammates would just smell bad would play right into the hands of Armstrong's pitch that he has been selectively prosecuted.
As much as I hate to say it, because I really like and admire guys like Hincapie, Leipheimer, et. al., if they knew, participated and also covered up, they should suffer the same fate as Armstrong in terms of sanctions: lifetime bans, no reduction for agreeing to testify (which clearly was under threats of bans and thus compulsion in the first instance), and forfeiture of wins, points and prize money.
If they all did it, treat them all the same, and let them all hang.
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