Susan McDougal Still Silent, Still Talking About It

It was not the most promising condition for an interview.

Susan McDougal--the ex-business partner of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, ex-wife of convicted fraudulent banker James B. McDougal, ex-business associate and accused embezzler of conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife and, thanks to a federal contempt citation, ex-free Arkansan--was in town for an indefinite stay as an inmate of Sybil Brand Institute for Women.

Her crime: Silence.

People who don’t talk are generally unsatisfactory subjects for interviews. But McDougal’s is turning out to be a very noisy silence.

In recent days her comments have been featured in a lengthy New Yorker article asking the question: “Why won’t she talk?” A crew from NBC-TV’s “Today Show” recorded her views one day last week. And she used her limited telephone privileges to air her opinions live on Michael Jackson’s radio talk show.

From her prison cell, McDougal has effectively launched a crusade to damn what she calls the “political witch hunt” of Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

But what about the questions she refuses to answer? Does she know anything that could help the Whitewater investigators? Is she remaining silent to protect the Clintons? Could she be, as some have suggested, the key to whether the president or first lady faces indictments?

Sybil Brand, the Los Angeles County jail for women, is an aging, beige-colored facility with too many inmates and the pervasive aroma of cleaning fluids. One sheriff’s deputy likens it to working in a hospital. It seems more like a bad motel in Jersey City.

Because the glass-walled attorney interview rooms are all occupied and the visitors’ rooms crowded as well, this interview is conducted in a narrow, green room with one glass wall bordered by high-intensity lights. It’s the line-up chamber. A sheriff’s deputy stands guard under the black numeral 2.

McDougal arrives in a faded red dress and good spirits. She is resolutely cheerful.

“When this is all over, I’ll still be standing--and I’ll still be smiling,” declares the inmate at the outset. “Honestly, I’m proud of myself. I have not and will not trade lies for leniency.”

Last fall, before a Little Rock, Ark., grand jury, she refused to answer when a prosecutor sought to question her about Clinton. The president’s alleged role in the award of a fraudulent $300,000 loan had been a central element of an earlier criminal trial in which she and her ex-husband were convicted of fraud.

Clinton, testifying in their trial, denied allegations that as governor he had pressured an Arkansas lender to make what the lender ultimately confessed were fraudulent loans. Clinton also denied attending any meetings between the Arkansas lender and McDougal.

“To your knowledge, did William Jefferson Clinton testify truthfully at your trial?” asked associate independent counsel W. Ray Jahn in the grand jury chamber in September.

But despite the government’s promise of leniency, McDougal stood stubbornly silent. She was summarily dispatched to a series of prisons on a civil contempt citation that could cost her 18 months behind bars--in addition to the two-year criminal sentence--unless she decides to talk.

“I will never speak to those people,” she insists.

To a reporter, she is willing to provide very limited responses to some questions haunting the Whitewater investigation and continuing to stir up angry debate, particularly among political partisans.

She knows of no improper conduct by either of the Clintons in connection with the Whitewater development or anything else. She won’t answer specific questions. She didn’t attend any meeting at which Clinton pressured anyone to make loans to her or her ex-husband. She won’t discuss whether she heard talk of such meetings. And, no, she is not trying to protect the Clintons.

“My contempt citation has everything to do with my contempt for Kenneth Starr and very little to do with Bill and Hillary.”

She says she is willing to provide “truthful answers” to investigators if Starr and Jahn, among others, resign from the investigation. Until then, she will continue the role she has come to relish: as “a rock in Kenneth Starr’s shoe.”

She is encouraged by what she calls a flood of mail from well-wishers from all over the country who, she says, have come to see the Starr investigation as “a politically motivated prosecution” because of her personal sacrifice and willingness to stand up against it.

Meanwhile, she awaits trial on the pending embezzlement charges brought against her in connection with claims that she misappropriated more than $150,000 from the Mehta family while working for the household after leaving her husband.

She said she is also informed that she faces likely tax prosecution.

“They’re trying to break me, but they picked on the wrong one,” she says.

Interview time is up. McDougal shuffles out the door in her laceless sneakers and turns to wave goodbye. The doors close.

The last glimpse survives like a freeze-frame. Susan McDougal is still smiling.