( 4UMF NEWS ) Sheryl Crow Interviewed By Feds:
When the doper’s code of silence around Lance Armstrong cracked, Sheryl Crow was obliged to sing.
Crow, who was once engaged to the tarnished cyclist, provided information last year in a far-reaching federal investigation into the doping programs that fueled her former fiancé’s victorious Tour de France teams, the Daily News has learned.
Federal agents interviewed the Grammy-winning musician in late 2011, just before a grand jury probe into Armstrong and his associates abruptly ended without any criminal charges being handed up.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency banned Armstrong on Aug. 24 and stripped his Tour de France titles after Armstrong abandoned a legal challenge to doping charges the non-profit agency issued in June. According to USADA, more than 10 cyclists cooperated with its two-year probe of Armstrong’s teams, which paralleled the federal investigation.
Armstrong, now 40, has vowed he competed clean, but a tidal wave of inside information about doping conspiracies on his teams is now flooding into public view, testing the promise Armstrong issued last week in which he claimed he is finished answering questions about the matter.
Food and Drug Administration criminal investigator Jeff Novitzky, who helped lead the government’s investigation, declined to comment when asked about the feds’ interview with Crow. Lawyers for Armstrong did not respond to an email the Daily News sent Thursday afternoon seeking comment about Crow’s role in the investigation.
An attorney who advised the celebrated songwriter about cooperating with the investigation also declined to comment on the matter when the Daily News contacted him Thursday morning.
“I’m not going to comment one way or the other,” said the attorney, Jay Cooper, citing attorney-client privilege among the reasons he wouldn’t comment.
