Clinton ordered to testify in second Whitewater trial

	International News	Electronic Telegraph
	Wednesday June 5 1996	Issue 399

Clinton ordered to testify in second Whitewater trial
By Hugh Davies in Washington

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A FEDERAL judge yesterday ordered President Bill Clinton to testify in a second trial related to the web of financial and real estate dealings that has become known as the Whitewater affair.

US District Judge Susan Wright said the President could testify by videotape, as he had done in a case that concluded last month with the conviction of former Clinton associates James and Susan McDougal and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker. Clinton's legal advisers pointed out that in both cases it was not the prosecution but the defence that sought Clinton's testimony.

"The President will provide the court with the information it requests," said Mark Fabiani, Clinton's legal adviser on Whitewater matters. Clinton had already been notified last Saturday that one of the defendants wanted him to testify.

The new trial, which opens on June 17, concerns bank fraud charges against two bankers close to Clinton, a former Arkansas governor: Herbert Branscum and Robert Hill, owners of a bank in Perryville, Arkansas. The two have pleaded innocent to the charges. They were indicted in February on charges of diverting bank funds to Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial campaign. "The President has always said that he will provide whatever information the court deems necessary," said Fabiani.

Clinton himself has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the Whitewater deals involving an Arkansas real estate venture and federally backed loans.

A former judge is expected to be granted immunity from prosecution today so that he can give evidence about President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, to the Senate Whitewater Committee.

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr has told the panel that he has no objections to the move. David Hale has so far refused to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment, which protects him against self-incrimination. He was the star witness in the trial that convicted Mr Clinton's Whitewater partners, James and Susan McDougal, of fraud.

He implied that Mr Clinton had lied when the President denied that, as Arkansas governor, he had pressured Mr Hale to give an illegal $300,000 federal loan to Mrs McDougal.

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