Lies Revisited: Judge's contempt ruling removes Clinton's last fig leaf
mercurycenter.com
We interrupt this news report on genocide in Kosovo and other
life-and-death matters to return you to a previous program ...
ROUGH justice was delivered in Little Rock this week. The
president who claimed he didn't lie about sex was found in contempt
of court. A key witness who went to jail rather than, she says, lie
about sex to convict him was found innocent of obstructing justice. If
not parity, then there was at least poetry in the timing of actions in
two Arkansas courtrooms Monday.
The slap against President Clinton was direct, stinging -- and right. It
yanks the last fig leaf from those, including perhaps the president
himself, who deluded themselves into thinking that Clinton didn't lie
about his affair with Monica Lewinsky in testimony in the Paula
Jones lawsuit. And it imposes a civil penalty that the offense
deserves: payment of potentially tens of thousands of dollars in
Jones' lawyers' fees and the possibility of disbarment.
The verdict in the case of Susan McDougal was an indirect slap at
her persecutor and Clinton's prosecutor, Ken Starr. She was the one
charged, but he was the one whose tactics were on trial -- at least in
some jurors' minds. So they freed her to reprimand him.
Clinton becomes the first sitting president to be sanctioned for
contempt of court -- another black mark for the history books. And
he can hardly claim it involved a matter of principle.
Clinton had denied having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, even
being alone with the White House intern. We now know he had
many intimate encounters over their year-long relationship.
In her 32-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber
Wright said the president gave ''false, misleading and evasive
answers that were designed to obstruct the judicial process.'' To
''protect the integrity'' of the judicial system, she said, ''sanctions
must be imposed, not only to redress the president's misconduct, but
to deter others who might themselves consider emulating the
president of the United States by engaging in misconduct ...''
Clinton's lies in the Jones case formed the basis for a count of
impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee passed but that
the full House ultimately rejected. Some members believed Clinton.
Others thought he lied but that the offense didn't deserve removal
from office. Now Wright has added her footnote to history.
The impact of the decision will linger. Arkansas judicial authorities
may sanction Clinton further, even rescind his right to practice law.
And Wright's biting ruling is another reminder of Clinton's poor
judgment as he struggles to assert his leadership in the Kosovo war.
Clinton caused his own predicament, obviously by lying but also by
failing to settle the Jones lawsuit earlier, before it cost him his dignity
as well as $850,000. McDougal was arguably at least partly a victim
of her own stubbornness and Starr's vindictiveness.
Mind you, she's no ingenue. In 1996, she was convicted of fraud for
an illegal $300,000 loan to a savings and loan that she and her late
husband owned. And, for whatever reason -- loyalty or perversity --
for years she refused to tell prosecutors whether she knew of any
wrongdoing that Bill or Hillary Clinton, her partners in the
Whitewater land deal, might have committed.
But she already had served 18 months in jail for civil contempt for
refusing to answer questions to a grand jury when Starr then turned
around and piled on criminal contempt charges as well -- a ruthless
remedy.
McDougal maintained that she kept silent because Starr didn't want
the truth; he wanted her to lie so he could get Bill Clinton. The jurors
may not have believed that, but they did conclude that she at least
thought she was harassed, a basis for acquittal.
The jurors deadlocked on two other criminal contempt charges,
which means that Starr can afflict her with a retrial. He and
prosecutors haven't made up their minds.
Feeling vindicated, McDougal said her trial gave her a chance ''to
tell the world what kind of man Ken Starr is.'' Her lawyer
proclaimed the trial ''put a stake through the heart of Ken Starr.''
That may be cheerily optimistic. We suspect it may take more garlic
than there is in Gilroy to stop this count-crazy Dracula.
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