"I'm not saying Sen. Mitchell's report is entirely wrong. I am saying Brian McNamee's statements about me are wrong," Clemens said. "Let me be clear: I have never taken steroids or HGH."
It is possible that Wednesday's hearing could be the end of the matter. The committee could also refer the matter to the Justice Department for a perjury investigation, or the department could initiate an investigation on its own.
Jeff Novitzky, the lead federal steroids investigator whose work led to perjury probes against all-time home-run leader Barry Bonds and former track star Marion Jones, sat in the second row at the hearing.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd would not comment on the hearing or a possible investigation.
Waxman and Davis each said he would consult the other before deciding whether to refer the case, although another committee member, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), said Waxman and Davis had indicated "they didn't see any referral coming."
Added Cummings: "We're closing the book. If anyone else like the Justice Department wants to do something, that's their business."
Rusty Hardin, an attorney for Clemens, said his client "certainly did not commit perjury. He told the truth."
Richard Emery, one of the attorneys for McNamee, said he expected the Justice Department to convene a grand jury to consider a perjury case against Clemens.
Waxman said he was surprised that the questioning splintered largely along partisan lines in a hearing advertised as the committee's final review of the Mitchell Report, but neither he nor Davis offered any explanation.
"The end result is that all the questions got asked," Davis said.
Those questions were prompted by McNamee's claims in the Mitchell Report -- amid a warning from government agents that he could face federal charges if he did not tell the truth. McNamee, 40, told former Sen. George J. Mitchell that he had injected Clemens with steroids and HGH, and Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, another former Clemens teammate, with HGH.
Clemens publicly denied McNamee's claims. After Pettitte publicly confirmed McNamee had injected him, Clemens said he had no idea Pettitte had used HGH and never had discussed it with him.
In depositions before the hearing, Pettitte and Knoblauch corroborated McNamee's statements about themselves. Pettitte also said he took HGH in 2004.
In a subsequent affidavit, Pettitte said Clemens "told me he had taken HGH" in a conversation in 1999 or 2000.
