Starr Said To Be Using Tested Tactic Against Ex-intern
By Lynda Nikula/CNN
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Jan. 26) -- Susan McDougal's lawyer and her brother
said Monday Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is using the same
tactics on former White House intern Monica Lewinsky that he used in an attempt get to get McDougal to testify against President Bill Clinton.
Following a pre-trial hearing in an unrelated California criminal case,
McDougal's attorney, Mark Geragos, said Starr is "preoccupied with sex" and is
trying to make a deal just as he did with McDougal's former husband, Jim
McDougal.
"She [Susan McDougal] thinks that it's very similar to what they did with her. Remember
when she wouldn't cooperate and they got Jim McDougal to cooperate? Jim
McDougal went from saying at his trial that she had the highest moral
integrity," said Geragos.
"After he started cooperating with Kenneth Starr, then guess what happens?
All of a sudden Jim McDougal says, 'Oh no, I think that they [Clinton and
McDougal] were having an affair,' and then all of a sudden Jim McDougal says, 'Well, I picked up the phone once and I heard them talking love talk,' very
similar pattern to what you have right here. The man [Starr] is obviously preoccupied with sex."
McDougal's brother, Bill Henley, said, "Let me tell you that before my
sister was ever indicted in Whitewater, they came to her with a deal that all
she had to do was come up with something on Clinton, all of these charges would
be wiped away from Whitewater, all of these charges in California would be
wiped away, simply come up with something on the Clintons.
"This is just Starr acting as he did in my sister's case," Henley added. "What he is doing is suborning perjury at this very moment. He is suborning perjury in my opinion. If he follows his same m.o. [modus operandi], what he will do next is threaten to indict this girl's mother and father and sisters and brothers as Starr did in Susan's case."
McDougal has been in prison about 17 months on a contempt charge for
refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in the Whitewater case.
She is awaiting trial on California state charges that she stole about $150,000 from orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy, while working as their assistant. McDougal faces three counts of state income-tax evasion and seven theft-related charges in the state case. The attorneys in the case expect it to last six to eight weeks.
McDougal and her then-husband, Jim, were partners with the Clintons in the Whitewater development deal.
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