NEW YORK – Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte could be called to testify in Roger Clemens' federal defamation suit against Brian McNamee as part of the trainer's attempt to dismiss the case.

Clemens contends McNamee defamed him when the trainer, who worked for both pitchers, told Pettitte in 1999 or 2000 that Clemens had used HGH and in 2003 or 2004 that Clemens had used steroids.

Among the assertions McNamee's lawyers made in a motion filed late Wednesday is that Clemens should have known long before the Mitchell Report was released in December that McNamee had made the statements to Pettitte. Because of that, McNamee's lawyers say Clemens' suit was filed after the statute of limitations had expired.

McNamee repeated many of his accusations against Clemens to baseball investigator George Mitchell and again this year to a congressional committee. Clemens sued McNamee in January.

“It was conscious avoidance on Clemens' part not to understand Pettitte and McNamee were talking about him, and therefor the statute of limitations started to run much earlier than the congressional period,” Richard Emery, one of McNamee's lawyers, said Thursday.

Unless the timetable is altered, Clemens has 30 days to respond to McNamee's motion, which asked that the case be thrown out or moved from Houston to New York. After that, McNamee will have 15 days to reply to Clemens' papers. It is increasingly unlikely any hearing would be held before the end of the regular season.

Emery first discussed the possibility of an evidentiary hearing involving Pettitte on Wednesday with the Daily News.

Pettitte's lawyer, Jay Reisinger, said he had no comment.