Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99

As her latest trial began on March 9, 1999, Susan McDougal's attorney Mark Geragos told jurors that independent counsel Starr's prosecutors had told her she could avoid jail by providing damaging information about the Clintons, saying, "You know who we want. You know what we want."

Tracing bank records, FBI agent Mike Patkus told jurors that a 1982 loan of $27,600 to Clinton was reimbursed partly through the $300,000 loan Susan McDougal obtained via the SBA and partly by Whitewater Development real estate salesman Chris Wade with borrowings from Madison Guaranty. Wade was then reimbursed with a Whitewater check, which was covered by money from a bank loan to the McDougals, and the McDougals then paid off the bank by using money from the $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal. The trial jury viewed a grand jury videotape of testimony by Hillary Clinton, declaring that she "never spent any significant time at all" supervising records of the Whitewater land deal and was not aware of the $27,600 loan to her husband.

McDougal continued to contend that the independent counsel just wanted evidence against the president, and that her refusal to testify had been because of her fear that Starr would indict her for perjury if she did not tell the story he wanted. On March 24, she took the witness stand in her own defense and testified that she "did not hear anything untruthful" in President Clinton's videotaped testimony at her 1996 trial and knew of no illegal actions by him. She also said she began to mistrust Starr after he tried to make dubious bargains with witnesses. Her ex-husband, she testified, had urged her to say she had had a sexual affair with Clinton so that Starr could use that information against the president before the 1996 election.

On April 12, the jury acquitted Susan McDougal of obstructing justice. On the two charges of criminal contempt, they were deadlocked. Judge George Howard, Jr. declared a mistrial.