Bonds didn’t know

SAN FRANCISCO – Barry Bonds testified to a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream given to him by a trainer who was indicted in a steroid-distribution ring, but said he didn’t know they were steroids, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today.

Bonds told the federal grand jury last year that Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, told him that the substances he used in 2003 were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Chronicle.

The substances Bonds described were similar to ones known as “the clear” and “the cream,” two steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab at the center of the steroid scandal.

Bonds’ attorney, Michael Rains, said the leak of grand jury testimony was an attempt to smear his client. Grand jury transcripts are sealed and the Chronicle did not say who showed them the documents.

“My view has always been this case has been the U.S. vs. Bonds, and I think the government has moved in certain ways in a concerted effort to indict my client,” Rains told the newspaper. “And I think their failure to indict him has resulted in their attempts to smear him publicly.”

Calls to Rains’ office from the Associated Press went unanswered Thursday night.

The Chronicle story is the latest development this week in the more than yearlong BALCO probe. On Thursday, the paper reported Yankees slugger Jason Giambi told the grand jury he injected himself with human growth hormone in 2003 and also used steroids for at least three seasons.

Also, ABC News and ESPN the Magazine released excerpts of interviews with Victor Conte, in which the BALCO founder admits to watching Olympic star Marion Jones inject herself in the leg with human growth hormone. Jones’ attorneys denied that she ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

Conte’s interview with ABC’s “20/20” program will air tonight. (Related story, C6)

It is uncertain what punishment, if any, Bonds could receive from baseball, which didn’t have penalties for steroid use until 2003.