Susan McDougal Says She Would Testify, but Only in Open Court

Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, jailed for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Little Rock, said Tuesday she would cooperate if she could testify in open court.

“Yes, I will testify if my actions, my words, and the way I say the things, if the public could see that and judge for themselves,” she said in a telephone interview with CNN’s “Crossfire.”

“But don’t put me in a grand jury with a bunch of OIC lawyers who are not interested in the truth in the first place,” she said, referring to the Office of Independent Counsel.

McDougal also said she was not guilty of the charges in the Whitewater investigation and would not ask President Clinton, her former business partner, to pardon her.

McDougal and her former husband, James B. McDougal, were partners with the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate development. Along with former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, the McDougals were convicted in May 1996 of bank fraud. She is appealing that conviction, for which she faces two years in prison.

McDougal was jailed in September for contempt after refusing to answer questions of Whitewater prosecutors investigating the Clintons’ previous business activities in Arkansas.

McDougal reiterated her distrust of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and her concern that he would twist her words to suit his purposes and later charge her with perjury. She said she was prepared to serve the maximum 18 months for contempt but would be willing to answer questions from Whitewater prosecutors if the proceeding was done in public.

Susan McDougal has not begun serving her sentence on the Whitewater conviction. She is being held in a jail in Los Angeles, where she faces state charges that she embezzled money from symphony conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife.