Is Lance Armstrong still lying?

The following script is from "The Fall of Lance Armstrong" which aired on Jan. 27, 2013. Scott Pelley is the correspondent. Michael Radutzky, Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados, producers.

We have learned that U.S. anti-doping authorities have given Lance Armstrong a deadline of February 6th to agree to confess all under oath. If he declines, we are told that his lifetime ban in sports will be irreversible. Armstrong admitted to doping, for the first time, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last week. But the director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, told us that Armstrong did not tell the truth in that interview and left out the most important facts that investigators want to nail down.

Tygart is the official who pursued the Armstrong investigation when others had given up. The evidence amassed by his anti-doping agency forced Armstrong to surrender his titles, lose his sponsors and quit his charity. Armstrong says he wants to return to sport. Travis Tygart holds the keys to that decision. So we asked him this week about Armstrong's talk show confession.

Scott Pelley: You know, at one point in the interview he said that he was curious about the definition of the word cheater. And he looked it up in the dictionary and didn't think it necessarily applied to him.

Travis Tygart: It's amazing. I mean Scott you could go to almost any kindergarten in this country or frankly around the world and find kids playing tag or four square and ask 'em what cheating is. And every one of 'em will tell you it's breaking the rules of the game. No real athlete has to look up the definition of cheating.

Scott Pelley: Armstrong described doping as so routine, it was, quote, "Like the air in our tires and the water in our bottles." What did you think of that?

Travis Tygart: It's just simply not true. And I think it's a pretty cowardly self-interested justification or rationalization for his decision to defraud millions of people.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, known as USADA, polices U.S. Olympic sport. Last October, it issued a report that's called a "reasoned decision." It was a thousand pages of evidence that found that Armstrong had run quote "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport had ever seen." That was one of USADA'S conclusions that Armstrong denied in his interview last week.

Scott Pelley: He suggested that cycling in those years was a level playing field because everyone did it. He wasn't doing anything special.

Travis Tygart: It's just simply not true. The access they had to inside information to how the tests work, what tests went in place at what time, special access to the laboratory, he was on an entirely different playing field than all the other athletes even if you assume all the other athletes had access to some doping products.

Scott Pelley: Armstrong admitted in the interview to doping throughout his seven Tour de France victories. He tried to make a comeback in 2009. He admitted the first seven, but those last two races in '09 and 2010 he said he did not dope, he was racing clean.

Travis Tygart: Just contrary to the evidence. The evidence is clear. His blood tests in 2009, 2010, expert reports based on the variation of his blood values from those tests, one to a million chance that it was due to something other than doping.

Scott Pelley: You have to wonder why if he admits to doping in the first seven Tour de France races, why he would proclaim his innocence in 2009 and 2010.

Travis Tygart: I think it stops the criminal conspiracy and protects him and the others that helped him pull off this scheme from potential criminal prosecution if that was in fact true.

Scott Pelley: How does that help him in that way?

Travis Tygart: There's a five-year statute on a fraud criminal charge. So the five years today would have been expired. However, if the last point of his doping as we alleged and proved in our reasoned decision was in 2010, then the statute has not yet expired and he potentially could be charged with a criminal violation for conspiracy to defraud.

The famous US Postal Team was fueled by dope. There was an illegal blood booster called EPO, there was testosterone, and a banned technique called blood doping in which riders store fresh blood and transfuse it into their bodies during a race. Records were broken, victories spoke for themselves and, for a decade, no one spoke of anything else.

Travis Tygart: The first break that finally cracked the code of silence or the "omerta" that existed in the sport was when several witnesses in the spring of 2010 came forward and they told us their stories.

Scott Pelley: You used the word "omerta." That's a Mafia term.

Travis Tygart: It is a Mafia term. And I think there were parts of this scheme that were run like a Mafia.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation. Armstrong's teammates were forced to testify -- subpoenaed by a grand jury. One of them was Tyler Hamilton.

Scott Pelley: One of the things that is so amazing about all of this is how long it was kept quiet, how many people knew and didn't say.

Tyler Hamilton: Yeah, people were afraid of Lance Armstrong. People were afraid.

Scott Pelley: But what's to be afraid of?

Tyler Hamilton: It's the machine, you know, the Lance machine. That he's got a lot of connections. If you go against Lance Armstrong, your days in cycling are done.

The testimony of Hamilton and others before the grand jury in Los Angeles was secret -- until Hamilton told his story in an interview on "60 Minutes."

Tyler Hamilton: There was EPO, there was testosterone. So, I-- and I did see a transfusion, a blood transfusion.

Three weeks after that story in 2011, Hamilton was in Aspen, Colo., working his way through a crowded bar.

Tyler Hamilton: Turned to my right, and it was Lance Armstrong.

Scott Pelley: So he stops you cold.

