• US Department of Justice joins lawsuit against Lance Armstrong

    Lance Armstrong faces serious new legal trouble: The Justice Department has joined one of his former racing teammates in suing him for using performance-enhancing drugs during the Tour de France. NBC Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reports.

    By Pete Williams, Justice Correspondent, NBC News

    Lance Armstrong faces a powerful new adversary -- the United States government.

    The Justice Department notified a federal court Friday that it is joining one of his former racing teammates in suing him for using performance-enhancing drugs during the Tour de France.

    The government signed on to a lawsuit filed two years ago by Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong's former Tour de France teammates who has already admitted cheating. Among its claims: Landis saw Armstrong store and then re-inject his own blood to boost his performance, and Armstrong twice gave Landis banned hormones before races.

    The government’s legal theory in joining the lawsuit is that when Armstrong agreed to race for the U.S. Postal Service team a decade ago in the Tour de France, he defrauded the government, violating its strict ban on illegal drugs, all the while claiming he did not use them.

    Though the government’s action presents a serious new legal threat to Armstrong, the Justice Department case is not foolproof: Legal experts say Armstrong could argue that his contract with the team owners never explicitly prohibited blood doping, and he could claim that he never signed any agreement directly with the Postal Service that banned the practice.

    But if the government wins, Armstrong could face huge fines, because the Postal Service paid at least $30 million to sponsor his racing teams.

    Armstrong's attorney, Robert Luskin, said in a statement Friday that the Postal Service had no losses deserving of compensation.

    "Lance and his representatives worked constructively over these last weeks with federal lawyers to resolve this case fairly, but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged," Luskin said. "The Postal's Services own studies show that the Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship -- benefits totaling more than $100 million."

    After denying for years that he cheated, Armstrong gave a general admission last month in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

    "This issue of performance enhancers, to me, we're going to pump up our tires, put water in our bottles and, oh yeah, that, too, is going to happen. That was it," he said.

    The cycling website Velo News reported this week that Travis Tygart, the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder last month, urging the government to join the Landis lawsuit.

    A decision by the Justice Department to join the case “in order to get to the bottom (or top) of this massive fraud would also be viewed by the press and public as necessary and legitimate,” the letter said.

    Slideshow: Lance Armstrong’s controversial career

    Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images

    The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.

    Launch slideshow

    This story was originally published on Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:58 AM EST

  • 'The little runt': For those hurt by Lance Armstrong, tell-all interview wasn't enough

    Lance Armstrong's former masseuse Emma O'Reilly says she's surprised her former boss has admitted to doping but she has no plans to sue him after he tried to discredit her. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Lance Armstrong may have come clean about his use of performance-enhancing drugs in his cycling career, but in the eyes of some of the people he hurt over the years, his slate will always be anything but clean.


    For Irish masseuse Emma O'Reilly -- who wrote a 2003 book calling Armstrong out on his doping -- an attempt at an apology and Thursday night's Oprah Winfrey interview weren't enough. 

    O'Reilly, now working as a massage therapist in Manchester, England, told The Manchester Evening News that the cyclist -- who has called her a "whore" in the past -- attempted to contact her last Sunday before his interview aired. 

    "I thought, you know, one part of me, ‘Oh, this is great.’ And the other part of me, you know, ‘What! The little runt,’" she said. "I could clip him across the back of the head, drag him up to Manchester to apologize to people close to me and eyeball them and apologize to them."

    In the 90-minute interview with Winfrey, the cyclist and founder of the Livestrong cancer-fundraising foundation confessed he had taken a performance-enhancing “cocktail.”

    “My cocktail, so to speak, was EPO, but not a lot, transfusions and testosterone — which, in a weird way, I almost justified, because of my history, obviously, with having testicular cancer and losing, I thought, ‘surely, I’m running low,’” he told Winfrey, the first time he openly admitted to doping after multiple accusers and years of suspicion that he had been supplementing his seven wins in the Tour de France with performance-enhancing drugs.

    That admission wasn't enough for the wife of one of his U.S. Postal Service teammates, another woman who blew the whistle on Armstrong.  Betsy Andreu, wife of Frankie Andreu, has publicly said before that she overheard Armstrong talking with a hospital doctor in 1996 about his doping.

    “You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball,” Betsy Andreu, told CNN after Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey Thursday night. “You had one chance at the truth.”

    When Winfrey asked him about Andreu, Armstrong – speaking in as stoic of a manner as he did throughout the entire interview – said he and his former teammate’s wife were not on good terms after the fallout from the 1996 accusations, and then said that when speaking with her earlier this week, he told her, “Listen, I called you crazy. I called you a bitch, I called you all these things, but I never called you fat.”

    Lance Armstrong's deceptions might deplete his estimated $125 million net worth now that the cyclist is facing a federal whistleblower lawsuit as well as an attempt by SCA Promotions to recoup Armstrong's paid bonuses. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    The comments nearly brought Andreu to tears in an interview later in the evening with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

    “That exchange right there has me furious,” she told CNN. “This is a guy who used to be my friend who decimated me. He could have come clean. He owed it to me. He owed it to the sport that he destroyed.”

    Armstrong also systemically refused to answer questions about other cyclists throughout his interview, saying this was an opportunity for him to talk about his own mistakes – something that further infuriated Andreu, who said Armstrong pressured her husband to dope.

