Paula Jones

It has been suggested that Troopergate (Bill Clinton) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin on September 17, 1966, in Lonoke, Arkansas) is a former Arkansas state employee who sued President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. Eventually, the court dismissed the lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages. However, while the dismissal was on appeal, Clinton entered into an out-of-court settlement by agreeing to pay Jones $850,000.

The impeachment trial of President Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice charges was based on statements he made during the depositions for the Paula Jones lawsuit. The specific statements were about the nature of his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, with whom he denied having a sexual relationship.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Jones v. Clinton 2.1 Background 2.2 Initial lawsuit 2.3 Change in counsel 2.4 Paula Jones' declaration 2.5 Conclusion of case 2.6 Perjury - Lewinsky scandal connection 3 Life following the Clinton lawsuit 4 See also 5 Further reading 6 References 7 External links

Biography

She was raised a member of the Church of the Nazarene, the daughter of a minister of that church.^[1]

Jones v. Clinton

Background

According to Jones' account that is no longer denied but also not confirmed by Bill Clinton under terms of the settlement, on May 8, 1991, Paula Jones was escorted to the room of Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, in the Excelsior^[2][3][4] (now Peabody) Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he propositioned her. She claimed she kept quiet about the incident until 1994, when a David Brock story in American Spectator told a lurid account, sometimes referred to as Troopergate, about an Arkansas employee named "Paula" offering to be Clinton's girlfriend. Jones filed a sexual harassment suit against Clinton on May 6, 1994, two days prior to the 3-year statute of limitations, and sought $750,000.00 in damages^[5]

Arkansas state trooper Danny Ferguson was named as a co-defendant in Jones's lawsuit. According to Brock, Ferguson told Jones that [then] Governor Clinton would like to meet with her in his room. Ferguson then escorted Jones up to Clinton's room and stood outside the room until Jones came out. According to Ferguson, when Jones came out she said that she would not mind being Clinton's girlfriend. Jones denied Ferguson's version of the story, and subsequently named Ferguson as a co-defendant.

While there were no eye-witnesses to back up Jones's account, Jones told a friend contemporaneously of the harassment and many other women were willing to testify to similar behavior by Clinton. In late 1997, Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled Jones was "entitled to information regarding any individuals with whom President Clinton had sexual relations or proposed to or sought to have sexual relations and who were, during the relevant time frame, state or federal employees."

Initial lawsuit

Jones began to be represented by Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata, two Washington, D.C.-area lawyers. Later she befriended Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a California woman and a very conservative commentator, who became her press spokesperson. Carpenter-McMillan wasted no time in using the press to attack Clinton to a much greater degree, calling him "un-American," a "liar," and a "philanderer" on Meet the Press, Crossfire, Equal Time, Larry King Live, Today, The Geraldo Rivera Show, Burden of Proof, Hannity & Colmes, Talkback Live, and other shows. "I do not respect a man who cheats on his wife, and exposes his penis to a stranger," she said.^[6]

Clinton and his defense team challenged Jones's right to bring a civil lawsuit against a sitting president for an incident that occurred prior to the defendant's becoming president. The Clinton defense team took the position that the trial should be delayed until the president was no longer in office, because the job of the president is unique and does not allow him to take time away from it to deal with a private civil lawsuit. The case wound its way through the courts, eventually reaching the Supreme Court on January 13, 1997. On May 27, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Clinton, and allowed the lawsuit to proceed.^[2] Clinton dismissed Jones' story and agreed to move on with the lawsuit.^[7]

Change in counsel

On August 29 1997, Jones' attorneys Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata asked to resign from the case believing the settlement offer they had secured, and Jones refused, was the appropriate way to end the case. ^[8] In September, Judge Wright accepted their request.^[5] Jones was then represented by the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal organization, and by a Dallas law firm. Carpenter-McMillan continued to serve as Jones' spokesperson. In December of 1997, Jones agreed to lower her settlement to $525,000.00 and agreed to no longer try Danny Ferguson as a co-defendant.^[5]

Paula Jones' declaration

Under penalty of perjury, Paula Jones declared that Clinton had Trooper Danny Ferguson escort her to Clinton's hotel room where Clinton made sexual advances that Jones rejected. Clinton eventually dropped both his trousers and his underwear and exposed himself to Jones, at which time Jones said she had to go.^[9]

