- Although I had a blind copy on my email to you, I only copied Alan Jones, Warwick Hadfield, Greg Ritchie and Graham Cornes. I had previously discussed my concern about what Samantha did to Dr Reid with them. I did not ‘out her’ to any of the other addressees to my original email to Ian. I am still disturbed at what she did, but, like you with me, wish her no harm.
- I appreciate your calm response to my aggressive response to you. Of course, I shall honour your request to remove you from my email list. However, as you have raised some unfair allegations about me and are still in the dark about what happened, I think I am entitled to respond to you one last time with the belief that you would want to be enlightened.
- This is probably the biggest story in Australian sporting history because of the number of crooked officials and the number of people covering up the corruption. I had no interest in being associated with it.
- For the first six months, I sent everything exclusively to Mark Robinson. Each time, I gave him ten days to use any fact, opinion or any sentence from it as his own. He didn’t use anything.
- After the ten days, I then distributed each piece to a number of journalists. On 4 October 2013, Adam Shand, who was filling in for Chip, quoted one sentence in The Australian.
- Later on, Mark Robinson did an incredibly soft puff piece with Demetriou. I took him to task in a polite personal email. Mark told me in writing that he was under strict instructions from his editor and that I should go and fuck myself. I told him he was silly to ‘dob-in’ his editor to me because I could have outed his editor, which could have resulted in Mark’s sacking.
- This will be my last email to you. I also feel compelled to write to you for the last time to resolve the mystery that has surely been keeping you awake at night. I hope you pay me the courtesy of reading this whole document.
Item (Tim Lane) 1: “First, you are demonstrably wrong in your claim that I ‘never saw the need to address one mistake’ re your work on the so-called Essendon saga. I emailed you on 4 December 2014 regarding what I felt were wild claims about the AFL, and I found your response at that time sufficiently unsatisfactory so as not to bother thereafter.”
My Comment:
- For some inexplicable reason, I can’t find the chain of emails involving your 4 December 2014 email. I thought I had been meticulous in keeping every email sent and received on the saga. I have 152 individual email folders but no folder for your email. I do have a folder for all your newspaper articles. Would you please send me that email chain?
Item (Tim Lane) 2: “Second, as for me being an AFL lackey, have a listen to the 2016 interview (in its entirety, as the important part comes late) I’ve attached. As you will realise when you hear my questioning of McLachlan, your judgements and words are sometimes reckless and wrong.”
My Comment:
- I have heard the interview in full and I have heard McLachlan smash you immediately afterwards at SEN, I think. I was delighted with your McLachlan interview and remember writing to a couple of colleagues that you were the last bastion of independent journalism in Victoria. That is why I continued to send you information. Sadly, you became Rip van Winkle.
- I have read every document, every piece of paper generated by, and sent to, the Essendon solicitor Tony Hargreaves with respect to what transpired between his appointment in the week beginning 4 February 2013 and the notification of the Appeal failure to CAS. The documents covered all interviews, all texts messages, all correspondence between the various organisations and transcripts of all court cases.
- Essendon hadn’t heard of Hargreaves before the 4 February 2013. He was an associate of McLachlan’s and was hired by Evans/Robson at McLachlan’s insistence. Surely that was worth at least a couple of lines somewhere?
- And let’s not forget that Liz Larkin was appointed by Essendon on Demetriou’s urging/demand on the weekend of 2-3 February 2013, before Evans’ claims there was an issue. On Tuesday 5 February 2013, McLachlan and Clothier told Hird the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) had irrefutable evidence that the players had taken a banned substance [Thymosin Beta-4]. McLachlan, Evans and Lukin stood over Hird and forced him to take full responsibility.
- While we are at it, let’s not forget that on Friday 1 February the AFL and ASADA agreed to undertake a joint investigation. Why then didn’t a single journalist out Demetriou, McLachlan and Evans for lying when they said Essendon self-reported on Tuesday 5 February 2013? Clearly, the lie was an attempt to get Essendon a reduced penalty for its players taking banned substances.
- I can’t write prose to save myself, yet, I have risked humiliating myself by distributing close to two million words with poor grammar. Jack Rush QC is the only one who has attempted to take issue with a fact. In all modesty, I don’t think he will ever take me on again. I am quite happy to share his letter and my response if you really want to know the truth.
