<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Roger Clemens emerged from his five-hour deposition with congressional investigators on Tuesday and pronounced - yet again - that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. "I just want to thank the committee, the staff that I just met with. They were very courteous," said Clemens, looking resolute after his lengthy deposition. "It was great to be able to tell them what I've been saying all along, that I've never used steroids or growth hormone." The Rocket is expected to return to the same room in the Rayburn Building next week, this time in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has scheduled a Feb.13 hearing on the challenges the seven-time Cy Young Award winner has raised about former Sen. George Mitchell's report on steroids in baseball. "I look forward to being here, I guess in this room, at the hearing next week," said Clemens, before boarding an elevator with an entourage that included lawyers Rusty Hardin and Lanny Breuer. Committee aides declined to discuss what was said during the five-hour deposition, but Breuer told the Daily News that his client "answered evey question posed to him" and felt the proceeding was "very fair." Clemens has repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs since he was identified as a steroid cheat in the Mitchell Report, but yesterday's statements raised the stakes significantly for the 354-game winner. Now that denial is part of the committee's official record, and if investigators uncover evidence that contradicts Clemens' testimony, chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) could refer the pitcher to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. Clemens was the fourth person to be interviewed by congressional investigators preparing for next week's hearing. Next up is former Yankee trainer Brian McNamee, who told Mitchell that he injected Clemens 16 times with steroids and human growth hormone and provided performance-enhancing drugs to Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, Clemens' former teammates. "We're not going to say anything right now," McNamee's attorney, Richard Emery, told the Daily News. Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee shortly after the Mitchell Report's release, and his legal team has tried to raise questions about the Breezy Point resident's credibility and integrity, especially about his role in an alleged sexual assault at the Yankees' St. Petersburg, Fla., hotel in 2001.</div> Source: New York Daily News
