Clinton gives videotaped Whitewater testimony
April 28, 1996
Web posted at: 5:30 p.m. EDTWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton gave four and a half hours of videotaped testimony at the White House Sunday as a defense witness in the fraud and conspiracy trial of his former Whitewater real estate partners, James and Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.
The president was subpoenaed by the defense and is not charged in the case, which is being tried in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The session, including questions from prosecutors, began at 1:12 p.m. EDT behind closed doors in the Map Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt once received daily briefings on the progress of World War II.
U.S. District Judge George Howard, who is trying the case in Little Rock, presided over the session using a video-conference link scrambled to prevent eavesdropping.
Edited tape
Howard will have to rule via satellite on any objections raised during Clinton's testimony, CNN legal analyst Roger Cossack said before questioning began. (162K AIFF sound or 162K WAV sound)
Objections that are sustained will be edited out, CNN's Bob Franken reported. (77K AIFF sound or 77K WAV sound)
The videotaped testimony will remain sealed until it is shown to jurors in the next week or two during the defense portion of the two-month-old trial. It will not be available to the news media "for at least 30 days," Franken said. (196K AIFF sound or 196K WAV sound) However, a transcript of the tape is likely to be made public after the testimony is shown in court.
Clinton began the day with an early-morning jog and a trip to church with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. President Clinton also was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to discuss the cease-fire between Israel and the Hezbollah guerrillas and other security issues.
Howard ruled in March that Clinton could take the unusual step of videotaping his testimony at the White House to keep the deposition from interfering with his official duties.
Tucker stays away
The McDougals and their attorneys entered the White House grounds shortly after the Clintons returned from church. As defendants in the trial, they could sit in on the taped testimony, which will be used to rebut prosecution testimony.
Because the McDougals are divorced, Cossack said, each had a defense lawyer to question and perhaps cross-examine the president. (204K AIFF sound or 204K WAV sound) Tucker was represented at the White House by his lawyers.
The McDougals and Tucker are charged in a 21-count indictment of misusing nearly $3 million in government-backed loans in the mid-1980s. The Clintons invested in the money-losing Whitewater real estate partnership in 1978.
'Bull'
Clinton was subpoenaed by defense lawyers to rebut the testimony of former municipal judge David Hale, the prosecution's key witness. Hale alleged that Clinton, then Arkansas governor, was involved in arranging an improper $300,000 loan from Hale's federally backed lending company to Mrs. McDougal in 1986.
Clinton has dismissed Hale's allegations as a "bunch of bull." Hale earlier this month was convicted of separate fraud charges and given a jail sentence. A resentful Susan McDougal charges prosecutors "bullied people to be witnesses in the trial and made them say things so that they would get deals cut."
A 'coward'
Standing with her ex-husband in front of the White House just two hours before the videotaped testimony began, she said, "Every friend of mine has been tortured by the FBI and (Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr)." She called Starr a "coward."
The trial is the first arising from Starr's probe of a web of questionable decade-old Arkansas business activities known as the Whitewater affair. It is one of several legal proceedings arising from the failure of the Madison Savings and Loan Association, which cost taxpayers an estimated $65 million. Starr was not present for the White House videotaping.
Fingerprints
Also Sunday, a report released by Newsweek magazine said Mrs. Clinton's fingerprints were found on Whitewater-related documents that were "lost" for two years.
The billing records from the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, for which Mrs. Clinton worked, were found in the White House last summer, and the fingerprints were identified by FBI experts, Newsweek reported, quoting "sources close to the inquiry."
The documents detail Mrs. Clinton's legal work for McDougal's Madison thrift, and were subpoenaed in 1994 but not turned over until this January. Mrs. Clinton has said she had "no idea" the papers were in the White House.
The fingerprint discovery is "not surprising," a White House official who declined to be identified told CNN. The official charged that the "outrageous leak" came from Starr's office, which had no comment on the Newsweek report.
Videotape politics
Clinton aides are concerned that while the president is not a target of the Little Rock trial, his videotaped testimony could be used by political opponents, with snippets showing up in campaign attack ads.
Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Sunday the GOP considers Whitewater an issue that is fair game.
The president said last week he does not object to making the tape available to the public under certain conditions. "But it shouldn't be abused in any way." The White House was more direct: None of it should be allowed in campaign ads.
Correspondent Bob Franken, legal analyst Roger Cossack, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Whitewater background
- Clinton to testify Sunday - April 27, 1996
- AllPolitics - Barbour Takes A Jab At Clinton's Testimony - April 26, 1996
- Whitewater defense targets fraud scheme - April 8, 1996
- Clinton's name comes up in testimony - March 28, 1996
- Whitewater moves into the courtroom - March 5, 1996
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