Tag: steroids
Danziger Draws

Danziger Draws

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.

Donald Trump

Aggressive And Bizarre: Is Trump Losing Control On Steroid Treatment?

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Still suffering from an infection of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, President Donald Trump unleashed an extended and aggressive tirade on Twitter following a period of relative radio silence while he was hospitalized.

He seemed to have returned from Walter Reed Medical Center with a vengeance. His furious tweeting, often in all caps, targeted his favorite subjects, including the Russia investigation, the media, Hillary Clinton, and former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Clinic Operator Suspected Of Selling Steroids To Plead Guilty In October

Clinic Operator Suspected Of Selling Steroids To Plead Guilty In October

By Jay Weaver, The Miami Herald

MIAMI — Anthony Bosch, the South Florida clinic operator suspected of selling banned steroids to suspended Major League Baseball players, plans to plead guilty in October to illegally distributing the performance enhancement drugs.

“We’ve resolved the case,” Bosch’s defense attorney, Guy Lewis, told U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles on Wednesday in Miami federal court. “It’s going to be resolved with a (guilty) plea.”

Bosch, who initially pleaded not guilty after he surrendered last month, has signed a plea agreement admitting to his criminal activity at a Coral Gables, Florida, anti-aging clinic that allegedly sold testosterone to New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and other players. He was scheduled for trial on Monday, but the agreement precludes it.

Bosch said nothing during Wednesday’s pre-trial hearing. Afterward, Lewis declined to comment on why his client — a notorious figure in baseball — decided to change his plea to guilty.

Bosch, accused of selling more than 5,000 units of testosterone to both professional and high school ballplayers, faces up to 10 years in prison, according to the plea agreement. He has agreed to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. attorney’s office in the investigation, which could help him obtain a significantly lesser sentence.

Last month, Bosch and six other defendants were arrested on charges of conspiring to sell the illegal steroids — one year after more than a dozen Major League Baseball players were suspended in connection with the clinic probe, including Rodriguez. The arrests marked the climax of the biggest doping scandal in baseball history.

The six defendants, including Rodriguez’s cousin, are accused of conspiring with Bosch to distribute the steroids supplied by his clinic between 2008 and 2013. Bosch, who led some people to believe he was a licensed medical doctor, is the former owner of the Biogenesis of America clinic in Coral Gables.

In recently filed court papers, the U.S. attorney’s office revealed that 122 electronic surveillance recordings — audio and video — were made of Bosch and the other defendants during the federal investigation. It gained momentum early last year after the Miami New Times broke the story about Bosch’s alleged sale of steroids to Major League ballplayers and others.

None of Bosch’s customers have been charged in the federal case.

The federal investigation is shrouded in secrecy. Prosecutors Pat Sullivan and Sharad Motiani and defense attorneys Lewis and Susy Elena Ribero-Ayala have agreed that no evidence — including the names of customers — can be shared with outside parties, including Major League Baseball. The clinic’s customers also included Miami-Dade high school ballplayers.

Gayles, the federal judge, has granted a protective order restricting the sharing of the evidence.

Photo: Walter Michot/Miami Herald/MCT

Criminal Charges Filed In Baseball’s Biogenesis Steroid Scandal

Criminal Charges Filed In Baseball’s Biogenesis Steroid Scandal

By Julie K. Brown and Jay Weaver, The Miami Herald

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — A year to the day after 13 Major League Baseball players were suspended in the biggest doping scandal in baseball history, federal authorities on Tuesday charged a crew of seven with illegally providing them and others — including high school athletes — with steroids.

Among those charged was Anthony Bosch, 50, founder of the now-defunct Biogenesis anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables.

All seven were expected to have a first appearance in Miami federal court Tuesday afternoon before Magistrate Jonathan Goodman.

Bosch and his network are alleged to have provided performance-enhancing drugs to everyone from coaches to courtroom judges to some of the most high-profile superstars in baseball, including three-time American League Most Valuable Player Alex Rodriguez and former National League MVP Ryan Braun.

The charging documents do not identify the athletes by name, and none of them are accused of a crime. The Drug Enforcement Administration in South Florida and federal prosecutors, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael “Pat” Sullivan and Sharad Motiani, went after the drug suppliers, not the users.

Bosch and one other defendant were allowed to surrender voluntarily while other members of the supply and distribution network were rounded up and arrested. The two who surrendered have been cooperating with authorities and are expected to plead guilty.

The biggest name among the major league steroid users is Rodriguez. Raised in Miami and selected No. 1 in baseball’s amateur draft, the New York Yankee third baseman was on a fast track to baseball’s Hall of Fame when he became mired in the steroid scandal, a melodrama played out on the front and back pages of the city’s tabloids.

He and 12 others were suspended on Aug. 5, 2013, following an investigation by MLB investigators — many of them former law enforcement officers who went to such great lengths to nail Rodriquez that they purchased evidence that police now say they knew was stolen.

Some of those investigators were subsequently fired by MLB.

Ultimately, MLB officials convinced Bosch to cooperate with them, and he turned over a cache of material, including emails exchanged with Rodriquez that confirmed he and other ballplayers were doping in violation of the players’ labor contract.

In exchange, MLB promised to drop Bosch from a lawsuit they had filed against him and others connected to the clinic. They also agreed to pay him and talk to federal prosecutors on his behalf.

While the other suspended players accepted their 50-game bans, Rodriquez fought his 211-game suspension — lengthier because he was a repeat offender — until the end. He and his high-profile legal team claimed that MLB’s “illegal and unethical” behavior — allegedly including intimidating and seducing witnesses and impersonating law officers — tainted their case.

Earlier this year, Rodriquez lost his arbitration battle and began serving his suspension.

Rodriquez, 39, was baseball’s highest paid player at the time of his suspension — the career home run leader among active players, with a contract paying him $275 million over 10 years.

Although Rodriquez previously admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs in 2001-2003 when he played for the Texas Rangers, he has steadfastly denied that he bought banned substances from Bosch.

The scandal broke in January 2013 when the Miami New Times published an expose that detailed how Bosch, through his unlicensed clinic, was secretly dealing steroids to ballplayers and other sports figures.

One of his employees, Porter Fischer, went to the newspaper with documents he had taken from the clinic, including client lists and the amounts they had paid for the drugs. Fischer, the clinic’s former marketing director, wanted to get back at Bosch for stiffing him on a $4,000 loan.

Fischer’s documents then became the focus of everyone’s attention as MLB, the ballplayers, and even some of the drug suppliers tried to get their hands on them. At one point, MLB offered Fischer as much as $125,000 for records, but he refused.

Shortly thereafter, as Fischer made plans to transport the files to the state Department of Health, which investigates unlicensed healthcare facilities, his vehicle was broken into and the records stolen from his trunk.

In July 2013, the Miami Herald published a report that Bosch had also been providing minors with steroid “concoctions.” Fischer, in an interview, claimed that 16- and 17-year-old high school players were getting injections at the Coral Gables clinic, a clear violation of the law.

Up until then, no one from law enforcement had interviewed Fischer about the clinic’s activities, even though the case had received widespread international coverage.

After the Herald story, the feds convened a grand jury and subpoenaed Fischer and the balance of his Biogenesis files.

By then, MLB already had its hands on copies of the documents, allegedly paying $100,000 to a convicted bank robber who had acquired them illegally.

Boca Raton police, who were investigating the theft, eventually arrested the man.

Photo via WikiCommons

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