Whitewater Jurors Recess For Weekend

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNN, May 24) -- Jurors in the trial of Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and the two Whitewater investment partners of Bill and Hillary Clinton have been sent home for the holiday weekend without reaching a verdict.

It was the seventh day of deliberations in the Whitewater trial, but the judge appeared satisfied the jurors are making progress. "I'm proud of you. This is what has made this country great," said U.S. District Court Judge George Howard Jr. of the jurors' efforts. "I understand you are starting each day and concluding each day by praying. I commend you for that."

Jurors will return to work Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend.

Separately, the White House announced that the president and First Lady have paid $3,400 in back taxes owed on their Whitewater investment, after an independent panel identified three mistakes in their returns.

Conducted at the request of the president's private lawyer, David Kendall, the analysis was completed by former IRS Commissioner Sheldon Cohen, former U.S. Treasury official John Nolan and former IRS Commissioner Jerome Kurtz.

Their report rebuts five of eight points raised last year by House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach, who concluded the Clintons owed at least $13,272 in back taxes. Sheldon, Cohen and Nolan found insufficient evidence to suggest that the Clintons improperly deducted $11,000 in interest payments in the early 1980s, or that they should have reported a $5,700 payment by the Whitewater corporation as income.

The White House said the Nolan-Kurtz-Cohen report shows that "the vast bulk of the First Family's Whitewater-related tax deductions were appropriate."

Whitewater Jurors Recess For Weekend

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