JoeO wrote:
I don't think so. While I doubt the USPS would ever want to spend money to help cyclists dope, the fact is they were spending the money for publicity -- which they received. If illegal doping is the crime that the government is concerned about, prosecute that. But the notion of "fraud" and the requisite injury still seems to be missing. I think you have to do some serious mental gymnastics to come up with scenario in which USPS was injured by any of this.
Now the competitors, and the people he sued left and right -- they certainly seem to have reason to claim injury. But the USPS? Hardly
You cannot use federal tax dollars fraudulently, period. That's the whole of the case. Not that USPS didn't get the publicity but rather that Armstrong and tailwind co-owners received what amounts to a government contract fraudulently. It's no different than a gov't contractor failing to deliver on a weapons system because the technology was a hoax, from what I've been told. Im no lawyer so maybe I misunderstood what I was told.