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The story that's too hot to handle
The Washington Times
Published in Washington, D.C.- February 4, 1999 www.washtimes.com
The Clinton story that's too hot to handle - By Bill Sammon and Frank
Murray THE WASHINGTON TIMES
<Picture: The White House tried to pressure the Fox News Channel not
to broadcast a story about a woman who claims President Clinton raped
her 21 years ago and then coerced her into denying it under oath,
network sources said yesterday
White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart on Tuesday warned a Fox
White House correspondent not to run the story, noting that NBC News
had interviewed the woman in Arkansas and had not put the story on
the air.
Fox ran the story anyway, and Internet scribe Matt Drudge yesterday
published Mr. Lockhart's unheeded words of warning, which the White
House did not categorically deny, but said were off the record.
Asked yesterday about pressuring the cable news network, Mr. Lockhart
said: "I'm just not going to discuss the private conversations I have,
even if others can't keep them private."
Mr. Drudge quoted Mr. Lockhart as telling Fox: "You guys will regret
this. Clinton haters have been putting this story out for a decade
now, as far back as the '92 campaign."
According to the Drudge Report on the Internet, Mr. Lockhart went on
to warn the correspondent: "If you go with the story after NBC News
decided not to, there won't be any argument about whether Fox News is
right wing or not."
James Kennedy, spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, later
called Fox to argue that Mr. Lockhart's phone call had been off the
record, Mr. Drudge said. The network aired the story without using Mr.
Lockhart's quotes.
Persons close to the network said Mr. Drudge extracted the Lockhart
quotes from the network's computer system, but another person close
to Mr. Drudge said this was not so, that he obtained the quotes by
talking with "real live sources."
In any event, persons at the network confirmed the accuracy of the
quotes to The Washington Times yesterday.
The use of the quotes irked some Fox journalists, who intended to
honor the White House off-the-record request. Mr. Drudge declined
comment.
Mr. Lockhart was asked by Bill Sammon of The Washington Times
yesterday at his regular White House briefing whether such pressure
was heavy-handed spin control or appropriate behavior for the White
House press secretary.
"If this is your way, your side way, to get into writing the story,
go ahead and write the story," Mr. Lockhart said. "I'm not going to
help you. You've already written it."
Helen Thomas of UPI then asked: "Did you pressure a network?"
Mr. Lockhart replied: "If any of you think I'm in a position to
pressure anyone, you give me more power than you think I have."
Bill Plante of CBS joined in the questioning: "Did you make the call,
as has been reported?"
Mr. Lockhart replied: "I'm just not going to discuss the private
conversations I have, even if others can't keep them private."
While persons close to Fox confirmed that the White House tried to
spike their story, others close to NBC insisted yesterday no such
pressure had been brought to bear by the White House. That has been
the subject of intense speculation in Washington for nearly a week.
Some NBC correspondents said the story, based on correspondent Lisa
Myers' lengthy interview last month with the woman in question,
Juanita Broaddrick, is still being corroborated and might well be
broadcast.
They contradicted Mr. Drudge's assertion that the story had been
spiked.
Mrs. Broaddrick's attorney, William P. Walters of Greenwood, Ark.,
yesterday confirmed to The Washington Times that his client broke her
self-imposed press silence two weeks ago to tell her story on camera
to NBC.
"They have not elected to run it as of yet," said Mr. Walters, who
said Mrs. Broaddrick was not paid for the interview. "We do not know
if they will run it."
FBI agents working for independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr visited
Mrs. Broaddrick in Arkansas in April to ask her about the incident,
which is said to have occurred when Mr. Clinton was the Arkansas
attorney general. Two investigators for the House Judiciary Committee
impeachment inquiry recently questioned Mrs. Broaddrick, who is
referred to in legal documents as "Jane Doe No. 5."
At issue is her claim that Mr. Clinton raped her in 1978. Her vivid
descriptions of a violent sexual assault were corroborated by a nurse
who said Mrs. Broaddrick told her during treatment that she was
injured by sexual intercourse with Mr. Clinton "against her will."
Mrs. Broaddrick was portrayed as the victim of a "brutal rape" in a
letter subpoenaed almost a year ago by Mr. Starr. That October 1992
letter, written to Mrs. Broaddrick by a friend named Phillip D.
Yoakum of Fayetteville, Ark., recalled unsuccessful efforts by
himself and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock, a Republican candidate
for governor of Arkansas in 1992, to persuade her to go public with
"how you resisted until he ripped your clothes off and how he bit
your lip until you gave into his forcing sex upon you."
Mrs. Broaddrick has at various times told the story, and at various
times withdrawn it.
Friends and others in Arkansas say she is fearful for her family's
business interests, two homes for the elderly and mentally retarded
in Fort Smith and Van Buren, Ark., which are licensed by the state of
Arkansas and which receive government payments.
Paula Jones' attorneys -- to whom Mrs. Broaddrick recanted her
accusation that Mr. Clinton raped her -- produced documentary
evidence in federal court that Mrs. Broaddrick contradicted her own
denials.
In a March 1998 filing, they called Jane Doe No. 5's story
significant evidence that Mr. Clinton "forcibly raped and sexually
assaulted her and then bribed and/or intimidated her and her family
into remaining silent about this outrage."
The attorneys argued it was relevant despite its age because it
contradicted Mr. Clinton's deposition testimony that "in my lifetime,
I've never sexually harassed a woman. ... I never have and I wouldn't.
"
In a tape recording obtained last month by The Washington Times, Mrs.
Broaddrick told private investigators for Mrs. Jones that her story
was "so horrible" she wouldn't repeat it.
"Bad, bad, bad things, I can't even begin to tell you," she told
Dallas investigators Rick and Beverly Lambert at her home on Nov. 13,
1997, in a conversation recorded without her knowledge.
If subpoenaed, she said, "They won't get anything out of me. I'm
sorry. ... It's very private. We're talking about something 20 years
ago. I'll deny anything."
The Broaddrick tape was subpoenaed in March from Mrs. Jones'
attorneys by Mr. Starr, but apparently not forwarded to Congress with
the other material.
The Broaddrick case, recounted by Mr. Starr in documents provided to
members of Congress, is said to have helped sway wavering House
Republicans toward impeachment in December. The Republicans reviewed
this and other evidence withheld from public view in a secure room at
the Capitol.
When the impeachment was forwarded to the Senate, House Majority Whip
Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, said "67 votes may appear out of thin
air" to convict the president if senators "spend plenty of time in
the evidence room."
"The power to define is the most important power we have.
He is master who can define."
-- Stokely Carmichael.
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