Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Susan McDougal To Face Grand Jury
> LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Federal marshals plucked
> Susan McDougal from a Los Angeles prison this morning
> for a trip to Little Rock and an appearance before the
> same special grand jury she previously thumbed her nose
> at.
>
> Mrs. McDougal, who served 18 months in prison on a
> contempt citation rather than talk to the Whitewater
> grand jury in September 1996, is due to meet the panel
> again Thursday. Her lawyer says he'll fight the
> appearance and she won't cooperate if forced to appear.
>
> The lawyer, Mark Geragos, claims Whitewater prosecutor
> Kenneth W. Starr has no right to put Mrs. McDougal, a
> former business partner of President Clinton, before
> the panel because of questions about Starr's links to
> right-wing groups with axes to grind against the
> president.
>
> If the court turns aside Geragos' effort and Mrs.
> McDougal indeed refuses to testify, she could be
> prosecuted for criminal contempt. She had already
> served 1 1/2 years for civil contempt.
>
> At her Sept. 4, 1996, appearance before the panel, Mrs.
> McDougal refused to answer when asked whether Clinton
> knew about a fraudulent $300,000 loan she had received
> and whether the president testified truthfully at her
> trial.
>
> The government offered her immunity from prosecution,
> as long as she told the truth. Later, Starr said that
> by asking for full immunity -- even from perjury --
> Mrs. McDougal wanted a ``license to lie.'' She counters
> that Starr isn't interested in the truth, only in
> getting Clinton.
>
> The president, Mrs. McDougal and their spouses were
> partners in the Whitewater land development that Starr
> initially was assigned to investigate four years ago.
> Mrs. McDougal was convicted of fraud at a Whitewater
> trial two years ago.
>
> At a morning news conference, Geragos said federal
> marshals picked up Mrs. McDougal in Los Angeles early
> this morning and she would arrive in Little Rock at
> midafternoon.
>
> Geragos also said he was stepping up a drive for
> donations for Mrs. McDougal's legal defense fund --
> gearing it toward attacks on Starr's credibility,
> including an investigation of the special prosecutor.
>
> Tuesday, former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker spent an afternoon
> with the grand jury and said the appearance, his
> second, would likely be the last.
>
> Tucker spent more than three hours under questioning
> Tuesday about a matters he characterized as ranging
> widely across ``history and things which may seem
> important to some people, (but) don't seem important to
> me.''
>
> The panel is looking into the activities of Hillary
> Rodham Clinton; former Justice Department figure Webb
> Hubbell, her former Rose Law Firm partner; and
> Hubbell's father-in-law, prominent Little Rock
> businessman Seth Ward.
>
> The probe has to do with five adjoining parcels of
> property in Little Rock controlled by James McDougal,
> according to recent grand jury witnesses and lawyers
> familiar with the investigation.
>
> McDougal ran the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and
> Loan that is at the center of the Whitewater
> investigation. He was convicted in the same trial that
> ended in convictions for Tucker and Mrs. McDougal, his
> ex-wife. McDougal died in prison last month, after
> cooperation with prosecutors win him a reduced term.
>
> After completing her 18-month term for contempt, Mrs.
> McDougal began a two-year prison term for her
> Whitewater crimes. She is being held in California,
> where she was awaiting trial on unrelated charges that
> she embezzled $150,000 while working for conductor
> Zubin Mehta and his wife.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
