Al Jazeera America is claiming that a source who spoke of doping in a 2015 documentary about performance enhancing drugs in the MLB was quarterback Peyton Manning.
In the 2015 documentary, ‘The Dark Side: Secrets of the Sports Dopers,’ Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman are among the names Manning insist used performance enhancing drugs along with him.
The players filed a defamation lawsuit against the former United States channel in January 2016.
At the time of its release, Manning called the documentary a ‘total fabrication.’
The documentary cited the word of Charlie Sly, who was said to be a pharmacist from the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana.
But Dr. Dale Guyer would soon deny that Sly was ever an employee at the company and the alleged pharmacist recanted his story.
Al Jazeera claimed that Peyton Manning was the source who shared which MLB players were using drugs in ‘The Dark Side: Secrets of the Sports Dopers’
At the time of its release, Manning called the documentary a ‘total fabrication’
Ryan Howard (left) and Ryan Zimmerman (right) – among two of the players mentioned – filed a defamation lawsuit against the former United States channel in January 2016
The lawsuit accuses Al Jazeera of using ‘patently unreliable sources’ including Sly along with Zimmerman denying the allegations of doping, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
Sly also sent in a written advisement that those statements attributed to him was false before the story was published.
The case moved forward in March 2017 after a federal judge rejected a motion to dismiss from Al Jazeera.
Over the last couple of months, litigation has been an intense battle as Gibson Dunn and David Wright Tremaine – the two law firms representing – argue over the handling of documents claimed as privileged.
Deborah Davies, a reporter from the documentary, contacted Manning’s CAA agent Tom Condon to get a comment on something said by Sly before the documentary was released.
The documentary cited the word of Charlie Sly, who was said to be a pharmacist from the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana
Deborah Davies, a reporter from the documentary, contacted Manning’s CAA agent Tom Condon to get a comment on something said by Sly before the documentary was released
Memorandums from Al Jazeera claim Sly said: ‘I did part of my training at the Guyer Institute which is like this anti-aging clinic in Indiana. [Peyton Manning] and his wife would come in after hours and get IVs and s***.
‘So one thing that Guyer does is he dispenses drugs out of his office, which physicians can do in the United States it’s just not very many of them do it.
‘And all the time we would be sending [wife] Ashley Manning drugs. Like growth hormone, all the time, everywhere, Florida. And it would never be under Peyton’s name, it would always be under her name. … We were sending it everywhere.’
Gibson Dunn attorney Ted Olson then was said to have reached out to Robert Corn-Revere of DWT – the firm that gives counsel to Al Jazeera – just nine days after Condon was contacted.
Dr. Dale Guyer would soon deny that Sly (pictured) was ever an employee at the company and the alleged pharmacist recanted his story
‘In their communications with DWT, the Mannings’ lawyers confirmed much of what Sly had said,’ court documents state.
But Al Jazeera’s court brief has more to say on Manning.
It states: ‘Plaintiffs contend that the Documentary should not have been broadcast because they have never used PES of any kind, and because, after learning his PES peddling was about to be aired, Sly created a short, homemade video in which he recanted every word he had ever said to Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter.
‘Sly’s recantation rang hollow. As explained in Defendants’ Motion to Compel against Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Sly’s last-minute denials followed a visit to his family’s home by investigators hired by lawyers for National Football League player Peyton Manning … which prompted Sly’s sister to call 911.
Peyton Manning, a five-time MVP and two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, was found to have ‘no credible evidence’ of HGH in his system in 2016 by the NFL
‘On the video, Sly appeared to be reading a statement that was prepared for him while sweating profusely, and his statements about Liam Collins’ character were clearly based on information that had been supplied to Sly. On top of that, the Mannings (through counsel) had already corroborated Sly’s most explosive claims, making his denials all the less believable.’
The channel hopes to prove it had no actual malice in its reporting and in order to do that, must procure documents from Manning’s lawyers.
His spokesperson released a statement that said: ‘Al Jazeera’s self-serving claim that Peyton Manning’s attorneys ‘confirmed’ Al Jazeera’s allegations about Peyton Manning is absolutely false’
‘Plaintiffs claim that Sly was the ‘single’ source and that Al Jazeera’s outside law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine ,served as a second or ‘corroborating source,’ ‘ adds Al Jazeera.
‘Although contradictory, both claims are false. First, DWT was retained long before any Al Jazeera reporter ever met Sly, to act as Al Jazeera’s pre-broadcast libel review counsel for the Documentary. DWT was not a ‘source’ for anything that appeared in the Documentary. And the Documentary did not rely on a single source.
‘The second, corroborating source for some of Sly’s statements was the Mannings, who voluntarily communicated facts to Al Jazeera through their lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.’
Peyton Manning, a five-time MVP and two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, was found to have ‘no credible evidence’ of HGH in his system in 2016 by the NFL.
His spokesperson released a statement that said: ‘Al Jazeera’s self-serving claim that Peyton Manning’s attorneys ‘confirmed’ Al Jazeera’s allegations about Peyton Manning is absolutely false. In fact, information was provided to Al Jazeera that confirmed the Al Jazeera allegations about Peyton Manning were unfounded. In addition, the sole source for Al Jazeera’s allegations has publicly recanted them. Moreover, the NFL conducted an extensive investigation of the claims raised in Al Jazeera’s programs and found no evidence to support them. This is a desperate move by Al Jazeera to distract the courts from its own wrongdoing.’