Clinton Successor Says He Knew of Troopers’ Charges

The man who succeeded President Clinton as Arkansas governor said Wednesday he was told of allegations made by state troopers that Clinton used them to arrange sexual trysts.

“This was a group that was opposed to Clinton and seemed to have an ax to grind with him. They made allegations as to then-Gov. Clinton’s personal life, yes,” Jim Guy Tucker said in response to reporters’ questions.

Tucker’s comments came after he spent more than six hours with the Whitewater grand jury investigating Clinton. There was no indication that he discussed the matters before the panel.

Tucker said he was told of the allegations two years before the troopers went public with their claims during the 1992 presidential campaign.

He declined to repeat the allegations or say whether he discussed them with Clinton or anyone else.

In his deposition in Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual-harassment lawsuit against the president, former trooper L. D. Brown said he and trooper Larry Patterson told their story to Tucker on March 12, 1990, at Tucker’s campaign headquarters in Little Rock.

Tucker said Wednesday that he recalled a discussion with troopers about Clinton.

“It could have been L. D. Brown, it could have been someone else,” Tucker said.

Tucker, who is cooperating in the Whitewater investigation, also said he reviewed documents in front of the grand jury but would give no other clues about his testimony.

“It was a long day of meticulous history,” he said.

Lawyers close to the case said last month that Tucker had information about First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s work at the Rose Law Firm on a real estate development south of Little Rock called Castle Grande. The lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tucker’s information on Castle Grande also pertains to Webster L. Hubbell, a Rose partner, and Hubbell’s father-in-law, Little Rock businessman Seth Ward.

Tucker, convicted in 1996 in a previous Whitewater trial, pleaded guilty last month to avoiding $3 million in income taxes through a sham bankruptcy in the 1980s.

Tucker resigned as governor after his 1996 conviction with the Clinton’s former business partners, Susan and James B. McDougal.