Tyler Hamilton: Stops me cold.

Scott Pelley: And says what?

Tyler Hamilton: Well, first he asked how much "60 Minutes" had paid me to do that interview.

Scott Pelley: Answer, nothing.

Tyler Hamilton: Obviously, nothing, yeah. The biggest thing he said is, you know, "We're gonna make your life a living, f-in' hell, both in the courtroom and out."

Scott Pelley: He was, at that moment, the target of a federal investigation. And you were a witness in that federal investigation.

Tyler Hamilton: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Pelley: Intimidating a witness is a federal crime. Did you feel intimidated?

Tyler Hamilton: I did, I did, I did.

The grand jury heard from at least a dozen Postal riders. There was testimony that a team bus had been pulled over in France while the riders inside were hooked up to banned blood transfusions. Some testified that riders used makeup to cover needle marks. The secret grand jury proceeding went on for two years, but in 2012 the U.S. attorney dropped the case without explanation.

Tyler Hamilton: I was really angry. I knew, you know, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I knew justice wasn't being served here.

Scott Pelley: You'd gone to the grand jury. You'd told the truth. And the government dropped the case. You're out there twisting in the wind by yourself.

Tyler Hamilton: Yeah, yeah. And I knew a lot of other people had testified and it was all going to be sealed. And everybody was just going to go along like it had never happened.

USADA had been monitoring the investigation and Tygart thought that the evidence gathered by the U.S. attorney was overwhelming.

Scott Pelley: Why do you think he dropped the case?

Travis Tygart: I don't know, Scott. It's a good question and one that if you find the answer, let me know.

Armstrong congratulated the government for closing the investigation and kept repeating what he told CBS Sports in 2005.

Lance Armstrong: Explain to me how we've passed so many tests if we're so dirty. And they don't want to answer that question. And that's not fair.

But Tygart did want to answer that question and he began an investigation. He convinced riders to testify to USADA. He looked at Armstrong's tests from his first Tour de France victory in 1999 and found EPO. Then, a Swiss lab director, Marcial Saugy, said that after he got a suspicious test result on Armstrong in 2001, he was directed to meet Armstrong and his coach Johan Bruyneel. Saugy said the meeting was set up by the International Cycling Union, which oversees the sport.

Travis Tygart: He was instructed by UCI to meet with Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel and explain the EPO testing process, which he told us was unprecedented. And I asked him, "Did you give Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel the keys to defeat the EPO test?" And he nodded his head yes.

Tygart believes Armstrong had influence over the UCI.

Scott Pelley: Lance Armstrong made a generous donation to the International Cycling Union of $100,000. Do you think that was meant to influence them?

Travis Tygart: I don't know. Obviously, totally inappropriate.

Scott Pelley: Why inappropriate? Lance Armstrong's trying to support anti-doping in sport. That's what he would tell you.

Travis Tygart: It an inherent conflict of interest.

During that interview last week, Armstrong was asked about that 2001 Swiss test.

[Lance Armstrong: That story isn't true. There was no positive test. There was no paying off of the lab. There was no secret meeting with the lab director.

Oprah Winfrey: The UCI didn't make that go away.

Lance Armstrong: Nope. ]

Travis Tygart: He exonerated essentially the UCI. And our information is -- and the evidence is -- different than that.

Scott Pelley: What was it about what Armstrong said in the interview about UCI that you thought was wrong?

Travis Tygart: I think their involvement was a lot deeper in him pulling off this heist than he was willing to admit to.

Tygart told us Armstrong tried to make a similar donation to USADA.

Tygart made that revelation during our first interview earlier this month which was for "60 Minutes Sports," our program on the Showtime network. Armstrong was asked about that in the interview last week.

[Oprah Winfrey: Were you trying to pay off USADA?

Lance Armstrong: No, that is not true.

Oprah Winfrey: That's not true?

Lance Armstrong: That is not true.]

Travis Tygart: That's just not true. I received a phone call from one of his closest associates and they offered us the money.

Scott Pelley: You took this phone call yourself?

Travis Tygart: Yes.

Scott Pelley: And Armstrong's representative said what to you precisely?

Travis Tygart: "Lance wants to make a financial donation to USADA."

Scott Pelley: Who was this representative?

Tygart: It's one of his closest representatives. I've told the federal government in its investigation on the civil fraud side, so I don't think it would be appropriate now to name the name 'cause it's still one of his closest representatives.

Scott Pelley: There was no mistaking the purpose of that call?

Travis Tygart: Absolutely not.

Influence and intimidation were key, according to Tygart, to getting riders onboard and keeping them in line.

Scott Pelley: The impression that Armstrong makes in the interview was that he was doping, yes, but he was just one of the guys.

