Clinton Gives Deposition in Paula Jones’ Sex Lawsuit

President Clinton on Saturday became the first U.S. chief executive to testify as a defendant while still in office, answering questions under oath in Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual-harassment suit against him.

In a scene tinged with Washington theatrics and with Jones present during the closed-door session, the president spent about six hours giving a videotaped deposition to Jones’ lawyers, who are trying to develop evidence for their case before it goes to trial.

Afterward, Jones left hurriedly in a taxi, returning to her hotel without saying anything to reporters. Clinton also left in his motorcade without making any comment. Participants on both sides are under a gag order issued by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright of Little Rock, Ark., who also flew to Washington for the proceedings.

Back at the White House, Clinton waved and, ignoring reporters’ questions, went inside, where officials said he picked up a draft of his State of the Union address before heading to the White House residence. Plans to go out with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and his wife were scrapped because the president had had “a long day,” aides said.

The deposition was in many ways a milestone event. It marked the first occasion after years of swirling claims and counterclaims that Clinton was believed to have been questioned under oath about allegedly adulterous relationships he may have had or about his alleged use of Arkansas state troopers to procure sexual partners while he was governor of that state.

It also was the first time that Jones, a former Arkansas state employee who now lives in Long Beach, has met the president face to face since she filed her lawsuit in Little Rock four years ago. She was deposed for 13 hours over two days last fall.

Her suit alleges that in 1991 a state trooper summoned her to Clinton’s hotel suite during a state trade show where she was working. She claims that the governor then exposed himself and asked her to perform a sex act, which she says she refused.

In the past, Clinton has repeatedly denied Jones’ accusations. According to one of Clinton’s advisors, the president planned to say at the deposition that he could not exclude the possibility that an Arkansas trooper, Danny Ferguson, may have brought Jones to his hotel room.

However, this advisor said, Clinton does not remember Jones and never summoned her to the hotel room. If Jones came to the hotel room, it was on her own initiative, the Clinton advisor asserted.

Clinton appeared for the deposition in the 11th-floor offices of his attorney, Robert S. Bennett, located less than two blocks from the White House.

Clinton’s testimony took place amid a tumultuous, circus-like atmosphere in which throngs of photographers, reporters and tourists stationed themselves on the streets outside, waiting for a glimpse of the president or his accuser. Camera crews jumped on cars and jostled the Jones party. Susan Carpenter McMillan, Jones’ spokeswoman, called them “real jerks” and canceled a plan to have Jones make a statement to the journalists.

But before the deposition started, Carpenter McMillan quoted Jones as saying earlier that morning: “I feel so proud to be an American to know that this judicial system works, to know that a little girl from Arkansas is equal to the president of the United States.”

At another point, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), apparently by accident, wandered past the scene into a nearby restaurant, the Ebbitt Grill, and asked bystanders what was happening. Told it was Clinton testifying in the sexual-harassment case, his eyes widened. “Oh, is that what it is?” he asked.

Jones was not obliged to attend Clinton’s testimony, but she volunteered to do so. Dressed in a beige pant suit, she was accompanied by her husband, Steve, and six lawyers.

In a sign of the extraordinary importance given to personal appearance in the case, Carpenter McMillan informed reporters that Jones’ hair stylist, Daniel DiCriscio, who flew from Los Angeles to Washington for the proceeding, was also “very much part of the defense team.” She asserted that DiCriscio is working for Jones “pro bono,” the phrase usually applied to lawyers who work for the public good and without a fee.

Clinton’s lawyers had originally attempted to have Jones’ lawsuit held in abeyance until after the end of his presidency. But the Supreme Court held that he had no legal right to such a delay. The high court’s decision was based on prior rulings, including the landmark Watergate case against Richard Nixon, that an American president is subject to legal process just like other citizens.

Saturday’s deposition came in time to meet a Jan. 31 deadline set by Wright for lawyers on both sides of the case to complete the process of legal discovery--that is, the interview of potential witnesses and a review of any documents they want to use at a trial. A trial date has been set for May 27 in Little Rock.

Although Wright had suggested earlier that she might oversee the deposition by means of a telephone hookup, she was present at the law firm Saturday to rule on disputes over allowable questions.

The deposition is likely to be the only testimony Clinton will give in response to Jones’ claims. It could be introduced into evidence by either side at a trial, but Clinton almost certainly will not be called to testify.

Jones fired her previous defense team last summer after they recommended that she settle the case out of court for $700,000 without a formal apology from Clinton. She said then that she was insisting on a full apology.

While still seeking the apology, Jones’ new defense team recently raised the damages Jones is seeking from $700,000 to $2 million. Carpenter McMillan said Saturday that Jones is pursuing the case “for her family, friends and acquaintances, so they would know the real truth.”

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson and wire services contributed to this story.