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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Whitewater Case Goes To Jury Today

Compiled From Wire Services

Government prosecutors ended their Whitewater case with a flourish Wednesday, playing down the importance of President Clinton’s videotaped testimony and presenting the jury with a diagram neatly explaining a complex web of financial transactions involving Clinton’s former business partners and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat.

“The office of the presidency is not on trial here,” said lead prosecutor W. Ray Jahn in summarizing the government’s fraud and conspiracy case. “The defendants are trying to drag the president of the United States into this courtroom. … The defendants are trying to hide behind the president.”

Jahn presented a diagram complete with a swirl of green arrows showing how thousands of dollars churned among a handful of individuals and dummy corporations. It touched off a caustic exchange between the government and a team of defense lawyers who complained it was unfair to show the diagram so late in the trial.

But presiding U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. allowed it, setting the stage for the jury to begin its deliberations today after 11 weeks of testimony in the trial of Tucker, former savings and loan owner James B. McDougal and McDougal’s former wife, Susan.