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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Hensley who wrote (14555)	4/23/1998 1:30:00 PM
From: John Hensley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

From today's WSJ: When Susan McDougal Almost Talked By CHRIS VLASTO "I know where all the bodies are buried." Those were the words that Susan McDougal said to me long before any pundits decided to call her a martyr, something likely to continue after her scheduled appearance today in front of the Whitewater grand jury in Little Rock. We were sitting in a trailer in Arkadelphia back in the winter of 1994. Ms. McDougal, at the time, was overshadowed by her husband. She shunned the spotlight but at the same time wanted to be pursued. From Little Rock to Los Angeles, Ms. McDougal kept me on a string. She would intrigue me with a cryptic clue and then walk away, leaving me guessing at what she meant to say. Giving only little bits of information, always off-the-record, Susan McDougal was one of the more mysterious characters in the Whitewater saga. It took three years and a felony conviction for her to agree to do an interview. It came suddenly. She called in August 1996 and said she was ready to tell all. She wanted to come to New York without her lawyer's knowledge to be interviewed by Diane Sawyer. She flew up to New York alone. We met at the Essex House bar to discuss the areas we were going to cover in the interview. The conversation was off-the-record, but at the time she promised she was going to answer all the questions on television. Overnight, everything changed. After the arrival of her brother, Bill Henley, and her fianc‚, Pat Harris, in the wee hours of the morning, Ms. McDougal began singing a different tune. With the cameras rolling, Ms. McDougal was constantly interrupted by the two men when Ms. Sawyer asked her sensitive questions involving President Clinton. She couldn't get a word in when Ms. Sawyer asked her whether Mr. Clinton knew anything about the illegal $300,000 loan she received from David Hale. The president has denied under oath knowing anything about that loan. Here's how the interview went: Ms. Sawyer: "Did Mr. Clinton know anything about your loan?" Ms. McDougal: "That's probably something that my attorney would not want me to talk about." [To Messrs. Henley and Harris: "I hate that, guys!"] "God, I hate this, Diane! Sorry!" Ms. Sawyer: "Did he?" Mr. Henley: "That's a perfect answer." Ms. McDougal: "Jeez, I hate that though!" Mr. Henley: "That's the only answer you have." Ms. McDougal: "That's the only answer I have." I was confused by her silence. I knew she was angry at Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, but we at "Prime Time Live" weren't the prosecutors. I asked her fianc‚ why she wouldn't answer the questions. He said "we have to save something for the prosecutors, we have to give them something." I concluded that she must know something incriminating about Mr. Clinton, and reluctantly accepted her silence. Ms. McDougal went back to Little Rock to face the federal grand jury. Five days after the taping of our interview, she was cited for contempt of court. I watched Ms. McDougal outside the courthouse stridently declare she wasn't going to answer Mr. Starr's questions, which got her 18 months in jail. I know she met with her attorney Bobby McDaniel and talked with Alan Dershowitz after our New York interview. But that Wednesday in Little Rock, I saw a completely different Susan McDougal. She no longer told her intriguing tales. After countless conversations, there was silence. Did someone get to her, or was she playing a game with me all along? She will go before the same grand jury today, to be asked the same old questions. Wherever they are, the bodies are buried deep. Mr. Vlasto is an investigative producer at ABC News.