WASHINGTON -Lawyers for President Clinton and Paula Corbin Jones return to court today to argue whether her sexual harassment lawsuit should be reinstated, and yesterday the federal court in Little Rock, Ark., began releasing hundreds of pages of sealed documents that show both sides attempting to make an issue of the sexual history of the other.
Originally asked by Jones' attorneys if he had ever had sex with a woman other than his wife, Clinton protested that the question was too broad.
He eventually swore in writing that he had not had "sexual relations" with any female employee of the federal government or the state of Arkansas since 1986, the time period stipulated by the judge.
However, Clinton has since admitted having an "inappropriate relationship" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Another document details an episode in which Jones allegedly met a man in a bar and gave him oral sex just months before her alleged encounter with Clinton.
The president's lawyers brought up that episode in order to suggest that it was this incident -rather than her alleged encounter with Clinton -that truly left her "emotionally traumatized."
Taken together, the documents released yesterday - just a fraction of the total caseload of material -reveal years' worth of legal wrangling over such matters as what information certain individuals would have to produce, the handling of Jones' legal defense fund, relationships with outside parties and, last but not least, sexual matters.
For example, the opposing sides spent considerable time arguing over whether Clinton's doctors should be forced to submit to questions from Jones' lawyers that would be "concerning any surgery or medical procedure on the genitalia" of the president.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright finally ordered that any "distinguishing characteristic" of the president's genitalia was not relative to Jones' lawsuit because she could have been told about it rather than actually seeing it.
Yesterday's release on the Internet of 700 pages of documents in the Jones case is the first of several weekly releases ordered by Wright. Some material from the case was released previously.
She dismissed the case last April, saying that Jones had not proven that Clinton threatened or intimidated her in her capacity as a state employee after she allegedly refused his sexual advances in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991.
The Jones lawyers appealed the dismissal, and today the attorneys for both camps will square off before a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minn.
Attempts by both sides to reach an 11th-hour settlement in the case appeared to have broken down yesterday evening.
On Sunday, Clinton's lawyers rejected a new demand by Jones for a total of $2 million.
Half of that sum was to come from the president and the other half was offered by New York real estate magnate Abe Hirschfeld.
The president's denial that he had had sexual relations with a woman employed by the state or federal government came in response to written questions used to gauge Clinton's defense.
The Jones lawyers were allowed by Wright to ask Clinton whether he had had "sexual relations" with any employees dating back to 1986, or five years before the alleged incident at the Excelsior Hotel.
Clinton, in a response dated last Dec. 23, said, "None."
The following month, the president was deposed by Jones' lawyers and denied, under oath, having had sexual relations with Lewinsky.
In August, after testifying before a federal grand jury, Clinton admitted he had an "inappropriate relationship" with the intern.
10-20-98
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