LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AllPolitics, October 26) -- President Bill Clinton's attorney in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case participated in depositions delving into Jones' sexual history, even after that line of inquiry had been publicly disavowed by Clinton's defense team, according to documents released Monday.

Monday's release of documents from the Jones case file included sworn statements about Jones' alleged sexual history, taken from men who claimed to have had sex with her. After complaints from women's groups, the president's legal team said it would not pursue Jones' history.

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The documents show the questioning in those depositions was done by the attorney for Clinton's co-defendant, Danny Ferguson, but the documents also show that Clinton's attorney, Robert Bennett, was in the room, passing notes to Ferguson's attorney as the depositions progressed.

The documents also show that Jones' attorneys tried to subpoena Secret Service agents to testify and the Secret Service tried to fight the subpoenas on the grounds that such testimony would compromise its "protective function."

The agency made the same argument, and lost, when agents were subpoenaed by Independent Counsel Ken Starr.

Jones' attorneys issued the subpoenas on Dec. 23, 1997, prior to public revelation of Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. At the time, Jones' lawyers had evidence that Lewinsky had made 30 visits to the White House. John Whitehead of the Rutherford Foundation, one of Jones' lawyers, said they wanted to know what Secret Service agents might know about other Clinton visitors, in an attempt to establish a pattern of conduct.

But the Secret Service asked U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright to create a "protective privilege," arguing that the information Jones' attorneys wanted "could possibly provide critical information at the core of how the Secret Service actually functions and provide those with hostile intent toward the president with important information to us in piercing the Secret Service's protection."

Wright did not rule on the Secret Service's request. Rather, she quashed the subpoenas because of Starr's ongoing criminal investigation.

Secret Service agents were later compelled to testify before Starr's grand jury. The issue of whether the Secret Service has a "protective privilege" is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jones' lawyers also accused the Secret Service of stalling when it objected to turning over evidence that might be helpful to her lawsuit, the documents show.

The material released Monday was part of a second installment of documents 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.

In a court document filed just days after the Lewinsky case became public in late January, Jones' lawyers alleged that the Secret Service had "stonewalled" in responding to subpoenas that demanded any information about possible presidential affairs.

Subpoenaing the Secret Service is "simple and entirely legitimate: to obtain evidence of illicit sexual relations between Defendant Clinton and women to who federal jobs were offered," Jones' lawyers argued.

They asked Wright to order the Secret Service to provide lists of its agents who protect the president and any documents "referring to or discussing a sexual relationship between Defendant Clinton and a woman other than his wife."

The judge ruled against Jones lawyers on January 30, telling the Secret Service it could ignore the subpoenas.

Another document made public Monday shows Starr successfully asked Wright to modify her gag order in the case allowing witnesses in the case who had been subpoenaed by the prosecutors office to comply with subpoenas and turn over documents.

Prosecutors "must determine the veracity of depositions, affidavits and other sworn filings before this court," Starr wrote on January 27, less than a week into the Lewinsky matter.

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.

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

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

The court has said Clinton's deposition is not among those items to be released because a full copy of it was never placed in the court file. Portions of it were filed in Jones' written pleadings before the court and already have been made public.

CNN's Bob Franken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Monday, October 26, 1998

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• Clinton attorney participated in depositions on Jones' sex life
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