- I am a fanatical Swans supporter (because of Peter Bedford) but still have difficulty remembering they are boundary lines and not side lines; umpires and not referees. My limited understanding is teams often put a tagger on the opposition’s most destructive player in order to take him out of the game. It’s incomprehensible that the AFL, ASADA, CAS, WADA or a newspaper hasn’t dissected a single article of mine in order to take me out of the game.
- I have publicly called the former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court James Spigelman and his two fellow ‘judges’ arguably corrupt, incompetent and biased. Through a letter written by my QC, (a retired Supreme Court judge) but signed by me, I have also made the following allegations (see the attached letter to the Police Commissioner)
- The AFL conspired with ASADA, the Essendon board (represented by Chairman David Evans and Chief Executive Ian Robson) and the Federal government, on 9 February 2013 to fix the result of the investigation before the first witness was interviewed.
(A POSSIBLE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY) - The Essendon board endorsed the agreement reached by the AFL, ASADA and the Gillard government.
(A POSSIBLE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY) - The action of AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou continually implying in the media that Essendon and Hird were guilty.
(A POSSIBLE BREACH OF THEIR RIGHT TO PROCEDURAL FAIRNESS) - The AFL briefed the proposed jury (the AFL Commissioners) on the evidence before the investigation was completed.
(A POSSIBLE SUBORNING OF DECISION MAKERS AND INTERFERING WITH THE PROCESS OF JUSTICE) - The AFL informed the jury before the investigation was completed that the Essendon Football Club, James Hird, Danny Corcoran and Mark Thompson were guilty.
(A POSSIBLE SUBORNING OF DECISION MAKERS, INTERFERING WITH THE PROCESS OF JUSTICE AND PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - The AFL informed the jury before the investigation was completed what some of the penalties would be.
(A POSSIBLE PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - The AFL bullied and blackmailed the Essendon Football Club, James Hird, Danny Corcoran and Mark Thompson to accept the penalties before charges were laid.
(A POSSIBLE CRIMINAL DURESS TO PERVERT THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - The Essendon board agreed to the fraud in order to mitigate the threat of more severe penalties.
(A POSSIBLE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY) - ASADA changed evidence; omitted evidence; and fabricated evidence to help the AFL create a case against Essendon, Hird, Corcoran and Thompson.
(A POSSIBLE PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE AND PERJURY) - The AFL denied Hird procedural fairness by wanting him stood aside as coach before he was even interviewed.
(A POSSIBLE INTERFERING IN THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - At the AFL’s behest, on 25 June 2013, David Evans asked James Hird if he would agree to be suspended and Essendon be banned from playing in the finals-series.
(A POSSIBLE INTERFERING IN THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - On separate occasions, deputy AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan (26 June 2013) and Andrew Demetriou (24 July 2013) asked Ms Andruska to omit information from the interim report. Those omissions may have contributed to the AFL being able to defraud Essendon of $2 million.
(A POSSIBLE INTERFERING IN THE COURSE OF JUSTICE AND CONSPIRACY TO PERVERT THE COURSE OF JUSTICE) - The AFL asked ASADA to include things in the interim report in order to prove guilt. This contributed to the AFL defrauding Essendon of $2 million.
(A POSSIBLE CONSPIRACY AND PERJURY) - ASADA chief investigator John Nolan tried to doctor the injection figures on 15 July 2013, in order to build the case against Essendon.
(A POSSIBLE ATTEMPTED FORGERY AND CONSPIRACY)
Item (Tim Lane) 3: “My view of your copious work on the Essendon story is that you have accused all manner of people of corruption of process and failure of integrity (the AFL, ASADA, WADA, the CAS, state and federal governments, Victoria Police, endless individuals within these institutions, not to mention a long list of media employees, and I’m sure I’m leaving many out) and yet you’ve never managed to produce the links in the chain to make sense of your global conspiracy theory.”
My Comment
I never alleged that there was a global conspiracy. There were a number of separate collusions independent of each other:
Collusion 1: AFL, Essendon board, ASADA senior staff minus CEO Aurora Andruska, Prime Minister Gillard (represented by Richard Eccles).
Thursday 31 January 2013: The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) convinced Demetriou, McLachlan, Clothier and Andruska that Essendon players had taken a banned substance. NB Sadly, at this point, the ACC only had information, not evidence.
