ESPN Track and Field

Marion Jones, the darling of the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her participation in a check fraud scheme with former boyfriend and star sprinter Tim Montgomery. Her admissions raise a number of questions. Here are some of the questions, along with their answers:

What caused Jones to finally stop lying about her use of steroids and admit to the use of the notorious, BALCO-produced "clear"?

Jones had been denying any use of performance-enhancing drugs for nearly six years. She carried her lies to the extreme of filing a $25 million lawsuit against Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, who said he saw Jones using his then-undetectable "clear." Even worse than her lies in news conferences and the lawsuit, she lied to federal investigators when asked about the "clear." Like so many elite athletes before her, she apparently didn't believe she would ever be caught. But when finally confronted by evidence gathered by IRS agent Jeff Novitsky and his crew in northern California, she must have realized she had lied herself into a corner. When she and her attorneys measured the evidence against her, they concluded the time had come to admit the truth and beg for mercy.

What evidence did the government have that destroyed Jones' attempts to claim she had never used the "clear"?

In the original raid on BALCO in 2002, agents found records of Jones' use of performance-enhancing drugs, including the "clear." In addition to the documents, the agents might have had some help from Hunter, Jones' former husband, who once held the world record in the shot put. Hunter has said he helped Jones in her use of drugs and injected her with the "clear." As if that were not enough, Jones' former boyfriend, Montgomery, admitted his guilt in the check fraud scheme and began telling the agents anything they wanted to know about Jones. It is no accident that when Jones apologized specifically to numerous family members and friends after her court appearance, she mentioned neither Hunter nor Montgomery.

Will Jones be helping the government agents in their continuing investigation of BALCO?

No. Unlike her former husband and her former boyfriend, Jones has not agreed to become a snitch. Her agreement with the federal prosecutors does not include any obligation to answer questions about anything. Either she refused to offer any information on anybody or the agents were satisfied that they already knew anything that she could offer.

Will Jones go to jail?

Yes. Her agreement with federal prosecutors includes a possible prison sentence of up to six months. Jones and her attorneys will offer evidence of Jones' good deeds as an Olympic hero to minimize her prison term, but it is highly unlikely she will avoid prison entirely. She has admitted lying to federal agents, a charge that is not viewed lightly in American courts. Her legal situation is quite similar to the plight of Martha Stewart, who was convicted of lying to federal agents and spent five months in a federal penitentiary.

What about the investigation of Barry Bonds? What does the Jones situation tell us about Bonds?

Both Jones and Bonds said they thought the undetectable "cream" was innocuous flaxseed oil. Jones made the statement to federal agents in an interview. Bonds made the statement in sworn testimony to a grand jury. The charges filed against Jones and her plea of guilty show that the flaxseed alibi has limits. Lying to a grand jury might be more serious than lying to a federal agent. If Bonds is paying attention, he should be worried. The grand jury in San Francisco is still investigating; and his trainer, Greg Anderson, is still sitting in jail because he refuses to testify about Bonds.

Jones was charged in a "superseding information." What does that mean?

Instead of presenting the charges against Jones to two grand juries, one in San Francisco and one in New York, the federal prosecutors in each city worked on a combined set of charges and presented them in the "information." An information is a series of charges that are valid and serious but have never been presented to a grand jury. The "superseding" label means there is a previous set of charges against Jones. The preceding charges would be more detailed and describe additional crimes. The preceding charges in the original information are not yet public. By entering her plea of guilty, Jones was able to cut the original set of charges down to the two charges of lying to federal agents.

What was Jones' role in the check fraud scheme?

During her romance with Montgomery and around the time Jones was giving birth to their child, Montgomery participated in a bizarre bank fraud scheme with Jones' former coach, Steve Riddick, and others. The scheme involved a series of stolen and counterfeit checks that were deposited in accounts controlled by Montgomery and the others, then quickly cashed before the banks knew the checks were bad. The scheme was remarkably dumb, but it managed to fool a few banks before Montgomery and his friends were caught. One of the checks was made payable to Jones. She endorsed and cashed the check. Sixteen months later, when agents asked her about the check, she denied she had ever seen it or endorsed it. Another $200,000 made it into a joint account owned by Jones and Montgomery, and she told the agents she knew nothing about that money, either.

Lester Munson, a Chicago lawyer and journalist who has been reporting on investigative and legal issues in the sports industry for 18 years, is a senior writer for ESPN.com.