
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 21, 1994                   TAG: 9403210065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

EX-JUDGE CUTS DEAL TO TESTIFY ON CLINTON

A former judge who has linked President Clinton to a questionable loan in the Whitewater affair apparently has reached a plea agreement and will avoid trial.

David Hale - who is under indictment on four felony charges - will enter a plea Tuesday in federal court, said an individual familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

NBC News said the guilty plea is part of a deal in which Hale has agreed to tell a federal grand jury all he knows about Clinton's involvement in Whitewater.

Hale has alleged that he was pressured eight years ago by then-Gov. Clinton to make a $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, a business partner of Clinton's in the real estate venture.

The federally backed loan went to her public relations company. Hale says some of the proceeds wound up in Whitewater.

Clinton has denied pressuring Hale and says he doesn't recall anything about the loan.

A guilty plea by Hale would expedite the Whitewater investigation of special prosecutor Robert Fiske, who is examining the Clintons' ties to the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. McDougal's husband, James, owned Madison.

Hale was scheduled to go on trial March 28. A trial could have led to embarrassing public disclosures for the Arkansas political establishment.

At a pretrial hearing this month, a lawyer said there would be testimony in the Hale case that proceeds from "bogus loans" went to important political figures. The lawyer did not elaborate.

Hale is accused of conspiring to defraud the Small Business Administration and three counts of lying to the SBA.

by CNB