As we speak, there is no evidence Dank ever took possession of Thymosin Beta-4 – a claim I have often made to the world. The WADA lawyers made the claim and former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court James Spigelman made probably his biggest mistake ever and agreed with them but there was no evidence to support the lie. No invoices from the supplier (Alavi); no dispatches from the compounding pharmacist; no payments by Essendon or Dank or his companies; no record of deliveries by the compounding pharmacists’ contractor; no changes in the company’s stock records; and, no allegations by Alavi or his colleague Gianni Giavanni that it was delivered.
Friday 1 February 2013: Demetriou and McLachlan convinced Evans and Robson that the players were administered a banned substance.
The matter, the players taking banned substances, involved a number of issues:
- Would the club be able to field a team if all 46 players were found guilty of being administered a banned substance? Answer: NO.
- If there were only eight matches a weekend instead of nine, would the AFL have to refund Fox and Channel 7 about $100 million? Answer: According to the top Fox executive at the time Rod Law, YES.
- Who was/were the employer(s)? Answer: As the players, AFL Commission and Essendon board signed a tripartite employment agreement that meant the AFL Commission and Essendon board were the employers.
- Did the employers fulfil their responsibilities set out in the employment contract with the players? Answer: NO. They breached clauses 7.3 and 12.0 of the employment contract.
- Did the employers (the AFL & EFC board) fulfil their responsibilities set out in the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act? Answer: NO. They breached clauses 21, 22, 23 and 35.
- Which official was responsible for the supplement programme? Answer: Paul Hamilton in his capacity as head of the football department and in his capacity as a member of the executive of EFC.
- Which Essendon officials/players failed to fulfil their responsibilities? Answer: Paul Hamilton in his capacity as head of the football department. Dean Robinson and Stephen Dank because they did not receive permission from Dr Reid to administer many of the substances. Ian Robson for not ensuring that the players complied with clause 7.4 of the AFL Anti-Doping Code. The players for failing to comply with clause 7.4 of the AFL Anti-Doping Code. The Essendon board for not having conducted a risk audit. The Essendon human resources manager for not having conducted OH&S training and for failing to table a OH&S report at every board meeting.
- Which AFL officials failed to fulfil their responsibilities? Answer: Brett Clothier for failing to ever check that the Essendon players were complying with clause 7.4 of the AFL Anti-Doping Code. Demetriou and McLachlan for failing to follow-up their beliefs that the Essendon players were taking banned substances in 2012. Adrian Anderson for failing to follow up his 24 April 2012 memo to every club. He flagged a number of possible catastrophic scenarios emanating from sports scientists by-passing the doctors. I can send you a copy of that memo.
- Demetriou and McLachlan decided they needed to find a solution (a big fish) which would protect: the AFL Commission; the Essendon board; their nine matches a weekend; their TV revenue; the Essendon players; that would be accepted by the Gillard Government, the media and the public.
- The solution was to exonerate the players by fraudulently using the unusable World Anti-Doping Code’s (WADC) no fault clause, and hold the support staff, which was code for coach James Hird, responsible. It was reasoned that Hird was a big enough scalp to satisfy the Gillard Government, the media, the 17 clubs and the public.
Saturday 2 – Sunday 3 February 2013: Demetriou convinced Evans to employ Demetriou’s crisis manager Liz Lukin to manage the fallout and advise Essendon.
Tuesday 5 February 2013: McLachlan, Lukin and Evans force/badged Hird to accept full responsibility.
Thursday 7 February 2013: Jason Clare (Justice Minister), Kate Lundy (Sport Minister), John Lawler (ACC CEO) and five sport CEOs – blackest day in Australian sport.
Saturday 9 February 2013: Meeting at ASADA headquarters. Gillard’s rep Richard Eccles asks McLachlan what he wants. McLachlan says players exonerated on no fault clause; Essendon penalised; support staff, which was code for Hird, held responsible. Eccles, five ASADA senior staff and Evans and Robson agree. Andruska’s opposed the agreement on the basis that only one person had been exonerated using that clause. A hockey player had been given a banned substance without her permission while unconscious on the operating table. Clause 5.3c (i-vi) of the Code spells out the athletes’ obligations. Those obligations negated the use of the no fault clause.
There were three key outcomes from this meeting, all of which came to fruition in August 2013.
- The employers, the AFL Commissioners and the Essendon board, were off-the-hook, despite clauses 21, 22, 23 and 35 of the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act stating that they are responsible for the health and safety of employees.
