- Paula Jones feared for her life while
pressing her lawsuit against
- President Clinton and thinks he may have
played a role in a number of
- mysterious deaths of potential witnesses
against him.
-
- Jones, appearing Friday night on FOX
News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes",
- was asked whether she suspected that
Clinton was responsible for the
- deaths; a list numbering, according to
some, more than 50 people who were
- associated with one Clinton controversy
or another. Some of the more
- prominent Clinton friends to die in the
midst of scandal were Vince
- Foster, Ron Brown and James McDougal.
-
- Jones repsonded, "He may not be
hands-on in doing it, but I think maybe
- he has some part in some of this stuff.
Because there's just too many of
- them that have come up dead or missing
that have had some kind of bond or
- have been in business or some kind of
dealings with Clinton."
-
- Prior to the stunning comment, Sean
Hannity questioned Jones about
- concerns for her own safety:
-
- HANNITY: Paula, you have stated in the
past that you, and Linda Tripp has
- stated as well, have even feared for
your life. You even went on to say
- that you want the whole world to know
that you don't drive crazy, that you
- wouldn't run off the road, that you're
not suicidal, that you love life,
- you love your children, and you'd never
kill yourself. And you wanted to
- say that to a national audience. Why?
What do you fear?
-
- JONES: Well, there's been a lot of people
that have come up dead in
- Arkansas. And I've had a lot of people
ask me, 'Aren't you scared for
- your life?' And actually, I have been.
Even (Clinton attorney) Bob
- Bennett said a quote one time on CNN
that his mother always used to tell
- him that you better be careful for what
you ask for because you just might
- get it. And then he went on to talk
about how his dog used to chase cars.
- And then his dog was dead and he has
a new dog now. And I took that even
- as a threat. There were just so many
things and I wanted people to know
- that I'm not like that and that if I
come up strangely dead that I didn't
- kill myself.
-
- One of the "many things" Jones
may have had in mind was the fate of Kathy
- Ferguson, the ex-wife of the co-defendant
named in her lawsuit, Arkansas
- state trooper Danny Ferguson. Kathy's
friends have told reporters that she
- too claimed that Clinton had sexually
harassed her and that she knew,
- "Paula was telling the truth."
-
- On May 13, 1994, just five days after
Jones filed suit, Ferguson was
- found shot to death in her Sherwood,
Arkansas apartment. Police ruled it
- a suicide.
-
- A month later, her police officer boyfriend
Bill Shelton was also found
- dead; his body sprawled across Kathy's
grave. The Arkansas
- Democrat-Gazette reported that Shelton
died from a single gunshot wound
- behind the ear. Police again ruled suicide.
-
- The names of two of Kathy's co-workers,
Sherry Butler and Dr. Sam
- Houston, were included on the Jones supplemental
witness list, which was
- submitted into evidence at Clinton's
Senate impeachment trial. Butler and
- Houston had claimed Kathy told them about
her own unwanted encounter with
- Clinton in the months before her death.
-
- Jones aired her suspicions about possible
presidential involvement when
- pressed for details on the FOX show:
-
- HANNITY: Do you think the president
could be responsible for that? When
- you talk about these people, do you think
the president, in part, has been
- reponsible for some of these deaths?
And did you ever receive any direct
- threats?
-
- JONES: No, I didn't receive any direct
threats. But I think, while he
- may not be hands-on in doing it, but
I think maybe he has some part in
- some of this stuff. Because there's
just too many of them that have come
- up dead or missing that have had some
kind of bond or have been in
- business or some kind of dealings with
Clinton.
-
- Gennifer Flowers, Sally Perdue, Elizabeth
Ward Gracen, Kathleen Willey
- and other women linked to the president
have complained about alleged
- Clinton-connected break-ins, threats
of physical violence and unusual
- surveillance.
-
- In March, lead House impeachment prober
David Schippers told NewsMax.com
- that the House and Senate leadership
refused to allow him time to
- investigate charges of witness intimidation
against President Clinton.
-
-
- Clinton Rape Victim Watch Update
-
- Onetime presidential guru Dick Morris
has noticed something reviewers
- had missed in Michael Isikoff's new book,
"Uncovering Clinton: A
- Reporter's Story."
-
- It's this tidbit from page 256 about
Clinton's one-night stand with
- former Miss America Elizabeth Ward Gracen:
-
- "According to Gracen's later account,
Clinton flirted with her -- then
- invited her to the apartment of one of
his friends at the Quawpaw Towers.
- They had sex that night. It was rough
sex. Clinton got so carried away
- that he bit her lip, Gracen later told
friends. But it was consensual."
-
- Appearing Tuesday night on Fox News
Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Morris
- noted, "There's a very important
revelation in [Isikoff's] book that
- hasn't received a lot of attention."
-
- Morris paraphrased the passage quoted
above and then pointed out that
- Clinton bit Gracen's lip, "... just
as he'd bit Juanita Broaddrick's lip,
- according to Juanita Broaddrick. And
[Gracen's] statement was made before
- Juanita Broaddrick spoke."
-
- Two months ago, Broaddrick told the
Wall Street Journal and NBC News that
- Clinton had bitten her lip to get her
to submit as he raped her 21 years
- ago.
-
- Morris addded, "Now if there was
a rape trial of Bill Clinton right now
- and this woman, Gracen, was called as
a witness and confirmed the M.O.;
- that would be a) admissible and b) very
decisive."
-
- What about Gracen's claim, as Isikoff
reports, that her Clinton sex was
- consensual?
-
- The author sources his lip-biting account
to Gracen's friends, at least
- one of whom has weighed in on the rape
question. Gracen confidante Judy
- Stokes was interviewed by Paula Jones
investigator Rick Lambert in
- December 1997.
-
- Snippets from Stokes' Jones case deposition
have appeared in the press,
- including an account of a tearful Gracen
coming to Stokes after her
- Clinton encounter, saying the sex was
"something she did not want to have
- happen."
-
- Last month, Lambert elaborated on Stokes'
version for NewsMax.com's Carl
- Limbacher:
-
- "I talked to Judy Stokes for an
hour and a half," said Lambert. "At
- first she was reluctant to burn her bridges
with Liz. But I finally
- asked, 'Do you believe Clinton raped
her?' She said, 'Absolutely. He
- forced her to have sex. What do you
call that?' " Lambert concluded,
- "Stokes was totally convinced it
was rape." (See Archives: "The Jane Doe
- Case Files - Part 1")
-
- In April 1998, after months of eluding
subpoenas from Jones lawyers,
- Gracen finally came out of the closet
to the New York Daily News. Yes,
- she said, she and Clinton did have sex
-- after denying it for the
- previous six years. But it was consensual,
Gracen insisted.
-
- Rather than deny the charge, White House
spinmeisters were mum -- almost
- as if they were relieved by this version
of Gracen's story.
-
- Most reporters, including Isikoff, prefer
to accept Gracen's public rape
- denial over what friends say she told
them back in 1982. That's exactly
- what happened when news of Juanita Broaddrick's
rape charge first hit the
- press.
-
- Gracen's April 1, 1998, rape denial
came just three days after NBC's Lisa
- Myers first reported that Juanita Broaddrick
had told four friends in
- Arkansas that Clinton had raped her.
Broaddrick herself had denied the
- assault in an affidavit filed with Paula
Jones' lawyers nearly three
- months earlier.
-
- With the exception of NBC's Myers, no
one in the major media thought this
- issue was worth pursuing. Most reporters
still don't.
-
- Perhaps that's why we haven't heard
more from Elizabeth Ward Gracen.
|
