Reno Argues That Clinton Need Not Testify in Person

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno filed a motion Tuesday supporting President Clinton’s view that he should not be forced to testify in person at the Whitewater-related trial of James B. McDougal, ex-wife Susan McDougal and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

Reno told the court that it would be an “unwarranted interference” in the nation’s business for the president to be questioned in person. His attorneys are offering to make him available to be questioned on videotape.

Attorneys for the defendants were angered by Reno’s intervention in the case, which is being tried by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. An independent counsel was appointed to investigate Whitewater after Reno decided it would be a conflict of interest for the Justice Department to do so.

Referring to Reno’s motion, Sam Heuer, James McDougal’s attorney, said: “If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.”

Clinton was subpoenaed by the defendants, who claim his testimony is necessary for them to challenge the credibility of the government’s star witness, former municipal court Judge David Hale.

Hale, who owned a government-backed small-business investment corporation, will testify that he made improper loans to the McDougals, the Clintons’ investment partners in the Whitewater land development, and to Tucker in the mid-1980s at the urging of Clinton, who then was governor of Arkansas. The president will deny the allegation.

Hale’s testimony is central to the case against the defendants, who are accused of conspiring to fraudulently obtain a total of about $3 million from the small-business investment corporation.