Bennett tried to protect Jones case information from Starr

WASHINGTON(AllPolitics, October 27) -- Documents released Monday show that President Bill Clinton's attorney tried to prevent Independent Counsel Ken Starr from viewing information under seal in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

In a February 6 closed-door session with U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright, Bob Bennett, Clinton's lead attorney in the Jones case, asked that a Starr subpoena be quashed because Bennett was "not comfortable with handing over sealed documents" to the independent counsel.

Bennett was not only wary of Starr's ability to information secret but he was also concerned that Starr "cannot be trusted" to keep the video tape of Clinton's January 17 deposition under wraps.

The legal maneuvering to scuttle Starr's investigation came despite the president's January pledge to fully cooperate with the independent counsel's probe of allegations Clinton had a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and lied about it under oath in the Jones case.

In addition to Bennett's distrust of Starr's office, the new documents reveal that Bennett tried to prevent the Jones legal team from investigating the president's behavior in the White House, especially the allegation made by White House volunteer Kathleen Willey.

Willey has claimed that the president made a crude, unwanted sexual advance in his private study off the Oval office in 1993.

"Whatever Ms. Willey has to say about President Clinton's conduct when he was no longer a state official is irrelevant" to the Jones case, Bennett wrote to a federal judge in Virginia in November 1997.

But Jones' lawyers had become suspicious about Willey's testimony when she asked to correct a line in her deposition.

"Nate Landow discussed my upcoming deposition testimony with me," Willey said, revising her earlier sworn statement that aside from her lawyer she had not spoken with anyone about the deposition.

Since Landow's daughter worked in the White House and his son-in-law ran the Clinton legal fund, Jones' lawyers said in court papers that Willey testimony suggested "the possibility of an attempt to suppress evidence in his case and to obstruct justice."

Willey was ordered to give another deposition, but it was cancelled when the Jones case was dismissed.

The new documents, released Monday, are part of a second installment of materials in the Jones case ordered public by Judge Wright of the Eastern District of Arkansas via the court's Web site at http://www.are.uscourts.gov/.

An index of the hundreds of documents released on Monday is available at this page on the site -- http://www.are.uscourts.gov/unsealded2/docsindex.htm.

Jones sued Clinton on May 6, 1994, two days before the statute of limitations expired on her claim that Clinton sexually harassed her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991.

Wright dismissed the claim April 1, concluding that no matter what occurred between Jones and Clinton, Jones did not prove she was harmed emotionally or in her career, as she contended.

After initial objections from the president, Wright has decided to unseal most of the case's previously secret court files.

An appeal by Jones to have the case reinstated is under consideration by a federal appeals court panel in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Tuesday, October 27, 1998

• Poll: Bush, Gore early front-runners for 2000
• McDougal fiancé scolded over Whitewater mention
• Farmhand saw suspect with murdered state senator, heard 'pop'
• Burton asks FEC to review Democratic funds
• Bennett tried to protect Jones case information from Starr
• Women discuss Social Security
• Witness in Espy trial says she was asked to delete details from trip itinerary
• First lady celebrates 51st birthday
• Man in Clinton threat makes a plea

Election '98
• Democrats on the decline in Kentucky
• Feiger forces Democratic defections in Michigan governor's race
• Jesse "The Body" Ventura plays the spoiler in Minnesota gov. race
• S.C. Senate race pits old South against new
• Both parties eye no-incumbent races
• Paper: Democrats fighting over elections
• Election ads outnumber news stories
• California candidate signs gay pledge
• Techniques to raise voter turnout
• Texas' Stenholm has a tough fight
• California candidate has military record

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