Legal Cloud Over President Grows, Darkens

Until this week, President Clinton faced a civil lawsuit for sexual harassment that could have resulted in much embarrassment and a money damage award.

Now, he faces something far more ominous: a possible criminal charge for soliciting perjury that clouds his presidency.

Reacting quickly, the president strongly denied he had “any improper relationship” with a 24-year old White House intern or encouraged her to lie about it under oath.

Nonetheless, no one in the nation’s capital doubted Wednesday that the Paula Corbin Jones civil suit had instantly erupted into a scandal that jeopardizes his second term.

Clinton appears to be caught between two open-ended investigations. The first has been trying to catch Clinton in a lie. The second has been trying to reveal him involved in an illicit sexual relationship.

The first is, of course, the Whitewater probe. It began as an inquiry into real estate and banking fraud in Arkansas to determine if then-Gov. Clinton and his wife may have used their influence to obtain special favors.

Those allegations have never been proved, however, despite years of investigation. Indeed, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr long ago gave up on charging the Clintons with crimes growing out of their failed Whitewater real estate development. The five-year statute of limitations has expired.

No Time Limits on Independent Probes

Starr’s probe has not expired, however, because of the unique rules governing independent counsels. There are no time limits on their investigations, and the scope of their inquiries can be expanded with permission from a three-judge panel. Indeed, Starr’s staff says they are continuing to investigate possible “obstruction of justice” by the Clinton White House on various matters.

For example, investigators are probing whether the president, his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, or their aides hid documents, lied to investigators or encouraged others to lie so as to cover up various misdeeds. Those include the firing of seven White House travel office employees in the opening weeks of Clinton’s first term and failure to produce billing records from the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary Clinton had been a partner.

Given Starr’s broad mandate, he was able to investigate whether Clinton tried to obstruct justice.

Separately, the sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones gave her attorneys wide latitude to track down rumors of women who may have had sexual contact with Clinton, either as governor or president.

Jones, the former Arkansas state employee, has alleged the then-governor made crude sexual advances to her in 1991 in a Little Rock, Ark., hotel room. The theory of the case was that the governor used his power to seduce female employees.

Under the broad rules of “discovery,” her lawyers are entitled to seek out other women, especially government employees, who may have had sexual encounters with Clinton, whether willing or not. Their accounts could show a pattern of behavior on Clinton’s part. These women can be subpoenaed to answer questions under oath about what happened.

The case of 24-year old Monica Lewinsky may link the Paula Jones lawsuit and the Starr investigation in a way that could gravely damage Clinton.

Last Saturday, lawyers for Jones forced the president to answer questions for six hours. While that deposition has been sealed, legal experts say Clinton was surely asked whether he had sexual contact with Lewinsky or any other White House employee.

If Clinton falsely denied making sexual advances to women in the White House, the case could possibly lead to a charges of perjury.

Lewinsky Scheduled to Testify Under Oath

On Friday, Lewinsky is scheduled to testify under oath. If Clinton or friend Vernon Jordan urged her to falsely deny having had a sexual relationship with the president, they could be charged with soliciting perjury and obstruction of justice.

Even the lawyers who worked on the Paula Jones case say they were taken aback by the sudden turn of events.

“Today was a watershed,” said attorney Gilbert K. Davis, a Fairfax, Va., lawyer who represented Jones for three years before stepping down in 1997. “Before today, I had not thought he risked criminal charges and impeachment growing out of this case. Today, I think it’s a possibility.”

Davis notes that Lewinsky is not Clinton’s only problem.

He and his co-counsel, Joseph Cammarata, had received an anonymous tip a year ago about a former White House employee who claimed she had been grabbed, fondled and kissed by Clinton in a hideaway office near the Oval Office.

That led them to Kathleen E. Willey, 51, of Richmond, Va. In 1992, she and her lawyer husband Edward Willey Jr. were active Virginia Democrats who raised money for Clinton and were in Little Rock on the night of his election victory.

But their lives took a dramatic turn for the worse in the next year. Ed Willey was accused of stealing $274,495 for a client.

Distraught and in debt, Kathleen Willey has said she went to see Clinton to say she needed a full-time, paying job. Until then, she had worked as a volunteer.

According to several published accounts, she emerged from her meeting with Clinton with her clothes “disheveled” and her lipstick smeared. By an awful coincidence, her husband committed suicide in Richmond that evening. Clinton has made no public statement about the allegations.

“We thought this was a nuclear bomb,” Davis said. “This is a woman who goes to the president because she is in trouble. Instead, he fondles and grabs her in the Oval Office. That behavior seems incomprehensible to me,” he said.

Jones’ new team of lawyers recently took a statement under oath from Willey, and if she made the same accusations under oath, those statements too would conflict with any denials Clinton may have made Saturday.

No President Ever Criminally Indicted

No president has ever before been indicted for a crime, and the law is not clear as to whether a chief executive can be criminally prosecuted.

In May, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a sitting president is not immune from answering to a civil damage suit.

A lawyer who formerly worked on Starr’s probe said the issue has been debated in the office, but no decision has been reached.

However, if Starr’s team comes up with strong evidence suggesting Clinton lied under oath or encouraged others to lie, he can surely present the evidence to the House Judiciary Committee, which is empowered to consider articles of impeachment.