Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993 TAG: 9312220141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
She called accounts from two Arkansas state troopers about President Clinton's sexual activities before entering the White House "sad and unfortunate."
The Los Angeles Times, American Spectator magazine and other news organizations published the troopers' allegations that they facilitated sexual liaisons between then-Gov. Clinton and several women, and that the president tried to silence them.
President Clinton had no public reaction to the stories Tuesday. Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed them during previously scheduled interviews with The Associated Press and Reuters.
"I think my husband has proven that he's a man who really cares about this country deeply . . . and when it's all said and done, that's how most fair-minded Americans will judge my husband, and all the rest of this stuff will end up in the garbage can where it deserves to be," she told Reuters.
She did not specifically deny the assertions.
She also commented on new revelations about the Clintons' investment in an Ozark Mountain land deal, saying the couple would not release personal data about the investment and its links to a failed savings and loan.
The Clintons were co-investors with James McDougal, owner of a now-defunct Little Rock thrift, Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. Federal investigators are probing the collapse of Madison Guaranty and whether funds were diverted from the S&L to help cover then-Gov. Clinton's 1984 campaign debt.
A file on the subject kept by Vincent Foster, White House deputy counsel and a close friend of the Clintons, was removed from Foster's office and given to the Clintons' personal attorney after Foster killed himself in July.
White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said the Clintons do not plan to release that file.
Referring to the latest eruption of charges of extramarital misconduct, Hillary Clinton said those stories appeared timed to damage her husband just as his popularity was beginning to rise following several important legislative victories.
She suggested the two Arkansas state policemen - Larry G. Patterson and Roger L. Perry - were paid for their story of late-night assignations and high-level efforts to conceal them.
"For me, it's pretty sad that we're still subjected to these kind of attacks for political and financial gain from people . . . especially here in the Christmas season," she said.
"I think sometimes everybody forgets that even if public figures don't have any protection from these kind of attacks, you still have feelings and families and reputations that shouldn't be so easily attacked by people who clearly have political and financial reasons for doing so."
The two troopers are represented by Cliff Jackson, a longtime political foe of Clinton's, who said they would like to write a book about the incidents. They say they have received no payments.
The only other administration official to respond publicly to the charges was Ronald K. Noble, who oversees the Secret Service. He said the troopers' accounts "have the ring of falsity."
The Times quoted the troopers as saying Clinton was having an affair with one woman as late as January 1993, the month he was inaugurated president and a year after Clinton appeared on "60 Minutes" and emotionally acknowledged "pain" in his marriage.
At that time, Clinton also said people should not be disqualified from public service if they "have problems in their marriage or things in their past which they don't want to discuss."
The Times examined thousands of pages of state telephone records and found 59 calls from Clinton to one woman's home and office from 1989 to 1991. Clinton made 11 calls to the woman's home on one day alone, July 16, 1989, according to the records. One long-distance call at 1:23 a.m. lasted 94 minutes.
by CNB