Attorneys for bicyclist Lance Armstrong have asked a federal judge to provide them with an edited version of a Justice Department response to their allegations of misconduct by prosecutors.
Earlier this week, DOJ officials filed a response to those allegations under seal, a move that Armstrong’s attorneys argue is “repugnant to our adversarial system of justice.”
But Justice officials argued that the allegations made by Armstrong pertain to matters before a federal grand jury.
In July, Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, accused DOJ officials of attempting to ruin his legacy by leaking details of a grand jury probe into doping allegations.
In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, John W. Keker, the star trial lawyer of Keker & Van Nest LLP, said that, “Someone in this district with regular access to grand jury information is routinely flouting the law requiring grand jury secrecy.”
DOJ officials filed their response this week, but would not provide Keker with a copy of their response. Armstrong’s attorneys said that DOJ officials had asked them to agree to the seal, and they refused. But DOJ officials then filed the sealed response anyway.
In their response to the prosecutors’ arguments, Armstrong’s attorneys called the DOJ move “disingenuous, troubling,” adding that Armstrong can’t even know what arguments are being made to justify the DOJ’s response. They argue they should be provided a version of the response that omits any material before the grand jury.
