Clemens Campaigns as His Wife Is Named

WASHINGTON — Roger Clemens met privately with seven more members of Congress on Friday, completing a two-day sweep of nearly half of the members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who will hear his sworn testimony Wednesday.

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Roger Clemens made a believer of Representative Edolphus Towns, who said he was impressed with his character.

One of the congressmen, Edolphus Towns, a Democrat who represents Brooklyn, gave the most complete account yet of what Clemens has been saying in the closed-door meetings. Towns said he came away believing that it was Clemens’s accuser, Brian McNamee, who might ultimately be charged with perjury.

The good tidings did not stop there. Denise Mixon, Towns’s deputy chief of staff, happily had her picture taken with one of the most decorated pitchers in baseball history, with Clemens placing his arm over her shoulder and flashing a big smile.

It was one of a number of souvenir moments involving Clemens in the last two days, although a Clemens spokesman said he did not know if any of the 19 members of Congress with whom Clemens had met had actually asked for an autograph.

But for Clemens and his lawyers, there was still plenty of turbulence in the Capitol. Information emerged that McNamee, Clemens’s former trainer, had stated in a sworn deposition Thursday that he not only injected Clemens with steroids and human-growth hormone but had also injected Clemens’s wife, Debbie, with H.G.H., at Clemens’s request.

In the deposition, which was made behind closed doors with lawyers for the committee, McNamee said he injected Debbie Clemens with H.G.H. in late 2002 or early 2003, a person with knowledge of the matter, insisting on anonymity, told reporters. McNamee had previously told federal investigators the same thing, the person said.

Clemens’s camp reacted angrily to the public disclosure without specifically denying it. “This shows what kind of person we’re dealing with,” Clemens’s lawyer Rusty Hardin said.

McNamee’s own lawyers said the disclosure was unauthorized and did not come from them. “I said I didn’t want to discuss matters that were part of yesterday’s testimony, so I really can’t confirm that,” the lawyer Richard Emery said. “I won’t deny it, but I won’t confirm it.”

The significance, if any, was unclear. A broad immunity applies to people testifying about their spouses, and the allegation, if true, would not prove that Roger Clemens was injected with performance-enhancing drugs by McNamee, although it would suggest that Roger Clemens was familiar enough with H.G.H. to have a family member use it.

McNamee’s other lawyer, Earl Ward, said in a telephone interview Friday evening: “We are not interested in Debbie Clemens or anything associated with her. We are interested in Roger Clemens and his use.”

Emery and Ward said they wanted to turn attention back to what they described as important corroborating evidence for McNamee — used syringes, vials and bloody pads they said were used when McNamee injected Clemens on various occasions in 2001. The materials were given to federal investigators Jan 10, and lawyers for McNamee released photographs to congressional staff members Thursday.

As all this was gradually occurring, Towns, the Brooklyn congressman, was speaking in positive terms about Clemens, saying his half-hour personal visit made him a believer in Clemens’s character. But Towns said he did not feel that way about McNamee; he said he found his story of holding onto used syringes and swabs for seven years to be “weird.”

“Doesn’t that seem a little strange?” Towns said. “This is a really weird one. This one is interesting, man. I have been in this business for a long time.”

Towns said Clemens explained why he had not responded to invitations to meet with George J. Mitchell before his report on baseball and performance-enhancing drugs in December.

Clemens, Towns said, did not take the Mitchell invitation seriously because he thought it was only about allegations linking him to a drug affidavit involving pitcher Jason Grimsley in a 2006 article in The Los Angeles Times, which later proved to be inaccurate.

Clemens did not know, Towns said, that McNamee had already talked to Mitchell and told him that he had injected Clemens on 16 occasions with steroids and H.G.H.