Starr, Aides Question Hillary Clinton

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton gave testimony to Whitewater prosecutors for the sixth time on Saturday in a lengthy session videotaped in the White House residence, administration officials said.

Mrs. Clinton was questioned for four hours and 40 minutes by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and a team of aides about her work as a lawyer for the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan and her relations with the thrift’s owners, who were also her partners in the Whitewater land development company.

Prosecutors have been investigating whether Mrs. Clinton concealed documents or otherwise misled them about the nature of her work for James B. and Susan McDougal, owners of the thrift. Her sworn testimony, which was taped in the White House Yellow Room, will be given to the federal grand jury in Little Rock, Ark., that has been investigating the matter.

The testimony comes at a time when Starr has been resisting public pressure to close out his investigation. Starr has said much remains to be investigated, even as this grand jury is set to end its two years of work and be disbanded on May 7.

The prosecutor could arrange to give testimony to a new grand jury if he believes there is more to be investigated.

In a statement, White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff said the prosecutors’ questions dealt generally with the thrift and Mrs. Clinton’s relations with its principals. He declined to provide any further details.

Present at the taping with Mrs. Clinton were her attorney, David E. Kendall, and an associate of his, Nicole Seligman, as well as Ruff and his deputy counsel, Cheryl Mills.

Prosecutors included Starr, W. Hickman Ewing, Robert Bittman, Sol Weisenberg and Patrick O’Brien.

President Clinton, meanwhile, spent the glorious spring afternoon playing golf at the Robert Trent Jones course in nearby Manassas, Va. His golf partners included Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento).

Mrs. Clinton’s testimony was arranged during several days of conversations with Kendall, sources close to the case said. Mrs. Clinton, who was first interviewed on the subject by prosecutors in June 1994, has denied wrongdoing.

She has now been interviewed by prosecutors four times at the White House. The president has given testimony twice.

In recent examinations of witnesses, Starr’s assistants have been trying to determine whether friends of Clinton have sought to influence testimony or conceal documents, witnesses have disclosed. One set of documents that has raised questions has been the Rose Law Firm billing records that were said to be lost, then mysteriously appeared in the first family’s living quarters.

Witnesses have said that in recent weeks the grand jury has been spending much time examining evidence about Mrs. Clinton’s alleged role and that of Webster L. Hubbell, presidential confidant, former top Justice Department official and partner of Mrs. Clinton’s at the law firm.

In a report two years ago, federal regulators said that in the 1980s Mrs. Clinton helped create a legal document presented by Madison executives to deceive U.S. officials. The same year, prosecutors filed papers that identified Mrs. Clinton as among those who could be indicted for alleged wrongdoing having to do with operation of the thrift.

In the last interrogation of Mrs. Clinton, prosecutors also asked about the “filegate” controversy, which arose because White House employees gathered FBI files on Republican officials. The motive for the compiling of files has not been clear, and it is not known how many White House officials knew of the practice.

The White House has contended that the acts were a mistake based on sloppy records and were limited to only a handful of mid-level officials.

Prosecutors had hoped to use Hubbell as a knowledgeable witness on the Clintons’ dealings with the thrift. But that hope was not realized, and they have turned their attention instead to trying to find out whether Clinton friends made payments to Hubbell to discourage him from cooperating with investigators.