Astros' Tejada expected to plead guilty to lying

(CNN) -- Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in federal court to a count of lying to Congress about his knowledge of Major League Baseball players using performance-enhancing drugs, according to officials familiar with the case.

Miguel Tejada, a shortstop for the Houston Astros, has been charged with lying to Congress.

In a document filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Tejada is charged in a criminal "information," a document that routinely signals a plea bargain agreement. The document does not directly accuse Tejada of using steroids or other substances.

However, the court document says that in 2003 Tejada gave another player more than $5,000 in checks "for substances which he believed to be HGH [human growth hormone]."

The document says Tejada lied to congressional investigators when he told them on August 26, 2005, that he had never heard discussions about steroids by other players, and that he never knew of any other player using steroids.

After the December 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, which appeared to contradict Tejada, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada "made knowingly false statements to the committee." The investigators concluded he had lied.

"Defendant Tejada unlawfully withheld pertinent information from the committee because defendant Tejada before and during his interview with the committee staff, then and there well knew that Player #1 [unidentified], one of his teammates on the Oakland Athletics, had used steroids and HGH," the document says.

Tejada played for the Athletics from 1997 to 2003.

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He is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. Wednesday before a magistrate judge, indicating the charge against him will be a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of a year in jail. However, a government official familiar with the case said that under sentencing guidelines, Tejada could get from zero to 6 months, which means he may receive probation without jail time.

Tejada, who started his MLB career in 1997, hit at least 30 home runs from 2000 through 2004 with the exception of 2003, when he hit 27.

He won the American League's most valuable player award in 2002, when he hit a career-best 34 home runs. He matched that total in 2004, his first year with the Baltimore Orioles. He began playing with Houston in 2008.

The information came one day after MLB star Alex Rodriguez -- the New York Yankees' third baseman since 2004 -- admitted that he had used a "banned substance" during the 2001-2003 seasons. Sports Illustrated had reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, when he was playing for the Texas Rangers.

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