Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [168]
Willey’s lawyer, Daniel A. Gecker of Richmond, expressed “outrage” that Willey was being dragged into the case; he denied that his client had any information whatsoever “relevant to the Paula Jones case.” Simultaneously, Newsweek revealed that a close friend of Willey’s named Julie Hiatt Steele had initially told the publication that she had spoken to Willey the night after the incident, and that Willey was “distraught.” Now Steele had recanted, telling Newsweek that Willey had asked her to “lie” about the incident to cover for her.
Presidential lawyer Bob Bennett stood before a group of wire service reporters, shaking his head with disgust at all of this spy-versus-spy skulduggery. “I really smell a rat here,” said Bennett. “I’m sure this is a Jones team effort to humiliate the president.”
ONE aspect of the Paula Jones story largely lost to history is that President Clinton’s lawyer and Paula Jones’s lawyers believed that they had reached a final settlement during the late summer of 1997. That deal, giving Jones everything she had requested in her original complaint—and more—ultimately collapsed because the plaintiff herself rejected it, ignoring her lawyers’ pleas to honor the deal. Jones’s abrupt decision to turn down the very recovery she had asked for, the record now makes clear, was tied to two people: Steve Jones (whom she would soon divorce) and Susan Carpenter McMillan, her PR guru, who detested Bill Clinton.
President Clinton endured endless criticism for failing to settle the Jones case expeditiously. He would express frustration, however, that the public never became fully aware that Paula Jones’s own lawyers resigned because she walked away from an exceedingly generous (and fair) settlement deal. Clinton later said of Ms. Jones’s two Virginia lawyers who were trying to strike a fair deal: “They weren’t crazy. They knew that she’d be getting money she wasn’t entitled to and I’d be getting embarrassed if I settled it. And they thought that ought to be enough.”
The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision was not the only reason that the case was ripe for settlement. In late August, Judge Susan Webber Wright had dismissed a defamation claim and a due process allegation in Jones’s complaint, trimming down her lawsuit. Judge Wright had also held both sides’ feet to the fire by setting a quick May 1998 trial date. At a status conference in her Little Rock courtroom, she lectured the parties: “What I would hope we could do is try this case in five or six days. It doesn’t look like a case that’s worth any more than that to me.” The judge also set a tight discovery deadline of January 30, ordering all depositions and evidence gathering to be completed by that date.
With these forces bearing down on the parties, the case seemed ready for a final resolution. In fact, Bob Bennett had a specific end game in mind as he negotiated on behalf of the president: “The goal was to try to settle for under one million dollars,” he recalled. “It was generally a consensus that if we paid more than that—people in the White House felt that it would be [viewed as] an admission.” To sweeten the deal for Paula Jones’s camp, Bennett had received authority from President Clinton to promise that Clinton would personally “make a statement that Paula was not involved in improper conduct of any kind.” Wrapping that package together, Bennett believed, was a deal that no sane lawyer could reject.
Proof that the parties meant business was evident in the spirited, final round of negotiations. During one late-night session in Bennett’s office, Bennett tossed out a stink bomb: “If this thing doesn’t settle, we’ve got stuff on Paula. We’re just going to lay it out.” Davis and Cammarata returned the volley, announcing