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International News Electronic Telegraph
Tuesday June 11 1996
Issue 403

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Democrats fight to stem Whitewater tide
By Hugh Davies in Washington


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WITH a summer of scandal looming for President Clinton, the first order of business today for Democrats on the Senate Whitewater Committee will be to squash public testimony from a former judge, David Hale, who has cast the leader as a liar.

Spurred by the coming presidential election, the party is united in efforts to keep the lid on the affair. Hale was brought last week from a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, to a Washington hotel in the expectation that the committee would question him in hearings carried live on television about what he was not asked at the recent trial and conviction of Mr Clinton's Whitewater partners.

But Democrats, stunned by the verdicts and terrified at what Hale has to say about three alleged meetings with the president, are blocking the testimony. The chairman of the committee, Alfonse D'Amato, is to call for a formal vote on allowing it, but Democrats will deny him the two-thirds majority needed.

The old Arkansas political machine is working overtime, with a political crony of Mr Clinton in Little Rock, the attorney Mark Stodola, threatening to prosecute Hale for an insurance code violation. Hale, who is serving 28 months for fraud, says he will testify only if he is given legal protection from his words to the Senate being used against him.

After months of insisting that Hale was a crucial witness for the panel, Democrats are preparing to vote "no" for giving him immunity. If, as expected, the strategy works, the panel's final report on Whitewater will be severe, but not deadly.

Not only has the president been subpoenaed to testify, but one of his closest aides, Bruce Lindsey, will have to give his account of receiving the cash as campaign treasurer

Mrs Hillary Clinton will come under fire for her tardy production of records, but there is unlikely to be much detail for the Clintons to worry about.

However, things could heat up on Monday when the Whitewater independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, puts two bankers - both former friends of the president - on trial in Little Rock.

It is alleged that they illegally funnelled funds from their bank at Perryville, Arkansas, into Mr Clinton's 1990 campaign for the state governorship.

Not only has the president been subpoenaed to testify, but one of his closest aides, Bruce Lindsey, will have to give his account of receiving the cash as campaign treasurer. He has insisted that everything was above board and that the money was used to "get out the vote" in black precincts.

Prosecutors insist that one of the bankers was promised an appointment to a powerful state highway commission

Mr Clinton will have to talk about a meeting in the governor's office on Dec 14, 1990, at which he was handed a $7,000 (£4,500) post-campaign contribution. Prosecutors insist that one of the bankers was promised an appointment to a powerful state highway commission.

There is talk that Mr Starr's tactic of offering low prison terms in exchange for evidence is also starting to work in the case of Jim Tucker, Mr Clinton's successor as governor. He was convicted of fraud in the last trial, but faces more legal problems which his lawyers say he wants to resolve.

He is thought to know some seamy secrets about Whitewater as well as efforts to silence state troopers about the president's alleged philandering.

Another cloud on the horizon is the Supreme Court's decision, expected late this month, on whether the president can avoid the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit until he leaves office. If this goes ahead, voters might be turned off by the lurid details.

However, with the aid of the generally supine US media, the White House has so far artfully avoided much political fallout.

If polls are correct, Mr Clinton is as "Teflon-coated" as Ronald Reagan, in that many Americans simply like him as a man and, with the economy in decent shape, need a more convincing reason to switch leaders.

  • John Hiscock in Los Angeles writes: Hundreds of chanting gay rights demonstrators greeted Mr Clinton in San Francisco on a three-day campaign trip to California. But the massive demonstrations forecast by Mayor Willie Brown failed to materialise.

    10 June 1996: Democrat seeks nomination of Perot party



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