    “Frankie rode the 2000 Tour clean, had the vast majority of his career clean. What was his reward? He didn’t get compensated for that Tour win and he lost his job and his career was derailed. That’s going up against Lance Armstong. Going up a decade of being excoriated by him. And I was willing to give him a chance and this is how he responds? It just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

    After watching the interview, former masseuse O’Reilly said she was “surprised” that Armstrong finally confessed, but said she didn't plan to sue him.

    “I've never ever felt vindication,” she told U.K. television show Daybreak on Friday. "More move on with my life, which is my way of always dealing, keep going with my life. And suing him, how would I employ his tactics?"

    She said she saw a lot of doping while she was working as a masseuse for cyclists.

     “I hated seeing what some of the riders were going through because not all the riders weren't as comfortable with cheating as Lance was. And you could see when you went over to the dark side the personalities change and I always felt it was an awesome shame,” she said.

    From 1999 to 2001, Tyler Hamilton was Lance Armstrong's teammate, helping him capture his first three Tour de France titles. He tells Matt Lauer he believes Armstrong is "definitely sorry" and "did the right thing, finally."

    Armstrong's teammate Tyler Hamilton, who has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs himself, told TODAY he wanted more from Armstrong. 

    "I think it's a huge, huge first step,'' Hamilton said. "It's really what happens next. The proof is in the pudding. Basically, what's he going to do moving forward? You can tell it's real. He's very emotional. He's definitely sorry. He did the right thing, finally. It's never too late to tell the truth.'' 

    Hamilton said he didn't "need an apology" from Armstrong, but agreed with officials' decisions that all of Armstrong's cycling results that he achieved while on drugs needed to be wiped out.

    Doug Ulman, the CEO of Livestrong, told TODAY it was difficult to watch the interview, but he felt some "relief" for the future of his charity in it as well.

    "Watching it was hard, and yet I have to watch it through the prism of the work of the foundation and through the resilience that I've come to know from millions of cancer survivors and people who've been touched by our work," he said. "At a certain level there was a little sense of relief, because our organization today can finally move beyond this topic and this issue.'' 

    The reaction from top cycling officials was generally warm. 

    Hein Verbruggen, the former president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), said it was “good that Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping," and said he felt vindicated after years of "conspiracy theories" that he helped cover up doping by Armstrong, reported The Associated Press.

    Verbruggen, who led the UCI from 1991 to 2005, said in a statement provided to the AP, "I am pleased that after years of accusations being made against me the conspiracy theories have been shown to be nothing more than that."

    He added, "I have no doubt that the peddlers of such accusations and conspiracies will be disappointed by this outcome."

    Pat McQuaid, who succeeded Verbruggen as UCI president, said he felt Armstrong’s admission would help the future of cycling.

    "Lance Armstrong's decision finally to confront his past is an important step forward on the long road to repairing the damage that has been caused to cycling and to restoring confidence in the sport," McQuaid said in a statement.

    Watching Armstrong describe his “litany” of offenses, including “leading a team that doped, bullying, consistently lying to everyone and producing a backdating medical prescription to justify a test result” was “disturbing,” he said, but the Irish official also said that Armstrong pointed out cycling is a different sport today than it was  a decade ago.

    “Finally, we note that Lance Armstrong expressed a wish to participate in a truth a reconciliation process, which we would welcome,” he said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Related stories

    NBC Sports' Bob Costas joins Rock Center to discuss the confession by cyclist Lance Armstrong that he used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career, including during his seven Tour de France wins. Costas discusses the fallout from the admission.

  • From Milli Vanilli to the Cardiff Giant to Balloon Boy: The greatest hoaxes in American history

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The twisted tale of football star Manti Te'o's girlfriend -- who reportedly died this past year under tragic circumstances but then was found never to exist – has shocked and mystified people across America.

    But this isn’t the first time we’ve had the collective wool pulled over our eyes. Here are some of the most successful hoaxes and tall tales in American history:

    Balloon Boy: In April 2010, the nation was riveted as cable news networks cut into live programming to broadcast the runaway flight of a Fort Collins, Colo., family's experimental balloon, which supposedly contained their six-year-old son, Falcon Heene. The silver, helium-filled aircraft had become untethered from the family's yard and for two hours, authorities chased it as it wobbled above Colorado. When it landed in a field, empty, the Heene family -- who had twice appeared on the ABC reality show "Wife Swap" prior to the balloon incident -- insisted their older son had said Falcon climbed into the balloon before it took off. As it turned out, Falcon had been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic the entire time. In January 2011, the Heene children started a heavy metal band they call HEENE BOYZ, which includes Falcon as lead vocalist and bass player, Bradford, the oldest, on lead guitar, and Ryo, the middle son, on the drums.

    Charles Tasnadi / AP file

    Janet Cooke and 'Jimmy's World': In September 1980, Janet Cooke wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning story for the front page of The Washington Post about an eight-year-old boy with a heroin addiction, whose life was the product of rape. Just 26 herself, Cooke faded out of public view after Washington, D.C., police, desperate to help Jimmy out of his life of addiction, couldn't find him, and it was discovered that she had made up the entire tale. The Post returned her Pulitzer in 1981. Her boyfriend revealed years later that she was working for minimum wage at a department store.

    Reuters

    Milli Vanilli's Grammy: Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan of the German pop band Milli Vanilli took the stage in Los Angeles in 1990 to accept a Grammy award for best new artist, performing their big hit, "Girl You Know It's True," which hit number one on the U.S. charts. Sadly, the glitz and glamour of the Grammy night wore off quickly when it was discovered the two had not only lip-synched their Grammy performance, but the song's lead vocals belonged to other singers. To date, Milli Vanilli is the only group to ever have a Grammy revoked. Pilatus died of a suspected accidental drug overdose in 1998; Morvan told USA TODAY in 2010 he wants his Grammy back, but "there's no bitterness. It made me a better man."