Travis Tygart: He was the boss. The evidence is clear he was one of the ringleaders of this conspiracy that pulled off this grand heist that defrauded using tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, defrauded millions of sports fans and his fellow competitors.

Scott Pelley: There was a rider on the team named Christian Vande Velde. What happened to him?

Travis Tygart: Lance called Christian to his apartment and Lance verbally accosted Christian for not fully being on the doping program to maximize Christian's performance 'cause his performance was not very good at that point.

Scott Pelley: And Christian Vande Velde's understanding was after that meeting that if he didn't dope, what would happen?

Travis Tygart: Lance made it crystal clear as did the doctor who was sitting there that you better fully get on the program or you're gonna be off the team.

Another US Postal Service rider named Frankie Andreu testified that after he refused to dope, he was fired and Armstrong destroyed his career.

Travis Tygart: It was tough. All these witnesses were scared of the repercussions of them simply telling the truth.

Scott Pelley: What could Lance Armstrong do to them?

Travis Tygart: Incinerate them.

Former teammate Levi Leipheimer felt the heat. Leipheimer said in his sworn affidavit that he came to a cycling dinner after his testimony. Leipheimer says Armstrong was there and sent Leipheimer's wife a text. It read, "run, don't walk."

Scott Pelley: What did she take it to mean?

Travis Tygart: It's a veiled threat. Knowing her husband had just testified, truthfully, in front of the grand jury and had told citizens of this country about this great fraud. It was a message, "You better run."

Scott Pelley: Your investigation showed that there were personal threats made against riders who had decided to come clean. I wonder if there were any threats against you.

Travis Tygart: There were, Scott.

Scott Pelley: These threats came from where?

Travis Tygart: Emails, letters.

Scott Pelley: Anonymous?

Travis Tygart: Yeah.

Scott Pelley: Can you remember any of the lines from the emails or the letters?

Travis Tygart: The worst was probably putting a bullet in my head.

Scott Pelley: Did you take that seriously?

Travis Tygart: Absolutely. Turned it over to the FBI to investigate it, which they're doing.

Tygart's agency was also threatened. The CEO of the Livestrong Foundation -- Armstrong's cancer charity -- lobbied against USADA before Congress. Members of Congress and 23 California state representatives called for an investigation of the agency's practices and its taxpayer funding.

Scott Pelley: And yet, you chose to go ahead. You were gambling the fate of USADA itself on this one case.

Travis Tygart: If we're unwilling to take this case and help this sport move forward, than we're here for naught. We should shut down. And if they want to shut us down for doing our job on behalf of clean athletes, and the integrity of competition, then shut us down.

Last year, when Tygart made his evidence public, Armstrong had the option of a hearing and confronting the witnesses. But he chose not to fight and he was handed that lifetime ban. In last week's interview Armstrong said the ban was unfair considering that riders who testified against him were banned for only six months.

Travis Tygart: If you traffic, if you distribute, if you possess, if you use the number of substances that he used over the period of time that he used, then you cover it up and you refuse to come in and be part of the solution, the rules mandate a lifetime ban. But the lowest his ban could go under the rules would be to an eight-year suspension.

Scott Pelley: What does Lance Armstrong have to do for there to be a possibility that USADA's lifetime ban would be lifted?

Travis Tygart: He would have to come in just like all 11 of his teammates did and testify truthfully about all of those who were involved with him pulling off this grant heist.

Armstrong is facing a lawsuit that alleges that he defrauded the federal government when he lied about cheating to get the Postal Service sponsorship. The suit was filed by former teammate Floyd Landis and in the next few weeks the federal government is expected to decide whether to join Landis in the suit. The potential penalty for Armstrong and his business partners is $90 million.

Scott Pelley: The Department of Justice has not made a decision about whether to join that lawsuit against Lance Armstrong. What do you think they should do?

Travis Tygart: I think they have to join the suit. I mean, we were surprised the criminal case didn't go forward based on the evidence that we had seen and generated through our investigation. So we'll be, you know, once again shocked if they don't join the suit. I think a jury should have an opportunity to decide whether the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that were defrauded by this team and Lance Armstrong and his associates, whether or not the government should be paid back for that.

As we reported, Tygart has given Armstrong a deadline of February 6th to agree to tell all under oath. Armstrong's lawyers have now replied to that saying Armstrong cannot appear by that date and, rather than USADA, Armstrong is more likely to tell his story to the International Cycling Union -- the same organization that Tygart believes was complicit in hiding Armstrong's doping.

Scott Pelley: If Lance Armstrong had prevailed in this case and you had failed, what would the effect on sport have been?

Travis Tygart: It would have been huge. Because athletes would have known that some are too big to fail.

Scott Pelley: And the message that sends is what?

Travis Tygart: Cheat your way to the top. And if you get too big and too popular and too powerful, if you do it that well, you'll never be held accountable.