OnTheIce OnTheIce:
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
Did I ever say he was "guilty"?
I may have infered it but I never came out and said it like you claim. But if you get called up in front of the US anti doping agency chances are they've done their homework and you're probably guilty.
If the case was so iron-clad, why the Federal Prosecutors drop the criminal case, even after close-door Grand Jury testimony? It now rolls into a doping conspiracy "charge" with an organization that has no authority
The USDA really have no jurisdiction to do anything but ASK he be banned from sports and ASK that he be stripped of his medals.
In the end, he's already guilty in the eyes of the public. No trial or hearing is necessary. The majority, including you, think he's guilty anyways.
Maybe the Federal Gov't has become gunshy about trying celeb athletes after losing the Bonds Case, the Clemens case and half the 1988 US Olympic Team cases.
The federal Prosecutors probably dropped the investigation because it couldn't conclusively be proven that he did anything illegal. Hell if he was juicing for the Tour De France it would have been in a foreign country and out of their juristiction anyway. The only reason he got called up on the carpet by the justice department, is for their own self aggrandizing grandstanding.
But rightly or wrongly the American Anti Doping agency has no restraints like ensuring his actions were by definition "legal":
$1:
"Unlike the U.S. attorney, USADA's job is to protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws," the group said. "Our investigation into doping in the sport of cycling is continuing and we look forward to obtaining the information developed during the federal investigation."
But you are right. He's been found guilty in the court of public opinion which is wrong, just like it was wrong for the public to find people who to this day maintain their innocence like Barry Bonds, Carl Lewis and Roger Clemens, guilty.
CKA Elite 
