Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 20, 1993 TAG: 9312200149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LITTLE ROCK, ARK. LENGTH: Medium
Bruce Lindsey, a senior White House official and Clinton confidant, said, "The allegations are ridiculous." Asked if Clinton has denied having state police assist sexual liaisons, he told The Associated Press, "Yes, he has."
Lindsey said, "Similar allegations were made, investigated and responded to during the campaign and there is nothing here that would dignify a further response."
CNN said its interviews with troopers Roger Perry and Larry Patterson were arranged by attorney Cliff Jackson, a longtime Clinton critic who now represents the troopers. Jackson refused on Friday to have the troopers speak with AP.
A long account of the accusations was being published today in the American Spectator, a magazine of generally conservative commentary. Author David Brock reports that four troopers made sexual allegations, though two chose to remain anonymous.
The article also said Perry said a trooper was offered a federal job in return for "his help in thwarting publication of any stories."
The Patterson and Perry interviews were the first public accusations by any of Clinton's security force. During AP inquiries in 1991 and 1992, at least 11 troopers from the security details said they never saw any illicit conduct.
Patterson and Perry were not among the 11. The American Spectator said there was "an element of self-interest and score settling in their decision to speak to the media," noting the possibility of a book contract.
The troopers' accusations were sometimes graphic.
"At Booker Elementary School, I saw the governor engaged in a sexual act with a female," Patterson told CNN. In the article, he said the act took place in a car in the evening as he stood 120 feet away.
Perry told CNN that a woman was sneaked into the governor's mansion after Clinton became president-elect.
None of the women were named by CNN or the American Spectator, but Brock wrote that all of the women had told him that the allegations were untrue, or else they declined to comment.
Patterson and Perry were recently removed from the state's gubernatorial security detail, Patterson at his own request for health reasons, according to the state police director, T.L. Goodwin.
The officers said attempts had been made by former security chief R.L. "Buddy" Young to suppress their stories and to intimidate them.
The troopers' attorney, Jackson, led the way last year in accusing Clinton of dodging the draft.
by CNB