    James Frey: In January 2006, author James Frey got a literary slap in the face from one of the most influential book critics of all: Oprah Winfrey. "I feel duped," she told him on her talk show after accusing him of lying in his so-called memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," which chronicled his struggles with recovering from addiction. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers." Frey's fall from book club pick to accusations of fabrication began after a thorough investigation from The Smoking Gun website found the author had "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw 'wanted in three states.'" Despite the revelations, the book continued to fly off the shelves, but Doubleday, the publisher, added a note to future editions of "A Million Little Pieces" explaining some events in the text had been embellished. Since then, Oprah has publicly apologized to Frey for her harsh words, and he has gone on to publish a couple of other books -- but didn't classify those as memoirs.

    Hulton Archive / Getty Images file

    'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast: On Halloween eve in 1938, Americans who tuned into Orson Welles on CBS Radio received some astonishing news: A meteorite had crashed into New Jersey, and New York had been invaded by Martians. What the broadcast failed to convey to the stunned listeners who may have missed the introduction to the show was that they were listening to an adaptation of the science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds," written 40 years earlier by H.G. Wells. "Good heavens -- something's wiggling out of the shadow," one of the newscasters on the show, describing the meteorite in New Jersey read to terrified listeners, some of whom took to their basements to hide. "It glistens like wet leather. But that face -- it ... it is indescribable." Welles later expressed regret for causing such a panic. 

    CBS News via AP file

    Stephen Glass: In the spring of 1998, journalist Stephen Glass was regularly publishing stories for Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Slate, and was an associate editor at The New Republic. But one story -- "Hack Heaven," about a 15-year-old hacker -- struck some as being too good to be true. As it turned out, all of it was: Neither the young hacker nor the software company he was allegedly blackmailing existed. As editors delved into more of Glass's stories, fabrications were found in a large portion of them. Since then, Glass has written a novel, "The Fabulist," and last summer, sought a California law license.

    AFP - Getty Images file

    The Great Moon Hoax: In August 1835, The New York Sun published a series of stories on its front page about wild advances in astronomy, including a new telescope made by Sir John Herschel that "discovered new planets beyond our solar system," "solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy," and discovered life on the moon. There were blue unicorns and winged humans on the moon, according to what was seen in this telescope, the story alleged. Astronomer Sir John Herschel was not consulted before the story was written quoting him. After numerous other newspapers responded to the stories expressing skepticism, one exposed it as a hoax by the end of the month.

    Jayson Blair: Plagiarize at one of the most venerable newspapers in the world, and you'll make the front page – as the subject of an article. This is a lesson Jayson Blair learned in the spring of 2003, when he, as a young reporter at The New York Times, stole writing from other reporters, made up quotes, invented details out of thin air, and created an "embarrassment of plagiarism and fiction," according to The New York Times' own investigation. As the war in Iraq ramped up, so did his lies, with claims of reporting from the Texas home of a missing soldier or another soldier's funeral in Ohio, when in reality, he never traveled to either. A reporter he had interned with in the past accused him of plagiarizing parts of her story, published in the San Antonio Express News, word for word, in April of 2003; the following month, The Times ran a 14,000 word article detailing Blair's deceptions, which concluded he had faked all or part of 36 stories in the six months of his employment with them. He later wrote a book, "Burning Down My Master's House: My Life at the New York Times."

    Mark Elias / AP file

    Tawana Brawley: In 1987, at 15, Brawley was reportedly discovered in a garbage bag in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., her body smeared with feces and "KKK" and the n-word scrawled on her torso. In the hospital, she said that she had been kidnapped by white men and raped over a four-day period. Her terrible story propelled her into the national spotlight, with Rev. Al Sharpton and others supporting her as several men were implicated in the act. However, in late 1988, a grand jury investigation found "no medical or forensic evidence that a sexual assault was committed on Tawana Brawley," placing the entire account in question. One of the people Brawley had accused as an assailant was a New York prosecutor, who later successfully sued Brawley for defamation.

    Lance Armstrong: He beat cancer, but he didn't beat allegations of doping. The Tour de France champion and Livestrong charity founder for years fought accusations that he took steroids to enhance his cycling performance. Along the way he built up a fortune estimated at more than $100 million. But on Thursday, Jan. 13, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey recorded earlier this week, he will finally admit that he did indeed dope, NBC News confirmed. It could spell the beginning of years of lawsuits that could cost him tens of millions of dollars.

    Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP - Getty Images file

    Roswell aliens: In July 1947, an aircraft fell from the sky, crashing on a ranch in Roswell, N.M. Whether it was a flying saucer from another world, a weather balloon, or something else entirely has left skeptics and believers debating for years -- but many out-of-this-world believers insist the government, which has a heavy military presence in Roswell, covered up the discovery of alien bodies in the aircraft. One intelligence officer and eyewitness to the crash, Maj. Jesse Marcel, fueled the speculation by saying years later that what was found on the ranch was "not of this Earth"; the Air Force issued two reports in the 1970s concluding the material was from Project Mogul, a secret program of atmospheric balloons used to detect nuclear tests from the Soviets.

