Landis denies using stolen documents in his defense

American Floyd Landis denied allegations made by the head of the French anti-doping agency that he used documents which were stolen from the French laboratory in his 2006 defense against doping charges.

Landis appeared on CNN's Larry King Live television show on Thursday night for an interview after the French justice system issued a warrant for his arrest in connection to a computer hacking into the French anti-doping lab's system. 

Although Landis was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title he won after a positive doping test and subsequent appeals, the case has resurfaced in light of the new charges.

Landis denied allegations by French Anti-Doping Lab (AFLD) director Pierre Bordry that his defense team used improperly obtained documents during the trial relating to his appeal of the doping charges.

The lab's computer was infected with a "trojan horse" virus, and French authorities claim the virus was used by an external operator to obtain files from the lab pertaining to Landis' case. Those files were found on the computer of a French expatriate living in Morocco.

Bordry claimed that the IP address of the computer of Landis' coach Arnie Baker matched the IP address from an email which contained the virus. The pair were allegedly called to testify to the French court in the case, but failed to appear last summer.

When asked if he ever "tapped into a computer illegally", Landis responded, "I wouldn't know how to do that, first of all. But, secondly, there's been an assertion by the lab director, Mr. Bordry, that at some point in -- in these hearings, we somehow used some documents that we obtained in some other way in my defense. And that's just plain not true."

Landis said his team never used any document that wasn't provided to them directly from the lab. "From the outset of case, we spent hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars just trying to get access to the documents from this lab," he said.

During the interview, Landis reiterated that he had never been served the warrant nor had he be notified that it existed. He firmly denied both doping and hacking.

The AFLD declined to answer King's questions about the case. The show's host read a statement from the French Anti-Doping Lab (AFLD) on the air, "On November 7... 2006, AFLD filed a complaint for hacking into the computer system of the national anti-doping laboratory. The judge who's handling this complaint has summoned Floyd Landis, who, to this day, has not replied to him. AFLD has no comments on this case until a verdict has been reached."