Armstrong ordered to answer doping questions as legal case closes in

Lance Armstrong is under pressure to reveal more details about his doping past as legal cases against him gather pace.

According to the Associated Press news agency, a Texas judge has ordered Armstrong to provide documents and written answers to a series of questions by the end of September. The case could also reveal if and what Armstrong's former wife Kristin and UCI President Pat McQuaid knew about his doping.

The US-based news agency claims that Nebraska-based Acceptance Insurance Holding is seeking the information on Armstrong's doping as it tries to recover $3 million it paid Armstrong in bonuses between 1999 and 2001.

Armstrong's legal team is fighting the case but has so far been unable to stop the risk that the disgraced Texan could be forced to give sworn testimony about his doping. They have suggested that Acceptance Insurance Holding is engaged in a "harassing, malicious ... fishing expedition" intended to "make a spectacle of Armstrong's doping."

The case has been set for trial in April 2014.

Armstrong is under pressure to detail who helped him dope. Acceptance specifically asks for information on when and how Armstrong's closest friends, advisers, ex-wife and business partners learned of his doping.

The USADA reasoned decision included huge amounts of evidence about Armstrong's doping network, including some on the role of Kristin but Armstrong remained vague about details when he confessed to doping to Oprah Winfrey in January.

Armstrong is tied up in a series of legal battles. He recently settled with the Sunday Times for an undisclosed amount. US Federal prosecutors have joined a whistle-blower lawsuit that seeks to recover more than $30 million in sponsorship money paid to Armstrong by the U.S. Postal Service. SCA Promotions has sued Armstrong for $12 million it paid him in performance bonuses for victory at the Tour de France. A judge in California is also considering a class-action lawsuit by readers of his book 'It's Not About the Bike'.


 

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