    Farmers Museum via AP file

    The Cardiff Giant: In October 1869, a 10-foot-tall, petrified man was supposedly found by workers on a man's farm in Cardiff, N.Y. Some people thought he was a statue; others thought he was from biblical times. Crowds from all over flocked to see the stone giant, who, in actuality, was created by a man named George Hull. Hull decided to bury the giant in the ground after he got into an argument with a Methodist reverend about whether to take the Bible literally. Hull made the giant to show how blindly religious people will believe what they hear regarding their faith. Ultimately, the Cardiff Giant was an investment for Hull: He paid about $2,600 to make it, but a group of businessmen later paid him $37,500 to permanently display it in Cooperstown, N.Y..

    What are your favorite tall tales and hoaxes? Tell us in the comments below. 

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  • From belief to betrayal: How America fell for Lance Armstrong

    In the wake of Lance Armstrong's admission to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs, the World Anti-Doping Agency is telling the cyclist he must tell the truth under oath if he ever wants to return to competitive sports, and former friends and teammates agree. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The suspicions were there from the start. And so were the convincing denials.

    In an early ad for Nike, Lance Armstrong met insinuations of doping head-on.

    “This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it,” he says in the commercial, inspirational at the time but hollowly ironic now.

    “I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it,” he continues. “Everybody wants to know what I’m on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”

    A YouTube video of Lance Armstrong's "What Are You On?" Nike commercial from 2001.

    Armstrong’s astounding post-cancer comeback was still in its infancy when suggestions that he might not be clean surfaced with a report of steroids in his urine during his first Tour de France victory in 1999.

    He rejected them with what would become the hallmarks of his many denials: a flash of anger, a complaint of persecution, a pointed reference to his status as a survivor.

    “They say stress causes cancer," Armstrong said when confronted with the test result. "So if you want to avoid cancer, don't come to the Tour de France and wear the yellow jersey."

    His explanation -- that saddle-sore cream had caused the trace positive -- apparently satisfied the sport’s governing body. The early whiff of scandal did not stop him from crossing the line on the Champs-Elysees that year – or the next six.

    With each victory, Armstrong’s riches and popularity grew until it seemed like half the country had a yellow Livestrong charity bracelet dangling from their wrists.

    In 2005, a Gallup poll found 79 percent of people questioned had a favorable opinion of him. He made $17.5 million in endorsements that year and was engaged to singer Sheryl Crow.


    Questions about whether he was using performance enhancers had been mounting by the year: a 2000 probe into a report that a team staffer was caught disposing of drugs, a 2004 French book that alleged Armstrong juiced, the 2006 confessions of former teammates who admitted doping.

    Armstrong always responded the same way, with unequivocal denials and threats of legal action.

    “I have never doped,” he told Larry King in 2005, sounding exasperated at having to repeat himself.

    In a 2007 interview, he played the cancer card. “I was on my death bed. You think I’m going to come back into a sport and say, 'OK, doctor, give me everything you got. I just want to go fast.' No way.”

    He didn't dodge the accusations, he used them. His voiceover for a Nike ad during a 2009 comeback: "The critics say I'm arrogant. A doper. Washed up. A fraud. That I couldn't let it go. They can say whatever they want. I'm not back on my bike for them."

    YouTube video of Lance Armstrong's 2009 "Driven" ad for Nike in which he notes that critics call him a "doper" and "a fraud."

    There was no smoking-gun test result to refute him, and some of his critics were confessed liars.

    A teammate’s wife who testified was dismissed as a harridan with a vendetta. Finger-pointing ex-teammate Floyd Landis was accused of “harassment.” Even a federal investigation was branded “un-American” by Armstrong’s lawyer.

    The champion didn’t back down when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency charged and suspended him in June, boasting that he had “passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.”

    'Witch hunt'
    Even his one act of surrender – his August announcement that he would not fight the agency's charges – was tinged with defiance. The probe was a “witch hunt,” the claims mere “nonsense” and “enough is enough,” he said.

    Armstrong’s sponsors were abandoning him, but he still had ardent defenders. In a Newsweek cover story, sports writer Buzz Bissinger declared the cyclist “a hero, one of the few we have left in a country virtually bereft of them.”

    Slideshow: Lance Armstrong’s controversial career

    OWN via Getty Images

    Lance Armstrong during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, which airs Thursday and Friday. The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.

    Launch slideshow

    The tide of public opinion had clearly turned, though. A couple of weeks after USADA released its damning report on Oct. 10, a Seton Hall Sports Poll found only a third of the respondents had a positive opinion of Armstrong.

    This week's confession to Oprah Winfrey may be a bid to recoup some of the goodwill he once enjoyed and salvage his legacy, but the Johnny-come-lately reversal could backfire. Those who continued to back Armstrong even as the evidence became harder to ignore are as likely to feel betrayal as sympathy.

    Count Bissinger among them.

    “He is an immoral, manipulative liar who doesn’t deserve a second more of anybody’s time,” he wrote on the Daily Beast this week, asking readers not to watch the interview that airs Thursday and Friday.

    “Don’t continue to feed his insufferable ego. Don’t give him the satisfaction. Let him be what he has become: Unimportant and worthless.”

    Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman. 

    Related:

    Experts: Lance Armstrong confession could cost him tens of millions

    Armstrong's cancer-fighter legacy still inspires

    The players in the Lance Armstrong scandal


     

  • Experts: Lance Armstrong confession could cost him tens of millions

    Graham Watson / Reuters

    Lance Armstrong, shown here before the 2011 Tour Down Under cycling race in Australia, faces millions in civil claims. The government of Australia has asked for a refund of appearance fees after Armstrong reportedly confessed to doping.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Lance Armstrong may not face criminal charges for admitting to doping, but fending off millions in civil claims could be tougher than climbing the Col du Tourmalet, experts say.


