Clinton’s Lawyers Renew Talks on Jones Settlement, Sources Say

President Clinton’s lawyers are quietly exploring a financial settlement with Paula Corbin Jones so that she would withdraw her pending appeal and finally end the long-running legal battle that led to the crisis now threatening his presidency, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Attorneys for Clinton and Jones have conferred in recent days about whether a deal can be reached before an appeals court hears oral arguments next month on her bid to reinstate the sexual harassment lawsuit that was dismissed by a Little Rock, Ark., federal judge in April, the sources said.

“There’s some talk going on,” said one source who did not want to be identified.

The tentative discussions in the case that gave rise to the most recent phase of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s probe of the president appear to involve a possible payment by Clinton in the same range that his lawyers once signaled he might be willing to make. Jones rejected a proposed $700,000 settlement from Clinton a year ago because it did not include an admission and apology from the president, but her camp suggested in February, just weeks before the case was thrown out, that she would accept $900,000.

Details remained sketchy Thursday and it was unclear how far, if at all, any talks had progressed beyond an initial contact or how likely a deal might be. Sources said Robert S. Bennett, Clinton’s chief attorney in the Jones case, called her Dallas-based lawyers and talked about the prospect of a compromise, but neither side would discuss that Thursday.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” Bennett said. “And I don’t know who on Earth would be saying that because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”