Danger in a Paula Jones Trial

President Clinton has now spent nearly six hours testifying about what happened in a Little Rock hotel room on May 8, 1991. Paula Corbin Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, alleges it was on that date that then-Gov. Clinton asked her to perform a sex act. Jones’ lawyers are reported to have asked Clinton about his general sexual history, seeking to show a pattern of predatory or promiscuous behavior. His videotaped deposition will become public when it is introduced in the course of Jones’ sexual harassment suit against Clinton, scheduled to begin in Little Rock on May 27. Until then it is sealed. It would be best if it remained so permanently.

For that to happen, Jones’ civil suit would have to be settled in advance of the trial. Over the weekend, advocates for both sides kept open the door to that possibility. Jones is asking for $2 million in damages. James Carville, a Clinton political strategist, suggests that a hefty payment might be worthwhile if Jones agreed “never to utter another public word or make another public appearance.” Earlier attempts to reach a settlement failed. But as the time draws closer when intimate and unseemly details about Clinton’s past are likely to be revealed, the interest in resolving this dispute grows greater.

Jones is entitled to her day in court, and if jurors were to accept her allegations as truth she would get the vindication she says she seeks. But satisfaction is also possible outside a trial that, whatever harm it does Clinton, is sure to besmirch the presidency and embarrass the nation even more than this matter already has. It does not disparage Jones’ claimed grievance to note that among her chief legal and financial supporters are some of Clinton’s bitterest enemies, hinting at a political agenda here that goes beyond the wrong Jones says she suffered. The nation does not need the spectacle that now looms. Far better to resolve this matter outside a courtroom, and quickly.