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

Jones lawsuit accusing Clinton of sexual harassment and abuse of power
(excerpted from a longer article)
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

SO FAR, the Washington press corps has refused to cover revelations about Bill Clinton's vigorous philandering while Governor of Arkansas, even though taxpayers' money was allegedly diverted to pay for his sexual escapades.

The press has also turned a blind eye to the claims of a campaign of threats, bribes and dirty tricks to suppress the story.

But things may change abruptly this week. Paula Corbyn Jones, 27, a former employee of the Arkansas Industrial Development Corporation, is expected to file a lawsuit on Tuesday or Wednesday accusing Clinton of sexual harassment and abuse of power dating from May 1991.

If she goes ahead, there could soon be affidavits, depositions, subpoenas and testimony under oath. The President himself could conceivably be made to appear in court.

According to Mrs Jones, she was summoned from her desk by a state trooper, escorted to a room upstairs and left alone with Governor Clinton. There are no witnesses for what occurred during the next 15 minutes.

As in so many allegations of sexual harassment, it is her word against his. But her colleagues have claimed that they saw her return from the encounter in a state of distress, and she immediately recounted what had happened to her family.

But whether or not Mrs Jones proves an effective plaintiff, the President could face even more trouble from the state trooper involved, Danny Ferguson, if he is forced to testify under oath.

As a member of the inner circle of the governor's security detail, he knows the secrets of the Mansion.

Inevitably, Mrs Jones's lawyers would ask him whether he had solicited women for the governor on other occasions, and in what circumstances. All kinds of details could come to light, right there in open court beneath the lights of national television.

Trooper Ferguson has already made clear that he will not commit perjury if questioned about Bill Clinton. Last year he told the Los Angeles Times that the President had called him personally from the Oval Office and had offered him a lucrative federal job in exchange for helping to suppress the Troopergate sex scandal. If true, this offer could violate a federal criminal statute.

The White House sent a high-level fixer to persuade him to retract his allegation. Ferguson waivered, then finally agreed to back down, allowing a fudged statement to be issued in his name.

But he refused to sign an affidavit, and later told colleagues that he would speak the truth if forced to testify under oath. The thought that this controversy could be opened up again, this time in court, is causing real heart-burn in the White House.

As for Mrs Jones, she might have settled for a discrete apology from the President a few months ago. But now that her claim has been swept aside contemptuously by the White House, and by the Washington press corps, she is determined to get her day in court.

"What's right is right," she said, "It's got to get out. People have got to know what he did to me."


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