- The result of the investigation was decided four days before the first person was interviewed. That’s match fixing in my view, and in Alan Jones, Graham Richardson and Warwick Hadfield’s view (Richo and Jones Sky News 8 or 9 December 2016. A Pakistani bowler went to gaol for bowling a no ball at a prescribed time.
- Hird was the fall guy and was to be suspended
February 19 2013: ASADA informed the Essendon players in writing that they would be exonerated under the no fault clause. Andruska opposed the exoneration, as did ASADA’s general counsel of many years John Marshall. He resigned when ASADA wouldn’t rescind the exoneration.
February, March, April, May, June and July 2013: Demetriou told Neil Mitchell every Friday, I think, that he had seen the evidence and Essendon and Hird were guilty and wouldn’t get a soft landing but wouldn’t be prevented from playing in the finals. Demetriou was to sit on the jury if charges were laid against Hird and Essendon. Why was he given the evidence? Why did he pronounce guilt before the players were interviewed and before the investigation was completed? Why didn’t Essendon solicitor Tony Hargreaves take Demetriou and McLachlan to task for pronouncing guilt before charges were laid?
Early March 2013: According to an Essendon board member, who phoned me numerous times and emailed me seeking information denied them by Evans and Robson, the Essendon board endorsed the agreement reached by Eccles, ASADA, McLachlan, Evans, Robson and ASADA on Saturday 9 February 2013.
March 11 2013: Evans phoned Hird at Essendon airport and told him to tell the players that they had been exonerated. Another example of the conspiracy between ASADA, the AFL, Gillard and the Essendon board. Hird, Robinson, Dank, Hamilton and the players hadn’t been interviewed at this stage. Chip was the only journalist who mentioned it. I wrote about a long time before Chip.
April 9 or 10 2013: Allegedly, Liz Lukin told Caroline Wilson that Hird had resigned. I subsequently interviewed Hird’s lawyer Tony Nolan and he told me in a meeting on 9 or 10 April with Hird, Tania and Lukin that he told Hird never to resign and Hird agreed with him.
April 13 2013: Bill Kelty told Hird that in a conference call, the AFL Commissioners had decided Hird was guilty and that Essendon had to sack him. NB Neither Hird nor the players had been interviewed at this point. Dean Robinson had been interviewed three times by this stage. None of his evidence of over 800 pages fingered Hird.
May 6 2013: Switkowski delivered his 21-page report to the AFL and Essendon board. I have a copy. He released a 13-page report to the world. Despite pleas, Hird has never been given the 21-page report. It’s joke. He allegedly investigated governance issues at Essendon without mentioning the Victorian OH&S Act. Although the AFL was a joint employer, he didn’t mention the AFL in either report. He only interviewed three players. He didn’t interview Dank or Robinson. He excused Robson’s failures on the grounds he was focussed on moving from Windy Hill to Tullamarine.
Early May 2013: ASADA’s investigator told the players in a briefing that Hird’s interview was exemplary and he would be delighted if they were all as forthcoming and honest as Hird. Shamefully, Caroline Wilson wrote an article quoting unnamed sources very close to the investigation doubting Hird’s evidence.
June 2013: McLachlan told Eccles and ASADA that Essendon would be banned from the Finals-Series. Unconscionably, the AFL continued to sell special tickets to Essendon members for the finals-series. NB I am sure you remember the Russell Island fraud of the early 1970s. The developers were selling land that went under at high tide.
June 2013: In front of Dr Reid, Evans told Hird the AFL wanted him to accept at least a six-month suspension. NB The investigation hadn’t been completed.
June/July: Demetriou and McLachlan insisted that ASADA not only take certain information out of the interim report, but that it included certain information.
August 1 2013: ASADA released its Interim Report. I identified 319 major errors/fabrication/changing of evidence and 379 minor errors in a 104-page dissection.
August 13 2013: The AFL broke its promise not to quote from the interim report. Andrew Dillon released to the public a 34-page charge sheet containing 132 clauses and a number of sub points. The charge sheet was a cut and paste job from the interim report. To his lasting shame, Dillon charged Hird with allowing the players to be administered banned substances (plural). The interim report specifically stated that it didn’t include any conclusions about drug taking. Dillion subsequently issued three more amended charge sheets and withdrew all but the last. The final charge sheet contained 17 charges and from memory they were human resource/occupational health and safety related. Fifteen were nonsense and two were very weak.
