Joe Tacopina, top lawyer for Alex Rodriguez during his appeal, wants MLB to publicly release testimony about whether or not Bud Selig knew that Anthony Bosch distributed banned substances to minors. A source said that MLB COO Rob Manfred testified that Major League Baseball wasn't concerned with who Bosch was distributing PEDs to outside of those that were implicated in the Biogenesis scandal.
"While Mr. Manfred has violated the confidentiality requirements of the collective bargaining agreement by making reference to his testimony, we choose to live up to our obligations," Joseph Tacopina, one of Rodriguez's lawyers, said in a statement Sunday. "However, Mr. Manfred knows that he has not accurately described his testimony. We therefore call on him to put forward his full testimony at the hearing about his and commissioner Selig's knowledge of, and relative regard for, Mr. Bosch's dealing performance enhancing drugs to minors at the time MLB struck its cooperation and indemnity deal with Mr. Bosch."
I'm not entirely sure what this could do for A-Rod's side whether they knew or not, but perhaps their goal is to make MLB look as sleazy as possible. Proving that they knew Bosch was dealing to High Schoolers while they worked with him could make MLB look pretty bad. All Tacopina has to do is damage the respectability of Major League Baseball and the legitimacy of the 211-game suspension could start to fade.
Meanwhile, Manfred blamed A-Rod's side for releasing information about the hearing, which could have included the nature Manfred's testimony where he admitted that MLB's investigators paid for evidence.
"There have been numerous and ongoing leaks from Mr. Tacopina and other members of the Rodriguez camp," he said. "We have made limited responses to correct the inaccuracies that have been put out by those associated with Mr. Rodriguez. It is ironic that Mr. Tacopina would have the temerity to complain about breaches of the confidentiality agreement."
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