Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [144]
When it came to OIC’s inquiry whether Hillary Clinton had been retained by Madison to do legal work, and if so, the extent of that work, McDougal said she had no knowledge. By this time, she said, her involvement with Madison was “very little. Hardly at all. Involved with Madison as far as picking the paint colors and the carpet? Yeah. Involved as far as retaining attorneys? No.” It was true that Jim had mentioned to her in passing, “Would you mind if I put Hillary on retainer?” knowing that Susan and Hillary might not be on best terms. Otherwise, she said, “I have no idea.”
Similarly, with respect to OIC’s question about a microfilmed copy of a 1983 check for $5,081.82 with the notation “Payoff Clinton,” which she had signed from the Madison Guaranty accounts, Susan had no recollection. She speculated it might have involved a payment relating to land that she and Jim had purchased in the town of Clinton, Arkansas; whatever it was, she was certain she had never knowingly made a payment to Bill Clinton. Nor did she know anything about a $27,600 check payable to “Bill Clinton”—a check that had been found in the trunk of an abandoned car after a tornado. Jim moved money around as if it were his own personal piggy bank, Susan noted, so it was anybody’s guess what tangled web Jim had woven. “I don’t know of any loan that Clinton ever got there,” she said. “Jim would have told me, I think.” (The FBI’s own analysis confirmed that Clinton never endorsed either check, and his fingerprints were on neither one.)
Addressing the most sensitive question of all, relating to the issue of whether she had engaged in an extramarital relationship with Bill Clinton during the Arkansas years, which might have affected her willingness to answer the grand jury’s questions truthfully, Susan McDougal pushed the hair out of her eyes and answered with a mixture of emotion and anger: “No. No. I was in love with my husband. Who was a totally different man from Bill Clinton. Absolutely in love with him until he got terribly sick and then I had a relationship with Pat Harris that was very strong and daily and living with him, and so, no, that never happened.” Susan bristled at the notion that she refused to talk to Starr’s prosecutors because of some prior amorous affair with Clinton. “Believe it or not, someone might not be attracted to a guy that, you know, is Bill Clinton.” She paused. “I mean I hate to say that, but …”
She took another breath. “He is very needy,” she said. “Very, you know, constantly needs to be told, you know, ‘you’re great, you’re doing great,’ you know. My amorous affections tend to go toward men who are more giving to me, who are taking care of me and who are giving to me.” She laughed self-consciously. “You know, two needy people don’t make a good couple. Bill Clinton and I are way too much alike to be together.”
In response to the scenario seemingly endorsed by the independent counsel’s office that she was refusing to talk because she was hiding a past extramarital relationship with Bill Clinton, Susan McDougal’s voice became loud and insistent: “Yes. Oh, let me just give you this scenario. I had an affair with Clinton and then, after not speaking to him for years, literally years, of living in California with Pat Harris, going to law school with Pat Harris, helping Pat Harris through law school, planning our marriage, I then do not testify against someone that maybe five years before I had had some kind of ‘sexual congress’ with. It boggles my mind. It really does. I mean that’s a hell of a man, is all I’ve got to say.”
McDougal sat forward