August 2013: The AFL defrauded Essendon members of $2 million plus and blackmailed Paul Little to ‘blackmail’/intimidate Hird to accept standing aside for 12 months.
August 2013: ASADA and the AFL had a huge falling out over Dillon quoting slabs from the interim report. In a number of letters, which I have, ASADA threatened to take the AFL to court.
THIS WAS THE END OF THE AFL/ASADA honeymoon. The AFL got everything McLachlan demanded on 9 February 2013 – players exonerated; a big fish (James Hird) being held responsible; Essendon members punished; the AFL Commission and the Essendon board untouched; nine games a weekend.
NB Contrary to your claim against me, the AFL and Demetriou were no longer involved and were not involved in any future shenanigans
PERIOD 2
March 4 2014: ASADA’s Aaron Walker delivered his final investigation report. Inter alia, at pages 27 or 28 or 29 he said, ASADA had a near insurmountable task to make a case against 28 of the 34 players and a weak case against the other six. He implied that the lawyers might be able to dredge up a case with the use of magic. I suspect I am one of a handful of people who has a copy of Walker’s Final investigation Report. It totals 141 pages. I am happy to send you a copy.
For all intents and purposes Andruska thought the matter was at an end.
May 2014: Ben McDevitt replaced Andruska as ASADA CEO. He was gung ho. He was acting on his own volition. He thought he could do something that hadn’t been done for 2000 years. He thought he could turn water into wine. There was no conspiracy. ASADA was acting on its own. WADA, CAS, the AFL and Federal Government weren’t involved.
March 31 2015: The AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal found the 34 players not guilty.
END OF PERIOD 2. There was no global conspiracy at that point. I never claimed there was.
PERIOD 3:
Xavier Campbell and a government insider told me REDACTED was extremely disappointed and embarrassed that a home town tribunal (the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal) had exonerated the players. He believed the world would draw parallels with the Russians exonerating its athletes. According to Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell, REDACTED pressured WADA to appeal the ban. McDevitt also pressured sports minister Sussan Ley to help fund WADA’s appeal.
PERIOD 4: The shenanigans re-start with different participants.
- WADA secretary general David Howman gave a journalist Samantha Lane an interview just before the CAS hearing. He implied a possible doomsday scenario if the players were found not guilty. He claimed the AFL tribunal members set the bar too high for ‘comfortably satisfied’ and unless the CAS members found the players guilty, drug taking would become rampant. I never suggested that Howman spoke to the three judges but his attempts to influence the judges so close to the hearing should have resulted in his sacking. Unbelievably, he got on his soap box again during the deliberations and demanded a guilty verdict. I can provide all the direct quotes if you want them.
- WADA selected Romano Subiotto as its ‘judge’. He presided in the recent Sun Yang case. It was the 132nd time he had participated in a CAS hearing.
- CAS’s mob selected Michael Beloff as its representative on the panel. It was his 168 appearance on a CAS panel. He was the number one anti-doping official at the London Olympics. He was the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) and International Athletics number one anti-doping official. Subiotto and Beloff are the only two judges to serve on over 100 CAS panels.
- James Spigelman was Essendon’s nominee. It was a split verdict. We don’t know who dissented.
- VIP: I have written to Spigelman, Beloff and Subiotto and told them they were arguably corrupt, biased and incompetent. I gave them about 40 pages of irrefutable proof. I copied WADA, CAS, Coates, Dick Pound, Sir Craig Reedie, you and half of parliament. I run all such letters passed my QC.
Item (Tim Lane) 4: “Yet, how you link Demetriou and co at the AFL with people as far afield as WADA in Montreal and New Zealand, English and Belgian QCs who couldn’t give a stuff about the AFL, and all manner of figures in between, remains – to me at least – a mystery.”
My Comment:
- This is an outrageous allegation. I have never linked Demetriou and co at the AFL with people as far afield as WADA in Montreal and New Zealand, English and Belgian QCs who couldn’t give a stuff about the AFL, and all manner of figures in between.” This is almost on a par with what Samantha did in her 27 May piece. I only linked Demetriou and the AFL with ASADA, the Gillard Government and the Essendon board.
- The foregoing should have solved the mystery for you Tim. Xavier Campbell’s comments about REDACTED linked WADA with the CAS.
