Judge Frees Susan McDougal, Citing Medical Condition

A federal judge Thursday freed defiant Whitewater figure Susan McDougal from federal prison for medical reasons, temporarily ending her long, bitter siege at the hands of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

McDougal, 43, often photographed wearing leg irons and an orange prison jumpsuit, was released because she suffers from a serious spinal condition. But she still faces trial on criminal contempt charges in September because of her continued refusal to answer questions before a federal grand jury.

Her incarceration for the last 21 months had included 18 months for civil contempt and three months toward her two-year sentence for a 1996 conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges arising from Starr’s investigation of illegal business deals in Arkansas in the mid-1980s.

The alleged involvement of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in these deals--including the Whitewater real estate project--was the original focus of Starr’s inquiry, which has since expanded into several other areas.

McDougal still faces trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court later this year on unrelated state charges that she embezzled more than $100,000 from Zubin Mehta, former conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, while serving as his bookkeeper.

Starr’s office, putting the best face on the development, issued a statement saying that the decision to release McDougal was a “compassionate” one “based on medical testimony after a full hearing . . . and we respect the judge’s decision.”

A legal source sympathetic to Starr’s investigation said that freeing McDougal probably had ended any hopes of prosecutors that they still might obtain her cooperation.

Although Starr has “some leverage” because of her upcoming criminal contempt trial, “she is less likely now to consider providing testimony [in the ongoing Whitewater investigation] than she was while still serving time in prison,” said this attorney, who declined use of his name.

McDougal, freed by U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr., the same jurist in Little Rock, Ark., who originally had sentenced her, told a court hearing: “I am a much better person today. . . . I promise you, you won’t be sorry.”

It was unlikely, however, that she was signaling she would begin cooperating with Starr, whom she has accused of trying to get her to lie about Clinton’s financial affairs.

In other developments Thursday related to Starr’s investigation, Pentagon employee Linda Tripp, a onetime confidant of former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky, was subpoenaed to testify before grand jurors next week, suggesting that Starr is nearing completion of a crucial phase in his case.

Tripp secretly tape-recorded 20 hours of phone calls in which Lewinsky told of a sexual relationship with President Clinton that she and the president had denied under oath. Tripp also received a mysterious three pages of “talking points” from Lewinsky to guide her own denials that she knew of a sexual affair in a now-dismissed sexual harassment suit against Clinton.

Also, prosecutors hauled presidential advisor Sidney Blumenthal before the grand jury Thursday. Blumenthal said afterward that he detailed his private conversations with Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton about the Lewinsky controversy, which reflected the president’s public comments that he is innocent of wrongdoing.

“What I told the grand jury under oath supports what the president has told the American people and is contrary to any charge that the president has done anything wrong,” Blumenthal said.

William McDaniel, his attorney, added that questions put to Blumenthal “were sophomoric, silly, insulting to the grand jury . . . and certainly insulting to the president.”

Howard said that McDougal, upon her immediate release, would have 10 days to tend to personal affairs before spending 90 days in home detention at her parents’ house in Camden, Ark., while wearing an electronic monitoring device.

Taking note of testimony about McDougal’s painful and chronic back problem, the judge said that he decided to lean “to the side of compassion and mercy rather than strictness.” He said that he hoped his ruling would be an incentive for her to rehabilitate herself.

Dr. Ronald Fisk, a clinical neurologist at UCLA, told Howard that McDougal needed careful medical assessment and treatment for seriously progressive curvature of the spine and related disk problems that she has had for years.

“She needs to be referred to a world-class specialist,” Fisk testified. “Surgery is a distinct medical possibility.”

McDougal and her late husband, James B. McDougal, were convicted along with then-Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of financial offenses. McDougal subsequently cooperated with Starr before his death earlier this year and Tucker later began cooperating with prosecutors.

Among the defendants, Mrs. McDougal alone resisted all of Starr’s attempts to obtain her help, saying that she would remain in prison rather than cooperate with an official she did not trust.

Americans enjoy a constitutional right to refuse to testify on grounds of self-incrimination. If ordered to testify under a grant of immunity from prosecution, however, they could place themselves in contempt of court if they refuse to answer questions.