OT - Breaking News Clinton held in contempt

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Klintoon held in Contempt

He has to pay Jones' attorney fees & could face disbarment.

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpwh0y.htm

Judge Finds Clinton in Contempt

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday found President Clinton in contempt of court in a ruling stemming from his testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled the president in contempt for ``willful failure'' to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully.

``The court takes no pleasure whatsoever in holding this nation's president in contempt of court,'' the judge said in her order.

The judge said, ``The record demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the president responded to plaintiffs' questions by giving false, misleading and evasive answers that were designed to obstruct the judicial process.''

Wright said Mrs. Jones was entitled to information regarding any state or federal employee with whom the president had or proposed to have sexual relations.

The ruling stemmed from Clinton's sworn testimony in the Jones case that he didn't have a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In his deposition in the Jones case, Clinton said: ``I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.''

After the president's DNA was found on a dress belonging to Ms. Lewinsky, he acknowledged an ``inappropriate intimate relationship'' with her before a federal grand jury last Aug. 17 -- and again in a nationally televised address.

Clinton said the relationship did not fall under the definition of ``sexual relations'' provided by Mrs. Jones' lawyers during his deposition, and that his testimony was legally accurate.

Wright first raised the contempt issue in a footnote to a Sept. 1, 1998, ruling in which she released Clinton's testimony in the Jones case.

In that footnote, Wright said she had concerns about the president's deposition but made no findings as to possible contempt at that time.

-- Texan (wonders@nevercease.com), April 12, 1999


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