The Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley announced today that it has hired the Chronicle’s Lance Williams, who covered the BALCO scandal, as an investigative reporter covering money and politics for CIR’s new California Watch project.

With Mark Fainaru-Wada, he wrote “Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports.” The book, combined with the Chronicle articles, prompted Sen. George Mitchell’s investigation of baseball’s steroid era and led to many reforms.

In 2006, Williams and Fainaru-Wada were held in contempt of court and threatened with 18 months in federal prison for refusing to testify about their confidential sources on BALCO. The subpoenas were later withdrawn.