Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [142]
DIANE SAWYER: There have been some stories … implications, reports that one of the things [causing your rift with Hillary Clinton] would have been that she thought that you and Mr. Clinton were involved.
SUSAN MCDOUGAL: I … I really don’t know how to respond to that except to say that again, that is such a personal question and I really don’t think I want to talk about things like that.
SAWYER: You won’t answer yes or no that you were or weren’t …
MCDOUGAL: It’s too personal for me right now to even begin to talk about things like that. It’s so hurtful to so many people that it’s just not a question I want to answer.
Susan McDougal, waving her hands in frustration, called timeout: The producers had agreed she wouldn’t be forced to answer these questions—that had been the deal. She won the debate: the offending segments were edited out. But when the show was broadcast on national television, Susan knew that the clear implication for viewers would be “that I was hiding something about the Clintons.”
Flying back to Arkansas that night, she concluded that no matter what ground rules were established, the Starr prosecutors would take liberties like these television producers had taken, casting her story in the worst possible light. She now reached a decision about how she needed to deal with the grand jury.
ON September 4, Susan McDougal was ushered into the grand jury room by prosecutor Ray Jahn. Twenty-three citizens of Arkansas sat on rickety wooden chairs. McDougal clutched a prepared statement in her hands. The moment she was sworn in, OIC prosecutor Jahn began the questioning:
JAHN: Can you tell us, ma’am, where you were born?
MCDOUGAL: I’d like to read a statement before we begin, if that would be okay.
JAHN: You can read it at the end of the appearance.
MCDOUGAL: I would like to read it before we begin. I think the foreman can let me do that, if he will.
JAHN: Ma’am, ma’am, ma’am, you will be given ample opportunity.
MCDOUGAL: May I ask the foreman if he’ll let me read this statement before I begin?
JAHN: No, ma’am. No, ma’am. You are here to answer questions …
MCDOUGAL: I’d like to read the statement. The foreman has the right to let me read the statement.
JAHN: Ma’am, where were you born?
MCDOUGAL: [No response]
JAHN: Ma’am, where were you born?
MCDOUGAL: [No response].
Years later, McDougal would recall standing alone in front of Starr’s grand jury: “I was shaking. I was scared to death. I knew that everybody there was smarter than me. I knew there was no way that I could ever hold my own with them.”
Jahn asked her to step out of the room, so that he could consult with his fellow OIC prosecutors and the grand jurors. He now called her back into the room and switched to a series of questions dealing with Bill Clinton. “To your knowledge,” Jahn asked, “did William Jefferson Clinton testify truthfully during the course of your trial?”
When McDougal again refused to respond and reverted to her prepared statement, federal marshals took her away, leading her to the courtroom of Judge Susan Webber Wright, who (by sheer happenstance) was in charge of miscellaneous matters that day.
Judge Wright peered over her owlish glasses, appearing displeased. She was tired of the hubbub surrounding the Paula Jones litigation; it was diverting time from a huge docket of important cases. Now she was faced with another Clinton-related distraction.
After rereading her statement to Judge Wright in full, Susan McDougal told the judge in a pleading tone that even if she answered these “private