Copyright © 1994 The Telegraph plc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
The Electronic Telegraph   Sunday 1o April 1994   World News
[World News]

Trooper 'solicited hundred girls for Clinton'
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

EFFORTS by the White House to weather a rising tide of scandal look doomed to suffer a new setback this week after it emerged that another Arkansas state trooper has made allegations against President Clinton.

The state trooper, L. D. "Doug" Brown, has given a detailed account of what he claims were repeated abuses by Mr Clinton of his office while Governor of Arkansas. Mr Brown has been subpoenaed to give evidence to the Whitewater investigation.

Mr Brown backs up the charges of other troopers by claiming that he, too, was involved in facilitating extra-marital affairs for Mr Clinton while on the security detail of the Governor's Mansion from 1982 to 1985.

He alleges that he solicited more than 100 women on behalf of Mr Clinton. He also says he charged the cost of Mr Clinton's visits to nightclubs and resorts to the state police credit card.

Trooper Brown tells his story in the May edition of the American Spectator magazine. He is currently part of the Special Investigations unit at the state police headquarters in Little Rock. His account is particularly damaging because he was said to be a close confidant of the Governor, reportedly attending intimate social events with Mr Clinton.

His wife was the nanny of the Clintons' daughter Chelsea and his mother-in-law was a key functionary at the Governor's Mansion and now works on protocol matters at the White House.

According to the heavily researched magazine article, Mr Brown subsequently fell out with the Clintons in a dispute over a pay rise for the Arkansas police. Some time after leaving the Governor's detail, he says that Clinton aides tried to ensure his silence on Mr Clinton's indiscretions with unspecified inducements and threats.

Subsequently, Mr Brown claims, he was the subject of a criminal investigation for embezzling the funds of the Arkansas State Troopers' Association. The prosecuting attorney later found that there was no basis for prosecution.

The fact of that the investigation took place raises serious questions because two state troopers have told the American Spectator that they overheard the Clintons discussing the need to neutralise Mr Brown. This conforms with charges made by other critics of the President that his machine in Arkansas often used the law politically to neutralise opponents in the state.

It follows recent controversy in Washington over alleged attempts by the White House to misuse the Justice Department for political ends and undisputed meddling in investigations being conducted by federal regulatory agencies.

Most sensationally, Mr Brown claims to have been a witness to a long affair between Mrs Clinton and the late Vince Foster, afterwards the deputy White House counsel, who died in mysterious circumstances last July. One incident recounted by Mr Brown tells of sexual frolics by the couple while the Governor indulged in similar behaviour with another woman in their presence. Mr Brown also backs up allegations by Sally Perdue, published in The Sunday Telegraph on Jan 23, that she had a liaison with Mr Clinton in 1983.

Supporters of Mr Clinton argue that his private life is not a matter of public concern. Mr Clinton himself, however, has angrily dismissed the allegations against him as "outlandish".


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