Conclusion of case

Before the case reached trial, Judge Susan Webber Wright granted President Clinton's motion for summary judgment, ruling that Jones could not show that she had suffered any damages—according to Arkansas state law standards of outrage and intentional infliction of emotional distress—even if her claim of sexual harassment were otherwise proven. Jones appealed the dismissal to a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where, at oral argument, two of the three judges on the panel appeared sympathetic to her arguments.^[10] On November 13, 1998, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, the entire amount of her claim, but without an apology, in exchange for her agreement to drop the appeal. All but $151,000 went to pay what were by then her considerable legal expenses. Before the end of the entire litigation, her marriage broke apart and she appeared in the news media to show the results of a nose job paid for by a donor.^[11]

In April 1999, Judge Wright found President Clinton in civil contempt of court for misleading testimony in the Jones case. She ordered Clinton to pay Jones $91,000 for expenses incurred as the result of Clinton's dishonest and misleading answers.^[12]

Wright then referred Clinton's conduct to the Arkansas Bar for disciplinary action, and on January 19, 2001, the day before President Clinton left the White House, Clinton entered into an agreement with the Arkansas Bar and Independent Counsel Robert Ray under which Clinton was stripped of his license to practice law for a period of five years.^[13]His fine was paid from a fund raised for his legal expenses.

Perjury - Lewinsky scandal connection

Jones's lawyers decided to show to the court a pattern of behavior by Clinton that involved his allegedly repeatedly becoming sexually involved with state or government employees. Jones's lawyers therefore subpoenaed women they suspected Clinton had had affairs with, one of whom was Monica Lewinsky. In his deposition for the Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. Based on evidence provided by Linda Tripp, which identified the existence of a blue dress with Clinton's semen, Kenneth Starr concluded that this sworn testimony was false and perjurious.

During the deposition in the Jones case, Clinton was asked, "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1, as modified by the Court?" The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the definition. It included contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of a person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of that person, any contact of the genitals or anus of another person, or contact of one's genitals or anus with any part of another person's body either directly or through clothing.^[14][15][16] Clinton flatly denied having sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky.^[17] Later, at the Starr Grand Jury, Clinton stated that he believed the definition of sexual relations agreed upon for the Jones deposition excluded his receiving oral sex. It was upon the basis of this statement that the perjury charges in his impeachment were drawn up. Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. But despite Republican control of the Senate, Clinton was found not guilty on both charges.

Life following the Clinton lawsuit

Jones now claims she was victimized by both Clinton and his Republican opponents. Her legal fund did not cover the attorneys' fees, and Jones's personal life was disrupted during the controversy: she was divorced by her husband, purchased a house after the settlement, and incurred a large tax bill, then posed nude for Penthouse magazine, claiming that she would use the money to pay the tax and fund her two grade-school-aged children's college education. This caused her to be publicly denounced as "trailer-park trash" by author Ann Coulter, who said, "I totally believed she was the good Christian girl who had suffered sexual harassment. That is what she made herself out to be.... [N]ow it turns out she's a fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person." Jones attempted to defend herself on Larry King Live, stating, "I haven't been out doing anything and trying to make a lot of money. I haven't been offered a book deal like everybody else in this huge thing has done. Ann Coulter's done books. I haven't seen her call me up and say: 'Paula, would you like for me to help you write a book, a really nice, decent book?' I haven't had any help from anybody whatsoever."

Jones subsequently appeared in a boxing match against Tonya Harding in Fox TV's Celebrity Boxing in 2002, filling in for Amy Fisher; Jones lost the match.

In March 2005, Paula Jones appeared on the debut show of Lie Detector on Pax TV, produced by Mark Phillips Philms & Telephision, and was given a polygraph exam. She was asked if then Governor Bill Clinton had—in a hotel room in 1991—dropped his pants, exposed himself, and asked for sexual favors from her. Jones said yes and the polygraph operator determined she was telling the truth. Lie Detector offered to test Clinton, but he did not respond to the request. No American mainstream news sources commented on the polygraph test results, with the exception of Hannity and Colmes, who dedicated a couple of segments to it, and Sean Hannity's radio show.^[18]

In Fall 2009, Jones will appear as herself in 'The Blue Dress', a movie about the Lewinsky scandal^[19]

See also

• Juanita Broaddrick, aka Jane Doe #5 in Jones' lawsuit
• Gennifer Flowers
• Kathleen Willey
• Monica Lewinsky

Further reading

• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.

References

External links

• Barak, Daphne (1998-09-23). "Jones would have been happy with an apology". Irish Examiner. http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1998/09/23/fhead.htm. Retrieved on 2007-09-26. 
• Conason, Joe; Lyons, Gene (2000). The Hunting of the President. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-24547-5. 
• Givhan, Robin (1998-01-16). "Paula Jones's About-Face". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/pjones/stories/pj011698.htm. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.