    His reported confession to Oprah Winfrey is likely to bolster a whistleblower lawsuit that has caught the feds’ attention, demands for refunds of prize and bonus money, even potential defamation actions by critics he viciously attacked.

    “At the end of the day, I would be surprised if the damages – total amount – aren’t in the tens of millions of dollars,” said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago lawyer who has represented professional athletes in civil cases.

    That would punch a big hole in Armstrong’s fortune – estimated at more than $100 million – but would still be a softer blow than jail time.

    Federal prosecutors spent 20 months probing doping allegations against Armstrong for possible criminal charges. Using performance-enhancing drugs in sports isn’t a crime, but investigators probably looked for evidence of fraud, trafficking and perjury.

    They closed their criminal case in February 2011, and some observers think it’s unlikely that whatever Armstrong said to Winfrey would lead prosecutors to reopen it.

    “Mr. Armstrong is very well-advised by capable lawyers and I don’t think he would be admitting on the Oprah Winfrey show something that would give rise to a criminal charge,” said Wayne Lamprey, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in San Francisco.

    But that doesn’t mean Armstrong is completely off the hook with Uncle Sam.

    Settlement agreement in place?
    A Justice Department official told NBC News some lawyers in the civil division are pushing for the government to join a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2010.

    The suit is under seal but published reports have said that Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis brought it on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service, which sponsored the team and paid out $30 million in fees.

    If successful, the suit could compel Armstrong and other defendants to pay back that money plus $60 million in damages, with up to 30 percent going to Landis. Federal involvement in the suit could improve Landis' chances.

    Lamprey, who handles whistleblower actions, said Armstrong’s decision to spill at least some of his guts while the whistleblower case is still pending “begs the question” of whether there’s an informal settlement agreement in place.

    “If I was representing a defendant in a case like this, if I didn’t feel like if I had something buttoned up, I wouldn’t have my client on national television admitting to the core of the charges,” he said. NBC News has been told that talks are under way.

    The whistleblower suit is just the biggest-ticket claim on the horizon.

    The organization that runs the Tour de France has already said Armstrong should pay back almost $4 million it awarded him for his wins. An insurance firm, SCA Promotions, is asking for $12 million in bonus payouts it covered in 2002, 2003 and 2005. The Australian government on Tuesday asked Armstrong to return millions in appearance fees to race in the Tour Down Under.

    Until his sitdown with Winfrey, which airs Thursday and Friday, Armstrong has never wavered in his denial of doping, branding his accusers liars and worse, and his insults theoretically could be grounds for defamation claims.

    “I would expect people to come out of the woodwork,” Stoltmann said.

    New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica talks about Armstrong's revelation that he did take performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials, calling it a "giant athletic Ponzi scheme," and attorney Lisa Bloom discusses the legal implications.

    But David Newman, of Manhattan firm Day Pitney, said the statute of limitations may have run out on many of those statements, and plaintiffs would have to prove they had been damaged by Armstrong’s rantings.

    Newman also said he would not expect to see lawsuits from some of Armstrong’s former sponsors, like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Trek, seeking to recoup what they spent.

    “One could argue fraudulent inducement or misrepresentation,” Newman said. “But Nike or any of these sponsors don’t want to get into a lawsuit even if they’re right, because long, drawn-out litigation blackens their name even more.

    “They want to cut the ties and move on and find the good new person to sponsor – the next Oprah Winfrey.”

    NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report.

    Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman. 

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    Calculated Armstrong losing image
    Even with mea culpa, Armstrong's brand value 'near zero'

     

     

     

     

     

  • 6 ways Lance Armstrong can salvage his legacy

    Slideshow: Lance Armstrong’s controversial career

    Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images

    The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.

    Launch slideshow

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Lance Armstrong's admission to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to roll to cycling stardom puts him in some pretty bad company. After years of denying the accusations, Armstrong came clean in the Oprah interview, NBC News has confirmed.  He now joins such disgraced names as Richard Nixon and John Edwards, who were exposed as liars to the American public.


    Is there any way he can ever restore his once pristine reputation? Probably not. Winning back the public trust at this point would rival the Tour de France in its difficulty.

    But, if Armstrong does want to try, here are six suggestions from experts on how he can try to accomplish the impossible.

    1. Recede from view

    After this latest round of controversy, the best thing for Armstrong to do might be to disappear for a while.  Allow the public to forget about the worst accusations, said longtime crisis publicist Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com.

    “What you don’t want to do is go on an apology tour,” Bragman said. “You do one interview and you do it well, and that’s all you need to do in this day and age.”

    Nailing that one interview is crucial, however, and in Armstrong’s case it’s not yet clear how it went. While Winfrey offered a teaser of her two-and-a-half hour interview Tuesday on CBS, she declined to comment on whether or not Armstrong was contrite and what exactly he revealed.

    “You have to listen to your lawyers and your PR people,” Bragman said. “The question is can you listen to your lawyers and your publicists and still sound sincere enough in it.”

    2. Send in the suits

    NBC News, along with other outlets, has reported that Armstrong confessed to taking performance enhancing drugs in his interview with Winfrey. An admission of guilt opens up the potential for a flurry of new lawsuits against the cyclist – practically guaranteeing that he stays in the news. The key is to avoid magnifying those headlines with personal appearances. Let your army of suits do the work for you.

