When the Huffington Post published a summary of Al Jazeera’s documentary, “The Dark Side: The Secret World of Sports Doping,” on Dec. 26, it wasn’t the first time Peyton Manning heard the shocking allegations against him.
Weeks before the documentary aired, Al Jazeera sent out personalized emails detailing the accusations with a request for comment to every person involved in the controversy, including Manning, The Washington Post recently uncovered. In response, the Post reports that Manning hired the Gibson Dunn law firm and public relations consultant Ari Fleischer.
In an effort to get to the bottom of the human growth hormone allegations levied against him, the Post reports that Manning’s lawyers hired private investigators Brian Bauer and Ben Ford to go to the house of the man who was videotaped saying Manning had HGH shipments delivered to his house under his wife’s name.
“When somebody accuses you of doing something you didn’t do — and Al Jazeera refused to tell us who it was — it’s only logical to say, ‘Who is it, and why are they doing this?’ ” Fleischer told the Post. “That’s human nature.”
The investigators were hired to “identify, locate and interrogate (Charlie) Sly,” the person who was videotaped making the shocking claims, according to the Post. And that’s exactly what they did, as they showed up at his doorstep on Dec. 22. Sly wasn’t home, but some of his family members were, and 911 was called at one point. The men came back on Dec. 23 to question Sly with his lawyer on the phone, and Sly told the investigators he made up the claims during their visit.
However, Fleischer didn’t deny that medicine was delivered from the Guyer Institute to Ashley Manning.
“We’ve never said (Sly) had everything wrong. We just said what he said about Peyton was wrong,” Fleischer told the Post. “It’s like the saying … Someone with a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.”
It appears this story is far from over for the Mannings.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
