The New York Times has reported that Federal authorities are issuing grand jury subpoenas to witnesses in the case involving Floyd Landis's claims of systematic doping and knowledge of doping practices leveled at seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and several other cyclists and key figures in the sport.
The paper reports that several individuals briefed on the case revealed the information, but did so on the condition of anonymity so they would not be known to have discussed the federal investigation.
The grand jury subpoenas are seen as the next big step in moving forward with the investigation, and demonstrate just how seriously Landis's allegations are being taken.
Landis originally communicated with the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA), USA Cycling and the UCI, and provided details of what he described as systematic doping practices in the US Postal Service Team where he was a teammate of Armstrong. He admitted doping for much of his career after years of denial, and also pointed the finger at former teammates and management, and extended the allegations to his former Phonak team.
Most of the public statements released by the accused categorically deny Landis's statements, and believe that their accuser has no credibility. However, the Garmin-Transitions team, where former US Postal riders David Zabriskie and Matthew White are employed, have only said that they encourage that the truth be told, whatever the truth may be.
The claims were immediately dismissed by the UCI, but the USADA and WADA took the allegations more seriously, and it has since snowballed into to a federal investigation led by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) special agent Jeff Novitzky. He previously worked on the BALCO case, which led to the imprisonment of track and field sprinter Marion Jones.
Late last month the World Anti-Doping Agency's director general David Howman said that he believed the Landis allegations have weight and will eventually yield results.
“I think we are very optimistic that this inquiry will be a fruitful one,” admitted Howman to the New York Times. “But this is going to take some time because we’re not really talking about a simple antidoping case here. Remember the BALCO case, how long that took? Well, we could be still talking about this one in 2016.”
Howman said last week that the accusations have now led to an inquiry which involves Interpol, and has led to co-operation with European anti-doping organisations.
“This investigation has been going on for many weeks and I think it is a significant inquiry,” he told AFP. “And it's one that might go on for many more weeks because it essentially started with a US inquiry and is spreading,” he explained.
“We've been persuading people to cooperate and think that would be helpful.”
Now that Interpol is involved, it could mean that the department of the French police (OCLAESP) [Central Office for the fight against environmental damage and for public health] investigation into the Astana team from last year's Tour de France could also be brought into the overall picture if it ends up having any merit.
It's not clear whether the grand jury subpoenas are for former US Postal riders George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton. Hincapie's attorney, Zia F. Modabber, confirmed that he has spoken to Novitsky, but no details of their conversation were given. Last week Hamilton told The Wall Street Journal that he had not yet spoken to Novitsky, but said he would give his full cooperation if he was subpoenaed.