Lawyer Requests Clinton Testimony In Fraud Trial Former Whitewater Partners Will Go To Trial In Early March

One of President Clinton’s former Whitewater partners Thursday asked a federal judge to compel Clinton to testify as a defense witness at her upcoming fraud trial.

If the request is granted by a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., Clinton could be forced to testify - just as his presidential campaign swings into high gear.

The fraud trial of James and Susan McDougal, the Clintons’ business partners in the Whitewater land venture, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker is set to begin in U.S. District Court on March 4.

Late Thursday afternoon, Bobby R. McDaniel, one of Mrs. McDougal’s lawyers, filed papers with the court requesting the subpoena.

McDougal’s lawyer, Sam Heuer, did not join in the request, but said he had also been attempting to obtain Clinton’s testimony.

“Our goal is the same, though I’m approaching it in a different vein, seeking other alternatives,” Heuer said. “I’ve been working on getting the president’s testimony for some time and we’re making progress, but I can’t say he’s a joyful participant.”

Asked what he thought of the request and whether he would appear at the trial, Clinton said, “I can’t comment on it because I don’t know what the facts are.”

Lawyers for the president said that they had heard that the McDougals would seek Clinton’s testimony, but declined to comment until they had a chance to examine the subpoena request.

“We will study the documents carefully whenever they arrive,” said David E. Kendall, the president’s personal lawyer.

There are precedents for presidents to appear as witnesses in criminal trials, although in modern times it has occurred through the use of videotaped testimony.

Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford both provided videotaped testimony in criminal trials concerning matters unrelated to their actions as president. And President Ronald Reagan gave a videotaped deposition in the Iran-Contra prosecution of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter.

McDaniel said that Clinton’s testimony would be crucial for the defendants to attempt to impeach the testimony of David L. Hale, one of the government’s more significant witnesses.

Hale, who once ran an investment company backed by the Small Business Administration, has said that Clinton had pressured him to make an improper $300,000 federally backed loan to Mrs. McDougal. Clinton has said he does not recall meeting with Hale, and he has denied putting any pressure on him.

“If Hale will swear to it in court that he was pressured by Mr. Clinton, then I want the president to swear to it in court that Hale is a liar,” McDaniel said.

Under such a scenario, prosecutors on the Whitewater independent counsel’s staff would then have to decide how to counter Clinton’s testimony.

Tucker and the McDougals have been accused in their indictment of violating fraud and conspiracy laws and making false statements in obtaining millions of dollars of federally backed loans in the 1980s.

Prosecutors on the staff of the Whitewater independent counsel who have been overseeing the case have said the three defendants concocted a series of fraudulent loans that contributed to the ultimate collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan at a cost to taxpayers of more than $60 million.

Part of the indictment involves the $300,000 loan Hale made to Mrs. McDougal. Neither President Clinton nor Hillary Rodham Clinton, who did legal work for Madison, was named in the indictment.

The $300,000 loan, which was never repaid and had to be absorbed by the federal government, indirectly helped Whitewater Development Co. It went to repay other debts that McDougal had drawn on to prop up Whitewater Development Co., which had been hemorrhaging in the 1980s, investigators have said.

Hale has pleaded guilty to two felony counts related to making improper federally backed loans and has not been sentenced.

The Senate committee Thursday heard testimony from Susan Strayhorn, one of McDougal’s secretaries in the 1980s, who has been questioned by the Whitewater independent counsel.

Mrs. Strayhorn had been called as a witness as the committee has begun to delve into Mrs. Clinton’s role, if any, in a project involving a series of land deals later found by examiners to have been fraudulent.