Copyright © 1997 The Telegraph plc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
International News Electronic Telegraph
Sunday 12 January 1997
Issue 597

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The anatomy of a President
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard


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Politics Now: Clinton v Paula Jones


Corruption in America



Why is Clinton persecuting me?

NINE Justices of the US Supreme Court will decide tomorrow whether President Clinton is immune from civil lawsuits during his tenure in office, or whether he must confront the sexual harassment charges of Paula Jones without further delay. If they rule in favour of Mrs Jones, she will acquire the power to inflict months of humiliation on the White House.

"May God have mercy on Bill Clinton, because Paula is not going to have any," said her pugnacious husband, Steve Jones, last week. "After the things they've put us through for the past two years - calling Paula a trailer-park whore - he can't expect much, can he?"

Strictly speaking, the case is about abuse of power by a state governor against a vulnerable employee in a weak position to rebuff his sexual advances. Paula Jones alleges that, in 1991, she was summoned from her desk at a conference in Little Rock and escorted by an armed state trooper to a room at the Excelsior Hotel, where the Governor of Arkansas was waiting for her.

According to her complaint, Clinton "approached the sofa and as he sat down he lowered his trousers and underwear. There were distinguishing characteristics in Clinton's genital area that were obvious to Jones."

But the case has implications that go further. Litigants in America have wide powers of "discovery", allowing them to compel testimony under oath and subpoena evidence. It goes without saying that Jones intends to subpoena the "distinguishing characteristics" of the President's anatomy. The Jones legal team also plans to use "discovery" for a broader purpose.

"They're going to go after Clinton's medical records, the raw documents, not just opinions from doctors, and they're going to find out if he ever overdosed on cocaine; they're going to find out everything," said a source close to the Jones team.

There is a long list of Arkansas state troopers who will be called under subpoena to answer whether Bill Clinton ever employed them to solicit women. Since Trooper L. D. Brown has already admitted to carrying out this service at least 100 times, this testimony could prove to be illuminating.

In essence, the "troopergate" scandal broken by the American Spectator in 1993 is likely to be rehashed in expanded form. The difference this time is that the American press will no longer have an excuse to ignore the story. It has to be said, however, that the press is turning already. The shift began last November, when the American Lawyer published a long article arguing that Paula Jones had a strong case against the President.

So far the President has managed to delay the case for two-and-a-half years, but his options are finally running out. The chief question now is whether the Supreme Court will accept the claim of presidential immunity, or whether it will uphold the ruling of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that the President, not being a monarch, must face the accusations of his fellow citizens in the commoners' court.

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