USADA calls for Armstrong lawsuit to be dismissed

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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has fired back in response to the lawsuit filed by Lance Armstrong on July 10. Late Thursday, USADA requested federal judge Sam Sparks of United States District Court dismiss Armstrong's lawsuit which claims that the Agency is acting outside its charter and that charges should be dropped, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.

In Thursday's motion, USADA argues 30 separate "unsupported factual statements" in Armstrong's refiled claim.

Among those is that Armstrong has argued in the past that USADA does have jurisdiction over him as an athlete. The Agency cites a draft of a letter from April 2005 where a lawyer for Armstrong said that the U.S. Olympic Committee "has given USADA full authority to execute a comprehensive national anti-doping program encompassing testing, adjudication, education, and research, and to develop programs, policies, and procedures in each of those areas." At the time, Armstrong was suing SCA Promotions which had refused to pay winning bonuses from the Tour de France due to allegations that he had doped.

As evidence, USADA has offered a signed affidavit from then general counsel and now CEO Travis Tygart which explains the Agency's processes, in a bid to prove that Armstrong "clearly understood he was subject to the USADA Protocol, including its results management and adjudication rules."

Tygart said in a statement released following the filing of the motion - "Were we not to bring this case, we would be complicit in covering up evidence of doping, and failing to do our job on behalf of those we are charged with protecting."

A hearing for the Armstrong case against USADA is set for August 10 and if dismissed, he will have three days in which he will have to decide whether to begin arbitration. Armstrong is facing a lifetime ban.