Willey Repeats Allegations of Clinton Groping at Trial

Reviving allegations of sexual misconduct against President Clinton, former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey testified publicly for the first time Tuesday about a 1993 episode in the Oval Office during which she says Clinton tried to force himself on her.

“He tried to kiss me, and he was very forceful. His hands were all over me,” a somber Willey testified. She added that even after she resisted, the president remarked “that he wanted to do that for a long time.”

The allegations by Willey provided a dramatic close to the second day of trial in the obstruction case against her ex-friend, Julie Hiatt Steele. Willey’s testimony could prove critical for the office of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, which is trying to show that Steele covered up what she knew about the episode in an effort to protect Clinton.

Willey’s testimony was largely consistent with her much-discussed interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year, but she will face tough cross-examination today as Steele’s defense attorneys seek to refute Willey’s claims that she told Steele about the encounter just hours after it happened on Nov. 29, 1993.

Steele maintains that she first heard of the allegations in 1997, when a frantic Willey called and asked her to falsely corroborate the story to a Newsweek reporter.

The Steele jury also heard from a half-dozen other witnesses, including another former White House volunteer, Ruthie Eisen, who said Willey had told her of the alleged groping episode shortly after it occurred.

Prosecutors, who are seeking to show that Steele was afraid of aligning herself against Clinton, also called to the witness stand Mitchell Ettinger, a member of the the legal team that defended the president in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit.

Ettinger testified that he asked Steele to sign an affidavit saying Willey had asked her to lie about the encounter with Clinton. After some initial reluctance, Steele ultimately agreed to sign the affidavit, but “I can tell you it wasn’t at my urging,” he said.

Willey began her testimony late in the day, describing her role as a supporter and fund-raiser in Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. After Clinton was elected, Willey served in several volunteer positions at the White House.

But after her husband, Ed Willey Jr., admitted that he had swindled clients out of several hundred thousand dollars, her family faced a financial crisis. Kathleen Willey said she decided she had to get a paying job, so she made an appointment with Clinton through his secretary.

She was very upset during the one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office, Willey testified. “I told him basically that I was desperate,” she said.

Clinton offered her a cup of coffee and led her to a galley kitchen, Willey testified. As she was preparing to leave, she said, Clinton “hugged me and told me he was very sorry this was happening to me.”

It was a long hug, she said, “much longer than I thought a hug should last.”

Willey said Clinton had her “backed into a corner” and struggled to kiss her, succeeding despite her resistance. “He had his hand on my breast. He had his hands up my dress. He also put my hand on his genitals,” she testified in a measured, unemotional tone.

Willey said she extricated herself and “just told him that I needed to get out of there. . . . I was shocked at his behavior. I just really couldn’t believe what he was doing.”

Willey testified that she was deeply troubled by the episode and that the trauma was worsened when she found out the next day that her husband had killed himself. She checked herself into a hospital a short time later, she said.

“It was a terrible time, and I was in very bad shape,” she said.

It was only later, Willey said, that Steele reminded her that she had stopped by Steele’s home on her way back from the White House meeting and told her briefly about the episode with Clinton. That point is central to Starr’s case.