Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada

Who is Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada?

Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada co-authored the book Game of Shadows while they were reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle. For their investigative work in the field of steroids, Williams and Fainaru-Wada were given the 2004 George Polk Award.

In the course of their investigative research, Williams and Fainaru-Wada were the first to report that:

track star Marion Jones purportedly received illegal drugs from the steroid supplier BALCO

world record-holder Tim Montgomery testified before a federal grand jury that he had used steroids

baseball slugger Jason Giambi testified that he had used steroids

On May 5, 2006, Fainaru-Wada and Williams were subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about how they obtained leaked grand jury testimony. On May 31, the authors urged United States District Judge Martin Jenkins of San Francisco to excuse them from testifying. This appeal was supported by affidavits from Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Mark Corallo, a former press secretary to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, but was denied on August 15, 2006.

On Sept 21, 2006, the journalists were sentenced to 18 months in prison for contempt of court. The two have repeatedly stated that they would go to prison before revealing their sources. The two avoided jail time, however, when attorney Troy Ellerman pleaded guilty on Feb. 14, 2007, to leaking the information, lying to prosecutors, obstructing justice and disobeying a court order not to disclose grand jury information. The two reporters were awarded the 2007 Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism.