Whitewater Defendant Wants Clinton to Take Witness Stand

A defendant in the upcoming Whitewater trial in Little Rock, Ark., has asked that President Clinton be required to testify.

Susan McDougal, in a motion filed late Thursday, argues that her lawyer must have an opportunity to question the president to rebut the testimony of David Hale, who is the government’s star witness.

Hale, a former municipal judge and businessman, has alleged that Clinton pressured him into lending McDougal $300,000 in 1986 from a government-backed small-business investment fund that Hale administered.

Clinton has denied the charge.

About $30,000 of the loan passed through a bank account belonging to the Whitewater land venture in which the Clintons, McDougal and James B. McDougal, her husband at the time, were partners--leading to allegations that the improper loan may have benefited the Clintons.

Hale also contends that after he gave the money to Susan McDougal, Clinton told him that she had failed to spend it for the stated purpose of helping to straighten out the books of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, a thrift her husband owned.

The McDougals and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker are scheduled to go on trial March 4 on fraud and conspiracy charges. The three are accused of illegally benefiting from loans obtained from Hale and Madison Guaranty.

The trial judge will decide whether to allow Susan McDougal to obtain testimony from the president. Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr is expected to respond to the proposal next week. And the president’s attorneys said Friday that they are reviewing the request.

It is not unprecedented for a president to be called as a witness in a criminal trial. Former President Ronald Reagan submitted to a videotaped interrogation in the trial of his national security advisor, John M. Poindexter, in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Susan McDougal’s lawyer, Bobby McDaniel of Jonesboro, Ark., said that he would prefer to question the president in person during the trial. But he said that he would not object to conducting his interrogation by satellite hookup.

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According to Hale, he and Clinton discussed the loan in a meeting arranged by James McDougal at a trailer that was being used by the thrift owner as a real estate office for one of his many land development enterprises. Their subsequent conversation occurred at the state Capitol, according to Hale.

“No one but David Hale and then-Gov. Clinton were present at the two alleged meetings, so there is no one who can refute the testimony of David Hale except President Clinton,” McDaniel wrote on Susan McDougal’s behalf.