Roger Clemens asked a U.S. judge to deny former trainer Brian McNamee immunity from a slander lawsuit over McNamee's claims that Clemens used performance- enhancing drugs.

Clemens has sued McNamee claiming that McNamee's comments to former Sen. George P. Mitchell, who was probing drug use at the request of Major League Baseball, ruined Clemens's reputation and may cost him election to the sport's Hall of Fame.

Clemens's lawyers told U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison that shielding McNamee's statements from civil liability would stretch the concept of immunity beyond its intended purpose of protecting witnesses who give information to the government. McNamee's lawyers said he deserves immunity because federal agents threatened him with prosecution unless he told the Mitchell panel what he'd already told them about Clemens and other ballplayers.

"Mr. Mitchell was a private individual doing a private investigation for a private client," Lara Hollingsworth told Ellison at a hearing in Houston federal court today. "Just because prosecutors were sitting in the back of the same room doesn't change the nature of that conversation."

Ellison said he was weighing the matter carefully because the issue has the potential to shape the law in other cases. "Whenever you can say something and not have to answer for it, that's dangerous," Ellison told the lawyers.

Mitchell Report

Clemens, 46, was named in December as a steroid user in a report issued by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitchell. Clemens was listed after McNamee told investigators he injected Clemens with steroids and human-growth hormone multiple times from 1998 to 2001.

Until McNamee's claims surfaced, Clemens was considered a safe bet for election to Baseball's Hall of Fame on the basis of his seven Cy Young awards, the sport's highest pitching honor.

Clemens denies using performance-enhancing drugs and has asked a jury in his hometown of Houston to decide whether he or McNamee is telling the truth. Clemens wants jurors to award damages if they find McNamee's statements harmed Clemens's reputation.

Clemens originally sued McNamee for defamation in January, shortly before both men testified before a Congressional committee investigating steroid abuse by professional athletes. McNamee testified Feb. 13 that he had injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs more than 20 times. Clemens, who testified the same day, denied it.

Agreement on Coercion

McNamee's lawyer Richard Emery said both sides agree prosecutors pressured the trainer to talk to the Mitchell panel. Clemens says McNamee "was coerced to lie; we disagree and say he was coerced to tell the truth," Emery told Ellison. "But there's no disagreement about the coercion."

Clemens has also sued McNamee for repeating his allegations to a sports publication's Web site and to Clemens's friend and teammate Andy Pettitte.

McNamee's lawyers told Ellison it isn't fair to make the trainer, who has limited financial resources, defend himself in Texas, where Clemens lives and has substantial business interests. They have urged Ellison to try the case in New York, where McNamee lives.

"McNamee did business in this state, a lot of it," Clemens's lawyer Joe Roden told Ellison, citing 38 training trips McNamee made to Texas while Clemens and Pettitte were still clients. "Is it fair to force him to defend himself in Texas? If he's down here all the time, doing business and making money, then it seems more fair."

Ellison told the lawyers he would rule "as quickly as I possibly can' on whether the suit can proceed and in what city it should be tried.

The case is Clemens v. McNamee, 4:08-cv-00471, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).