Feds say Lance Armstrong is a liar

The federal government is accusing former cyclist Lance Armstrong of being a calculating liar and manipulator no matter what the circumstance.

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It sounds sort of more like a strange tabloid cover of feuding celebrities than an actual accusation from our government to an athlete, but that’s what we have here. In new court documents that were filed on Friday, the Feds described Armstrong as an “unreliable source of information,” according to a story by USA Today. They said that, despite his various admissions on doping, he’s carefully calculated them to keep from revealing the entire truth and thus keep his web of deception intact.

The Feds also referred to a recent car accident Armstrong was involved in in Aspen, saying that he even hid the truth about that. In other words, he hasn’t changed since he came out about the doping on Oprah Winfrey’s show. However, if what the Feds are saying is true, Armstrong’s confession was just a way to divert attention from finding the whole truth.

The Feds said exactly that in the new documents, saying that his admissions have not been even close to extensive. Rather, he selected certain favorable media outlet to which he admitted carefully crafted truths. However, he’s continued to hide what are considered “essential facts” to the doping scandal, such as the extent of it, who helped him do it, where the drugs came from and how he was able to conceal it for as long as he did.

Eliot Peters, Armstrong’s attorney, attempted to rebut the accusations, saying that the Feds were just going in on character assassination to prop up their lawsuit. Meanwhile, the government is making these accusations partially to acquire the deposition of Armstrong’s girlfriend, Anna Hansen. They issued a subpoena to get her in, but Armstrong’s defense is trying to get the court to deny it, saying that the Feds just want to harass her and that she knows nothing about the case.

Obviously the government has a different opinion, but you do have to wonder just how far Armstrong’s lies would have stretched. Did he really give her enough details about his doping to help the government in their case? After all, the more people that know a secret, the more likely it is to come out and Armstrong hid his doping for a long time. Part of the interest the government has in Hansen simply that they do not believe Armstrong’s testimony as he’s already proven himself to be a calculating liar.

Armstrong was immediately hit with lawsuits after he confessed his doping, or part of it anyway, in 2013. The suit by the government is under the False Claims Act, saying that his false statements helped him get rich at the government’s expense.

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