- Incidentally, I have been told by an Essendon board member and a journalist that the Essendon executive has read all my stuff and agreed that I had made the case and that the players were not guilty. I was also told that the board won’t upset the AFL and pursue it. The gutless Essendon board believes it is up to the AFL Players Association and/or an independent journalist to expose the corruption. Tim, you took the then ABC forensic style to 3AW. Surely, you would like to relive your good days. What are you waiting for?
Item (Tim Lane) 5: “Third, in doing a five-minute search for the email I sent you in 2014, I also found an email from early-2015 sent to you by Daniel Harford (a respected colleague of mine on Macquarie Radio). Here’s part of what he expressed: I noticed that you have included your whole email list on your response to my polite, respectful and direct request to be taken off this distribution. I seem to recall you savaging Peter Blunden for “reply all-ing” a response that he made to one of your mind-numbing diatribes. When it suits though, you are all for it?”
My Comment:
Tim, you have lost the plot. You are questioning the merit of my 15,000 hours of work with no substantiation. Harford’s quote about me “mind-numbing diatribes” is not evidence that my work lacks substance. At worst, it proves I am a hypocritical arsehole. However, if you remember the context, I was entitled to copy everyone. Without checking the exact words Harford used, he implied I was mentally retarded. In my view, I think I was entitled to inform his copyists that not only was I mentally okay, but what action I would take if he didn’t apologise. Harford apologised.
Item (Tim Lane) 6: “We’re up to three strikes, and that’s from just five minutes sifting through my emails and files. In my 2014 email (mentioned at the top), I referred to a wild claim that ‘serves to undermine some of your more cogent arguments’. Unfortunately, I see that as a recurring theme.”
My Comment:
Tim, you haven’t identified one fact I have got wrong. You haven’t substantiated a single point. I have no idea what you mean when you say you “referred to a wild claim that ‘serves to undermine some of your more cogent arguments’. Unfortunately, I see that as a recurring theme.”
Item (Tim Lane) 7: “If you are to serially attack journalists for sloppy work and worse, your work needs to be beyond reproach and, clearly, it’s not. All the deflection in the world (and you were an opening batsman) won’t explain away your excesses.”
My Comment:
- You say “your work needs to be beyond reproach and, clearly, it’s not.” What the hell does ‘CLEARLY’ mean?Your 4 December 2014 email, which I can’t put my hands on notwithstanding, Jack Rush QC is the only person who has questioned anything in the roughly two million words I have written. I have attached my response to him.
- Nick McKenzie’s duplicity did as much damage to the players as anyone. He interviewed Stephen Dank by telephone on 1 April 2013. The Age published his column on 11 April 2013. He used the name Thymosin twice. He did not use Thymosin Beta-4 once. In subsequent articles (4 July 2013 & 24 August 2013) when quoting from his 1 April 2013 interview with Dank, he substituted the prohibited substance Thymosin Beta-4 for the permitted Thymosin. Of great interest is why was ASADA CEO Aurora Andruska given a copy of the 1 April 2013 transcript on 4 April 2013. Surely, ASADA and the Age didn’t have a quid pro quo going!
- Not to be outdone in the grub stakes, Richard Baker sent ASADA an email in which he was basically testifying against the players. His sources were the transcript of the McKenzie-Dank 1 April 2013 interview and I think Alice in Wonderland. You guessed it, Baker quoted Dank’s off-the-record comments to McKenzie. And these two are supposed to be the best and most honest journalists in the country!
- I sat down about two years ago and jotted down off the top of my head in about 30 minutes over fifty scoops I had sent to journalists. None was used. The following are just a few examples of facts I have distributed that have never been used by a journalist:
- There is no evidence Dank or Essendon took possession of Thymosin Beta-4.
- The three ‘judges’, Beloff, Subiotto and Spigelman changed the evidence. Inter alia, they deleted the word Thymosin in a 12 January 2012 Dank text, and substituted it with a comma and then joined two of Dank’s texts together. The change and linking of the two texts enabled the ‘judges to claim Dank was ordering Thymosin Beta-4.
- ASADA’s chief investigator Aaron Walker changed the word Thymosin to Thymosin on 51 occasions in his affidavit.
- WADA’s American lawyers changed Thymosin to Thymosin Beta-4 on a number of occasions.
- Unbelievably, the WADA lawyers perjured themselves by changing the word Thymosin to Thymosin Beta-4 in their Appeal (against the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal not guilty decision) Document.
At a Senate Estimates hearing on 3 March 2016, ASADA CEO lied on a number of occasions.
Bruce Francis