Trials & Litigation

Was Lance Armstrong a lawsuit bully? Cyclist admits 'major flaw'

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Lance Armstrong quickly admitted to doping in the first portion of his interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on Thursday.

He also admitted that he had sued journalists, friends and colleagues who accused him of doping, report the Associated Press, the Washington Post and Reuters. Here is Oprah’s question: “You’re suing people and you know they’re telling the truth? What is that?”

Armstrong’s answer: “It’s a major flaw.” He said he was a control freak and needed to hide the truth.

The articles do not describe the lawsuits. According to previous coverage, the London-based Sunday Times has filed a lawsuit seeking return of a half-million-dollar libel settlement it paid Armstrong for publishing doping accusations. In advance of the interview, the newspaper took out an ad in the Chicago Tribune with a list of questions it wanted Winfrey to ask, NPR reports. One of them: “Did you sue the Sunday Times to shut us up?”

After the Sunday Times settlement, Armstrong dropped defamation cases he had filed against other defendants in France, according to a story published in 2006 by the Associated Press.

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