Jones’ Lawsuit Takes Nasty Turn Her Attorney Goads Client In Video Released By Democrat

The acrimonious sexual harassment case against President Clinton took another nasty turn Friday when a Democratic political consultant with White House ties launched a counterattack against Paula Corbin Jones’ lawyer.

Jennifer Laszlo, who did volunteer work for the Clinton campaigns in 1992 and last year, called a news conference at her Arlington, Va., office to distribute copies of a videotape showing, in her words, “a sweaty and intoxicated” Gilbert K. Davis making sexually provocative jokes with a female client from Virginia.

The 15-minute tape first became public in January, and Davis has explained that he had “had a couple drinks” and was relaxing with the client and her husband when he laughingly suggested he would arrange for her to pose nude for Playboy. But by promoting it as evidence of Davis’ hypocrisy just days after he won a crucial Supreme Court ruling in the Jones case, Laszlo set off a new round of recriminations.

Davis, who is running for Virginia attorney general in a Republican primary June 10, decried the event as part of a vengeful White House campaign. “It is no surprise that the president arrived back home from Europe early this morning and less than 24 hours later his attack dogs are again attempting to smear a representative of Paula Jones,” Davis told reporters later in the day.

Clinton advisers said they had nothing to do with it. According to the White House, the only contact it had with Laszlo on the subject came when she left a message Friday at the office of communications director Ann F. Lewis, who did not return the call.

Lewis said the attack on Davis was “not within our scope.” Clinton’s private lawyer, though, took a harder stance, decrying the release of the videotape as unfair and inappropriate.

“I would not condone this tactic,” said attorney Robert S. Bennett. “I find Gil Davis to be an honorable adversary. I do not believe anybody at the White House has anything to do with it. I think it’s a cheap shot and should have nothing to do with this case.”

Other than leaving messages at the White House and the Democratic National Committee to alert them before proceeding, Laszlo said she did not coordinate the attack with Clinton associates.

“I’m not on the Clinton payroll in any way, shape or form,” said Laszlo, who was an unpaid television speaker for Clinton’s campaign in North Carolina last year. The tape, she added, showed Davis was being “mister self-righteous” in accusing the president of sexual harassment. “He’s the only person that there’s documented evidence that he said something inappropriate to a client in a hotel room,” she said.

On the tape, Davis engaged in slurred banter with Ramona Hines, 30, in the Roanoke Marriott in 1994. “I know what you want to do. You want to take your clothes off,” Davis told Ramona Hines with a laugh. “You want to take all of your clothes off and expose your body.”