Clinton Accuser Refuses To Testify At Hearing Hale’s Refusal To Talk Hurts Gop’s Whitewater Probe

Dealing a major setback to Republicans on the Senate Whitewater Committee, key witness David Hale notified the panel Thursday he refuses to testify in the year-old investigation.

Hale - whose nine days of testimony were central to the Whitewater trial in Little Rock - said he has been threatened with prosecution by state authorities in Arkansas. Any Senate testimony he gives could be used against him, he said.

While committee lawyers will continue to question various Whitewater witnesses in private next week - the refusal of Hale to cooperate is a blow to Republicans and could signal the end to Senate Whitewater hearings.

Committee chairman Alfonse D’Amato said earlier this week that more public hearings were possible.

“Sen. D’Amato said he needed another $450,000 in taxpayer money to prolong his hearings so that he could hear from David Hale,” said White House spokesman Mark Fabiani.

“Mr. Hale’s final refusal to testify ought to spell the end to the year-long, $1.5 million hearings orchestrated by Sen. D’Amato, Bob Dole’s campaign chair,” Fabiani added.

The committee is still looking into whether federal regulators tried to manipulate a report they commissioned on Whitewater. The panel also is examining whether the governor’s office tried to pressure Arkansas insurance regulators on behalf of an investment banker with ties to Clinton.

In addition, the committee is demanding from Whitewater prosecutors an FBI fingerprint analysis of billing records outlining Hillary Rodham Clinton’s work for Madison Guaranty. The failed Little Rock savings and loan was owned by James and Susan McDougal, the Clintons’ partners in the Whitewater real estate investment.

Meanwhile, in Little Rock, Ark., the Whitewater jury finished deliberations Thursday with no resolution of the case against Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and President Clinton’s former business partners.