Feds spar with Lance Armstrong over when $100 million trial should start

Lance Armstrong and the federal government are having at least one more fight in court before Armstrong goes to trial for his sins in cycling -- this time a dispute over when his trial should start.

Later this year or a year from now?

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper will make the call once again in the government's $100 million civil fraud lawsuit against the former cyclist.

Armstrong's attorney, John Keker, asked the court Tuesday to push the trial into early next year, saying he had a possible schedule conflict this year with a separate case. The government replied Wednesday by opposing that request and said it wants the trial to start around November.

"The United States opposes Armstrong’s attempt to delay trial in this matter until nearly a year from now," government attorneys wrote the court Wednesday. " At present, Mr. Keker does not have a conflict that would prevent him from participating in a mid-November trial, and it is entirely possible that no such conflict will develop. The United States believes that the better course is to schedule trial for November, as the Court previously indicated."

Keker said his other case could be in trial around the same time, a criminal wire fraud case involving another client, Sushovan Hussain, the former chief financial officer of Autonomy Corp.

Hussain is accused of artificially inflating the software company's revenues before its $11 billion takeover by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Lance Armstrong handed defeat by federal judge

“Mr. Armstrong respectfully requests that the Court set this case for trial sometime early in 2018, so as not to conflict with the Hussain trial,” Keker wrote.

Keker’s adversary in both cases is the federal government, which joined the civil case against Armstrong in 2013. The government's case against Armstrong was filed on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service, which paid $32.3 million to sponsor Armstrong’s cycling team from 2000-2004. It accuses Armstrong’s cycling team of violating its sponsorship contract with the USPS by taking performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions to cheat in races – and then concealing that doping to continue payment.

Under the False Claims Act, the government could get that money back times three – nearly $100 million – with Armstrong possibly on the hook for all of it.

Keker’s request came eight days after Armstrong failed in his bid to have the case thrown out of court. Judge Cooper denied his motion for summary judgment, putting the lawsuit on track for trial nearly 12 years since Armstrong last rode for the USPS team.

The case originally was filed under seal in 2010 by Floyd Landis, a former teammate of Armstrong’s who also doped and lied about it. If the case succeeds, Landis stands to get a cut of the damages as the whistleblower who brought the case.

Armstrong has been banned for cycling for life and was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories from 1999-2005. After denying doping for more than a decade, he finally confessed to it in January 2013.

His attorneys have not disputed his doping in the USPS case but say USPS suffered no damages and instead received far more in value from the sponsorship than the $32.3 million it paid for it.

The government has said the sponsorship is worth zero because the USPS bargained for a clean cycling team but didn’t get one.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer on Twitter @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com