Late last night, Yahoo! of all sites was reporting that the leak in the BALCO case was Victor Conte's defense lawyer. Or at least that's what the FBI is thinking as they've launched an investigation.

The lawyer in question is Troy Ellerman who was not only the defense lawyer for Conte but for BALCO VP James Valente too. The snitch in question is a former private dick who worked for Conte, Larry McCormack. Both Ellerman and McCormack have a connection other than working on the BALCO case. Ellerman was at one time the executive director of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and McCormack was the commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. McCormack was fired about three months ago but he denies it had anything to do with his tattling. Instead, he said he was doing it because he thought what Ellerman was doing was just plain wrong. This hasn't prevented the board of the board of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association from having to issue a statement saying they can't issue a statement on what appears to be alot of inter-office sniping going on there.

What one has to wonder is what kind of lawyer did Conte hire. It sounds like he hired more of a Barry Zuckercorn than a Bob Lablaw (and yes, we've been watching a lot of "Arrested Development" lately). What kind of defense lawyer leaks a whole bunch of stuff that makes your client seem guiltier? The only thing we could figure is that Ellerman probably just thought Conte was one hell of a schmuck and leaked the stuff so he could still get back at the guy even though he defended the guy. Kind of like what happened in High School when someone would go around saying Tiffany was like their bestest friend in the world and didn't go all the way with Biff all the while being the one who said Tiffany totally went all the way with Biff because like Biff was totally hot and they made out with him at some dance but then Tiffany, that ho, made out with him at that party and now they're like totally going steady and how did we get started on this tangent?

This has to be a bit of good news for Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Fog City Journal interviewee Lance Williams because if the FBI finds the leaker without them having to say who the leaker is, they might not have to go to jail.