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Armstrong issues statement regarding new book
Published: Oct. 18, 2006
The following is a statement issued by Lance Armstrong on Thursday, October 18, 2006, regardingthe pending publication of "L.A. Officiel," by authors Pierre Ballesterand David Walsh.
Predictably, I will be the subject tomorrow of another baselessattack by another French book. The authors, David Walsh and Pierre Ballester,now issue a sequel to an earlier French book that was likewise foundedupon a demonstrably false string of sensational, untrue and fabricatedallegations. This latest attack will be no different than the first- a sensationalized attempt to cash in on my name and sully my reputationby people who have demonstrated a consistent failure to adhere to the mostbasic journalistic standards or ethics. For example, Walsh bolstered thefirst book’s most colorful accusations by knowingly using false, backdatedand manufactured diary entries and documents. He violated fundamentalprinciples by paying his sources for "information." He then compoundedhis unethical conduct by lying and denying those payments until confrontedwith irrefutable proof to the contrary.The "sequel" will once again be published only in France to hide fromlegal accountability. The allegations and sources in the second book arejust as baseless, unreliable and manufactured as they were in the firstbook. The first book was so unreliable and baseless that it was availableonly in France and rejected by all twenty-plus English language publishersto whom the book was pitched. Continuing a pattern of distortionand fabrication started in the first book, the new book takes cherry-pickedallegations and testimony from the losing side of a court case I won andattempts to portray them as facts.I responded in court to these allegations, most of which are made bya handful of grudge holders, axe grinders, and a so-called “expert” whosegraduate degree turned out to be by way of correspondence courses -- and I proved them false. I was awarded 7.5 Million dollars in actualand punitive damages by a professional panel of legal experts who receivedall the evidence and heard from all the “eyewitnesses”. Every allegationand witness was confronted thoroughly, lawfully and fairly. I was vindicatedyet again. I raced clean. I won clean. I am the mosttested athlete in the history of sports. I have defended myself and wonevery court case to prove I was clean. Yet another French book withbaseless, sensational and rejected allegations will not overcome the truth.
