Trevor Graham sat in a memento-filled den in his basement culling through files that traced his own disgrace.

The man who sent the syringe that started the biggest investigation of doping in American sports, Graham still says he is innocent, but few believe him. On Friday, after he took off his ankle bracelet to mark the end of a year of home confinement for a felony conviction for making false statements to a federal agent, Graham broke his five-year silence and began trying to rehabilitate his image.

On the wall to his right hung a framed, autographed track suit, the one Justin Gatlin wore when he won the 100m gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. “Never been washed,” Graham, his former coach, said, adding, “We haven’t spoken in a year or two.” Gatlin is serving a four-year doping ban.

To his left, a framed track suit signed by Marion Jones — before her fall from grace and erasure from the record books. “Dedicated to my coach,” the plaque says. “She’s lying about me,” Graham said.

He said he had not talked to reporters about doping since the 2004 Olympics, when he identified himself as the person who had anonymously sent to anti-doping authorities a syringe with an undetectable steroid called the clear.

“That was just a coach doing the right thing,” he said. Many others accused him of trying to wipe out a rival. Eventually the investigation came back to Graham, and he was charged with making false statements about his ties to a steroids distributor. He was convicted on one of three felony charges in May 2008.