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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Slugger who wrote (9443)	1/19/2001 2:37:06 PM
From: Slugger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

Clinton Admits False Statements By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer Friday, Jan. 19, 2001; 2:21 p.m. EST WASHINGTON –– President Clinton admitted Friday for the first time that he made false statements in the Monica Lewinsky case and entered into a deal with prosecutors to avert an indictment. He surrendered his law license for five years. "I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish that goal and that certain of my responses to questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false," the president said in a statement read by White House press secretary Jake Siewert. "I hope my actions today will help bring closure and finality to these matters," Clinton said. The deal will spare the nation the prospect of seeing one of its former chief executives put on criminal trial. Clinton will have immunity from further prosecution under the deal with Independent Counsel Robert Ray. The deal effectively brings to an end the six-year Whitewater investigation that began with questions about the Clintons' Arkansas land deal but expanded to his conduct in the Oval Office. "He made the deal because he wanted to put this behind him," said White House press secretary Jake Siewert. "He wants to put this behind him, enter life as a public citizen ... get a fresh start," Siewert said. Ray, who took over the investigation more than a year ago, had been using a grand jury to decide whether Clinton should be indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice after he leaves office on Saturday. Ray reached the deal with Clinton's attorney, David Kendall. The deal addresses the remaining legal issues from the president's affair with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, which prompted his impeachment by the House in December 1998 and acquittal in a Senate trial the following February. The Arkansas Supreme Court had begun proceedings to revoke Clinton's law license, but the president has now agreed to have the license suspended for five years. In addition to impeachment, a federal judge fined Clinton for misleading testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit that helped spur the Lewinsky revelations. In recent months, Clinton had defiantly and repeatedly suggested that he would fight any indictment by Ray. "I don't believe that I should be charged," Clinton said in an interview with "60 Minutes II" in December. "If that's what they want, I'll be happy to stand and fight." Last April, Clinton told a conference of newspaper editors that he would not ask his successor for a pardon. "I don't think it would be necessary. I won't be surprised by anything that happens, but I'm not interested in being pardoned." In recent days, however, even Republicans who had long criticized Clinton had urged there be no such trial. The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, Orrin Hatch of Utah, suggested that President-elect Bush pardon Clinton to "end a problem in America that needs to be ended." Bush responded by saying, "I think it's time to get all of this business behind us" and let Clinton "move on and enjoy life and become an active participant in the American system." Regarding the possibility of a pardon, Bush has said, "The suggestion that I would pardon somebody who has never been indicted, that doesn't make any sense to me." Behind the scenes, Kendall and Ray's office worked on a deal to avoid a grand jury indictment. Ray had said the decision on a Clinton indictment was the last remaining business he had in the independent counsel probe that has spent more than $50 million since 1994. President and Hillary Rodham Clinton were never formally accused of any wrongdoing in the Whitewater investigation, though their business deals were investigated and several of their associates convicted. Their former Whitewater business partners, James and Susan McDougal, were convicted of fraud in a 1996 trial in which Clinton testified by videotape. Longtime Clinton friend Webster Hubbell, Mrs. Clinton's former law partner, also pleaded guilty to wrongdoing. Ray's predecessor, Kenneth Starr, was asked by Attorney General Janet Reno to expand the investigation beyond Arkansas to the White House's improper gathering of FBI files, the firing of White House travel employees and ultimately the Lewinsky matter. Clinton was forced to testify before a federal grand jury about his relationship with the intern and to make a dramatic national apology in August 1998 after months of denying an affair. Weeks later, Starr sent a report to Congress saying there was evidence of impeachable offenses by Clinton. The House, mostly along party lines, voted to impeach the president that December, but the Senate acquitted him a few months. news.excite.com