    “You just deal,” Bragman said of headline-grabbing court action. “You show up when you have to and your lawyers when you don’t. And be prepared to spend a lot of money and a lot of energy to restore some measure of dignity to your life.”

    New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica talks about Armstrong's revelation that he did take performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials, calling it a "giant athletic Ponzi scheme," and attorney Lisa Bloom discusses the legal implications.

    3. Get back into charity work

    Unlike other sporting legends whose public personas hit the skids, Armstrong might be able to boost himself on the merits of the prominent cancer charity he founded, but from which he has had to distance himself.

    For years, Armstrong’s public persona was inseparable from the Livestrong Foundation. In October, he stepped down as chairman of the charity known for its yellow wrist bands. Yet, Armstrong remains closely tied to the group’s activities in the minds of many, and the sports star may be able to make the most of that.

    ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments, tweeted his continuing support for Armstrong on Monday:

    “I’m 1 of millions of [cancer] survivors he’s helped. #grateful”

    4. Find a crisis role model

    In many ways, Armstrong’s case is unique. Unlike stars whose sexual indiscretion or predilection for dog fighting brings them down, the use of performance-enhancing drugs undermines the main reason he was in the spotlight – his athletic prowess.

    “You have situations like the Tiger Woods, the Kobe Bryants, the Michael Vicks, but those to me don’t match up on this scale,” said George Belch, professor of sports marketing at San Diego State University. “This one, it’s like an octopus with its tentacles everywhere.”

    Strangely, Armstrong’s path back to some measure of respectability could follow former President Richard Nixon’s after the Watergate scandal: Put your head down, go where you are needed, and grind away in your work until public opinion begins to shift.

    5. Play those highlight reels

    Armstrong was the face of cycling for many Americans, and to the average man or woman on a bicycle, that may be all that matters, especially when many people suspect his competitors were doping too.

    Despite denials made in interviews and a deposition, legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong has come clean about using performance-enhancing drugs. NBC's Anne Thompson reports on his admission to Oprah Winfrey.

    “We’re not a cycling country, we’re not cycling fans,” Belch said. “That gives him a little bit of leeway with the general public.”

    Florida veterinarian Michael Herman, 55, said it was watching Armstrong pedal that got him on the bike in 2003. He rode in five Livestrong events in Austin, Texas, with Armstrong and other supporters of the charity. Despite all the controversy, Herman said he still watches videos of Armstrong’s past performances with dropped jaw.

    “Lance has done very good things,” said Herman, whose said his feelings wouldn’t be changed by an admission of doping. “As far as I’m concerned he got me healthy. He got me interested in biking, and it’s now a passion.”

    6. Give it time

    While Armstrong may be impatient to move beyond his apparent admission of guilt, finding his way back into the public’s warm embrace will take time, said Peter Flax, editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine.

    “I think it really is going to be dependent on his commitment to the process,” Flax said.

    This is just the beginning.

    “Seeing how earnestly he continues to follow through with this will help decide whether he earns redemption in the public’s eye or not,” Flax said. “It’s not going to be a one-and-done thing where he cries on the couch with Oprah and everyone forgives him.”

    Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman. 

    Related stories:
    Oprah: Armstrong 'forthcoming' in interview about drug use
    Even with mea culpa, Armstrong's brand value 'near zero'

  • Lance Armstrong doping confession: Who's involved?

    Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

    Armstrong and ex-fiance Sheryl Crow arrive at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards on December 8, 2004 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Lance Armstrong won seven Tour de France cycling titles in a career that made him a superstar. But he was dogged by allegations of doping, and last year he was stripped of his titles after a scathing report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Here are some of the key people in the Armstrong story:

    Sheryl Crow


    Singer Sheryl Crow, Armstrong’s ex-fiancé, was with him during two Tours. She was interviewed by federal agents in late 2011 and allegedly provided information to aid in the doping investigation, the New York Daily News reported. According to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported, Crow knew many details about doping on the team and was helpful in the USADA investigation, but didn’t give an affidavit to the organization.

    In an interview with Katie Couric after Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles, Crow said she still supported her ex-fiancé.

    “I know how hard he worked to win those titles, and you know, it was hard to watch,” Crow said. “I felt bad. I felt bad for him, I felt bad for his family and I kinda felt like the rest of America. He is a hero that we watched and looked up to and admire.”

    The New York Times via Redux Pictures

    Emma O' Reilly, the former soigneur for the USPS cycling team, of which Lance Armstrong was once a member, at her home in Lymm, England, on Oct. 12, 2012.

    Emma O’Reilly

    Emma O’Reilly was the U.S. Postal cycling team’s soigneur, responsible for massaging the cyclists, laundering clothes, booking hotel rooms and preparing food. O’Reilly, an Irish woman, has said she became a regular player in the team’s doping program during the 1999 Tour de France, transporting doping materials across borders, disposing of drugs and syringes and distributing performance-enhancing substances to the team’s riders, she told The New York Times. Ultimately, she would provide key evidence to the USADA’s investigation into Armstrong’s doping.

    O’Reilly said she was contacted by journalist David Walsh to be a source for his book about Armstrong, "LA Confidential," in which she described an incident when she heard the team worrying about Armstrong’s positive test for steroids during the Tour. She said, “They were in a panic, saying, ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to do?’”

    According to O’Reilly, the solution was to get one of their doctors to issue a pre-dated prescription for a steroid-based ointment to combat saddle sores. O’Reilly said that Armstrong told her: “Now, Emma, you know enough to bring me down.” 

