Fireworks In Paula Jones Case
Lawyers for Paula Jones released papers Friday arguing that her sexual harassment suit against President Clinton should go to trial. In the papers, the lawyers accuse the president and his aides of engaging in a "vast enterprise to suppress evidence"in the case.
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President Clinton's private lawyer denounced the legal filing, saying Jones and her backers were engaged in "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States."
In a statement, attorney Robert Bennett condemned as "scurrilous" allegations made in the court papers Jones' attorneys filed arguing that her sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton should go to trial May 27 as scheduled.
The Jones filing included a 100-page brief and some 600 pages of accompanying documentation, including portions of depositions that other women have given in the case. Jones' lawyers say that the motion by Mr. Clinton's lawyers to have the case dismissed should be denied.
The filing says -- quote -- "The record before the court provides good reason to believe that Mr. Clinton and those acting on his behalf have engaged in a vast enterprise to suppress evidence in this case and otherwise corrupt these proceedings," the brief said.
The documents were released in Washington and filed a short time later in federal court in Little Rock.
Jones' lawyers outlined in their motion evidence of what they said was a Clinton pattern of making sexual advances toward women and subsequently trying to persuade them to deny it.
In the case of Kathleen Willey, who once worked at the White House, the filing says the president took the opportunity to -- quote -- "sexually assault" her just outside the Oval Office.
The president has denied Mrs. Jones' claim that he asked her for oral sex in 1991 and was responsible for denying her proper raises and advancement as a result. At the time, Clinton was governor of Arkansas and Mrs. Jones was a clerk with the state's industrial development agency.
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