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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (15497)11/21/1998 6:06:00 PM
From: jbe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 67261
 
Re: Clinton & Sexual Harassment (Again)

Whoa, Betty, hold on...:-)

The comment of mine that you cite -- "the case was dismissed" -- was in response to your argument that Clinton should be held to the same standards of sexual harassment law as anyone else. It was meant to point out that since the case was dismissed, we do not know whether Clinton would have been held to the same standards or not. I then asked a question:

Would the judge have ruled differently, had Clinton told the whole truth and nothing but the truth? What do you think?

Let me elaborate on the question:

Would the judge have changed her mind about the materiality of Clinton's testimony -- about Lewinsky -- if he had told the whole truth? Would the judge have dismissed the case, if he had told the whole truth?

I think she would have, anyway. Remember, the Lewinsky issue was brought into the Paula Jones case because the lawyers wished to prove a pattern of harassment. On that point, Judge Wright specifically said, in her decision, that Jones had to prove her own case:

Whether other women may have been subjected to workplace
harassment, and whether such evidence has allegedly been suppressed,
does not change the fact that plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that
she has a case worthy of submitting to a jury.


washingtonpost.com

Next point:

The Scaife business, Paula Jones political leanings, the "evil" Linda Tripp are completely irrelevant to the core issue of whether of not Bill Clinton sexually harassed one Paula Corbin Jones in that Little Rock hotel.

I never said that they were relevant to that issue. I only said they affected public perception of the case.

The fact is that the judge ruled Paula Jones' case to be without merit, even if the President had behaved himself in that Little Rock hotel room exactly as Jones said he had. That alone was not sufficient, under the requirements of Title VII and Arkansas law, to prove a charge of sexual harassment. Eventually, the Judge complied with the President's request for a summary judgment, on the following grounds:

(1) plaintiff cannot show either quid pro quo or hostile work environment
sexual harassment under § 1983 because (a) the record plainly
demonstrates that plaintiff did not suffer any tangible job detriment for
purposes of establishing a quid pro quo claim, let alone one caused by
her purported rejection of Mr. Clinton's alleged sexual advances, and (b)
the alleged actions as described by plaintiff, even resolving all
inferences and factual disputes in her favor,
do not constitute severe
or pervasive abusive conduct for purposes of establishing a hostile
work environment claim; (2) if plaintiff's § 1983 claim fails, so too does
her § 1985 conspiracy claim because (a) plaintiff has failed to show that
any such conspiracy actually resulted in a deprivation of her
constitutional rights, and (b) the undisputed facts do not show any
agreement between Governor Clinton and Trooper Ferguson to deprive
plaintiff of her constitutional rights; and (3) plaintiff's claim of
intentional infliction of emotional distress or out (3) plaintiff's claim of
intentional infliction of emotional distress or outrage fails because (a)
by plaintiff's own testimony, the conduct at issue does not constitute
intentional infliction of emotional distress or outrage under Arkansas
law, and (b) plaintiff did not as a result of the alleged conduct suffer
emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person could endure it.


The lying under oath the President is charged with allegedly occurred in his testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, not Paula Jones.

Now, of course, Paula Jones' lawyers began an appeal, arguing, among other things, that Judge Wright 1) failed to consider critical evidence; 2) misinterpreted the law; 3) abused her power by excising all references to Monica Lewinsky. But again, we do not know whether the appeal would have been successful, because the case was settled out of court.

How can we "ferret out the facts" now? One thing each citizen can do is to collect all the documents that have been published, and try to make his/her own determination. But how many people do you think are really going to do that? And how many of them are lawyers?

There is a distinction, after all, between moral standards (by which Clinton fails) and legal standards (maybe "pass", maybe "fail").

As for the alleged "perjury", I am essentially agreeing with you. It is separate from the "sexual harassment" issue.

jbe