    Francois Mori / AP file

    Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Travis Tygart attends a symposium called "The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Fight against Doping : New Partnerships for Clean Sport" in Paris on Monday, Nov. 12, 2012.

    Travis Tygart

    Travis Tygart is the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which accused Armstrong in June 2012 of doping, a charge that Armstrong said he was done contesting in August 2012.

    "There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. He called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt."

    His submission to the charges led the agency to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles. In an interview with CBC, Tygart said he was not surprised by Armstrong’s confession.

    “We heard the evidence, we heard the stories from athletes,” Tygart said. “And it supported, without question, every allegation that … now has been shown to be true.”

    In an interview with the French newspaper L'Équipe, Tygart said that he had received three death threats since the beginning of the Armstrong investigation and that security had been tightened around him by the FBI. Tygart was also previously involved in the investigation of Floyd Landis, a cyclist who accused Armstrong of doping. 

    Stephen Lam / Reuters

    Federal agent Jeff Novitzky arrives for former San Francisco Giants baseball player Barry Bonds' criminal trial at Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on March 28, 2011.

    Jeff Novitzky

    Jeff Novitzky, an agent for the Food and Drug Administration, led a team of attorneys from 2010 to 2012 that investigated Armstrong for allegations of doping in his Tour de France wins. In May 2010, the New York Daily News reported that Armstrong’s former teammate Floyd Landis was cooperating with the probe.

    The investigation involved taking statements under oath from Armstrong and his former teammates and requesting blood samples from the French anti-doping agency. The probe was terminated in early February 2012 with no charges filed, the Associated Press reported.

    In the past, Novitzky investigated alleged performance-enhancing drug use by other athletes, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Marion Jones.

    Mike Powell / Getty Images file

    Frankie Andreu of the U.S. Postal Service Team rides uphill during Stage 14, Draguignan to Briancon, France of the Tour de France on July 15, 2000.

    Frankie Andreu

    Frankie Andreu was a captain of the U.S. Postal Service cycling team along with Lance Armstrong in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 2006, Andreu and his wife, Betsy, who were close friends with the Armstrongs, testified in court that they heard Armstrong tell cancer doctors in 1996 that he had used EPO, growth hormones and steroids. Armstrong swore under oath that it didn’t happen.

    The Andreus’ testimony was related to litigation between Armstrong and SCA Promotions, a Texas company attempting to withhold a $5 million bonus. Armstrong eventually won a settlement deal out of court in February 2006, and SCA paid him and Tailwind Sports $7.5 million to cover the bonus plus lawyers' fees.

    He later told reporters that Betsy Andreu may have been confused by the possible mention of a post-operative treatment that included steroids and EPO, which can be taken to counteract the effects of chemotherapy.

    In an interview with The New York Times in 2006, Andreu admitted that he had taken EPO to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France.

    In 2012, the Andreus participated in the USADA investigation into Armstrong’s doping practices, testifying along with 24 other witnesses, including former teammates. In the USADA’s 200-page decision, the hospital room incident was covered in great detail. 

    Getty Images file

    Cyclist Floyd Landis is seen during the arbitration hearing of the 2006 Tour de France champion at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., on May 23, 2007.

    Floyd Landis

    Floyd Landis is a retired cyclist who was stripped of his own 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Landis admitted to doping in May 2010 and accused Armstrong of doping in 2002 and 2003. He also said in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" that he witnessed Armstrong receive multiple blood transfusions and dispense testosterone patches to his teammates on the U.S. Postal Service team.

    His confession and accusations were detailed in a series of emails he sent to senior cycling and anti-doping officials in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into Landis’ claims soon after, which eventually led to the USADA investigation of Armstrong and the 2012 decision to strip him of his Tour de France titles.

    In 2010, Landis filed a suit against the U.S. Postal Service team, alleging it defrauded the federal government by taking sponsorship money from the U.S. Postal Service while riders were doping, the Wall Street Journal reported. All whistleblower lawsuits are kept under seal, and neither the DOJ nor Landis have acknowledged the suit’s existence or allegations.

    AP file

    Of her sit-down with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey called it the "biggest" interview she has ever done.

    Oprah Winfrey

    Oprah Winfrey snagged what she has described as the “biggest” interview she has ever done: a sit-down with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.

    Winfrey grilled Armstrong for two and a half hours over his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

    Oprah appeared on CBS Tuesday morning to talk about the interview. She said she thought “the entire interview was difficult” for Armstrong, but he that “was pretty forthcoming.” She would not say, however, what exactly Armstrong said ahead of the session’s airing on the OWN network.

    Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman. 

    Related stories:
    Oprah: Armstrong 'forthcoming' in interview about drug use

  • Oprah: Armstrong 'forthcoming' in interview about drug use

    A member of the International Olympic Committee said cycling could be dropped from the games if Armstrong implicates those who oversee the sport. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Oprah Winfrey says Lance Armstrong was "forthcoming" in their 2.5 hour interview, a session during which the disgraced cyclist admitted using performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, NBC News has confirmed. 


    "I think the entire interview was difficult" for Armstrong, Winfrey said. “He was pretty forthcoming.”

    “It was surprising to me," she said of his approach to the interview, adding that "we were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers.”

    Winfrey appeared on CBS Tuesday morning to discuss her sit-down with the disgraced cyclist. When asked if Armstrong was contrite, she demurred.

    "I feel that he answered the questions in a way that he was ready," Winfrey said. "I choose not to characterize. I would rather people make their own decisions about whether he was contrite or not."

    The interview will be aired in full over two nights, Winfrey said.

    Armstrong, 41, had for more than a decade denied doping. He was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012, and was banned for life from competing in Olympic sports after a scathing 1,000-page report by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

    6 questions Lance Armstrong really needs to answer

    “I have never doped,” Armstrong said in a 2005 interview with Larry King. “I can say it again … but I’ve said it for seven years. It doesn’t help.”

    Those years of denial followed him Monday to a Four Seasons hotel in Austin, Texas, where Armstrong, accompanied by friends and family, sat down for his revelatory interview with Winfrey.

    Before the session, Armstrong shared a personal apology with staffers at the Livestrong charity he founded, Livestrong director of communications and external affairs Rae Bazzarre confirmed in a statement.

    "Lance came to the Livestrong Foundation's headquarters today for a private conversation with our staff and offered a sincere and heartfelt apology for the stress they've endured because of him and urged them to keep up their great work fighting for people affected by cancer,” Bazzarre said in the statement.

    As news of Armstrong's admission emerged, critics blasted the one-time role model on Tuesday.

    New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica talks about Armstrong's revelation that he did take performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials, calling it a "giant athletic Ponzi scheme," and attorney Lisa Bloom discusses the legal implications.

    “People just fell in love with the legend. They like that story better than the reality,” columnist Mike Lupica said on TODAY. “Most reasonable people think that … this is like an announcement saying that the ocean is deep.”

    “I believe that he’s completely insincere except for this,” Lupica said. “He is starting to repair his own brand. People have overlooked the real story here – lives that had to be destroyed to keep the lie going. To me this is like some giant, athletic Ponzi scheme that went on and on and built and built.”

    Depending on the precise nature and scope of Armstrong’s admissions, he could be subject to defamation charges as well as suits from former sponsors seeking to recoup some of his fortune, attorney Lisa Bloom told TODAY. Armstrong has been reported to be worth as much as $100 million.

    “This could keep lawyers in business for many, many years,” Bloom said. “I’m sure that all of his attorney were against it. Legally, confession is a bad thing to do. Morally, it’s a fabulous thing to do.”

    Despite the controversy over his use of performance-enhancers, Armstrong’s charity work is still drawing praise from some. ESPN anchor Stuart Scott tweeted on Monday that he remains “grateful” as “1 of millions of (cancer) survivors he’s helped.”

    The full interview with Armstrong will air on Winfrey's OWN network starting on Thursday evening.

    “Just wrapped up with @lancearmstrong More than 2 ½ hours. He came READY!” Winfrey tweeted after the taping. She said Tuesday morning that it was the "biggest" interview she has ever done in terms of exposure.

    Slideshow: Lance Armstrong’s controversial career

    Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images

    The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.

    Launch slideshow

  • 6 questions Lance Armstrong really needs to answer

    Slideshow: Lance Armstrong’s controversial career

    Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images

    The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.

    Launch slideshow

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Viewers who tune into Oprah Winfrey's interview with Lance Armstrong on Thursday will expect to see the disgraced cyclist offer some sort of admission to doping.


    One can only imagine he'll talk about the incredible stress of such a demanding sport. He might suggest that his Tour de France wins still have some legitimacy since many competitors were also taking performance-enhancing drugs. If he really wants to make a play for sympathy, he could dwell on how much his cancer charity Livestrong has suffered.

    But after a decade of indignant denials -- and legal threats and actions against his detractors -- that's not going to satisfy many of Armstrong's former fans. Here's what they'll really want to hear from the athlete, who promised to answer all of Winfrey's questions "honestly" before Monday's sitdown.

    1. Did Armstrong dope before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996? If so, did he tell his doctors? Betsy Andreu, the wife of a former teammate, testified in 2006 that she heard Armstrong admit to his doctors that he had used human growth hormone, steroids, and other chemicals. He denied it and tried to discredit Andreu by claiming she was "vindictive and vengeful."

    2. Does Armstrong have anything to say to whistle-blowers he reportedly denounced and bullied over the years? A report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency alleged Armstrong berated a loose-lipped competitor during the 18th stage of the 2004 Tour de France, tried to get an anti-doping doctor fired in 2005, and told an ex-teammate who testified two years ago, "I’m going to make your life a living…hell."

    3. Was Armstrong, as the USADA report found, a mastermind of a sophisticated doping program who strong-armed other riders on the U.S. Postal Service team into juicing? In July 2010, Armstrong bristled at the suggestion he was a pusher. "There was absolutely no way I forced people, encouraged people, told people, helped people, facilitated," he said. "Absolutely not."

    4. Will Armstrong give authorities any information he might have about others involved with doping? His friend, the Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, who has been banned by the USADA for life, claimed as recently as last month that he never saw Armstrong dope. Last week, the head of Switzerland's anti-doping laboratory denied the agency’s claims of helping Armstrong.  And there is an active investigation into Armstrong’s payments to the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body.

    5. Will Armstrong pay the price? The cyclist won more than $3 million in prize money with his seven Tour de France wins, plus $7.5 million in bonuses from the owner of the team. He's been asked to return both. The Sunday Times of London is suing him for $1.5 million over a libel settlement he scored in 2004.

    6. Why now? Armstrong has never been anything but belligerent when faced with evidence of doping. Even after he was stripped of his Tour de France titles, he tweeted a photo of himself relaxing on a sofa below the framed yellow jerseys from those wins -- interpreted by many as a defiant and arrogant gesture. So if he reverses course now, what does he hope to gain? Is he bucking for reinstatement one day, preparing to launch a new athletic career, or is he actually sorry?