Hubbell Prison Tapes Scrutinized

In taped prison telephone calls that were later used by prosecutors to interrogate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Webster Hubbell and his wife discussed White House pressure to stop him from suing his former law firm and thus raising "allegations that might open it up to Hillary."

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The conversations during Hubbell's prison term from August 1995 to early November 1996 are filled with cryptic references to the Whitewater and campaign fund-raising investigations and his loyalties to the White House.

Their disclosure came as Hubbell, a longtime friend of the first family, was indicted on new tax charges Thursday, stemming from prosecutors' investigations into whether he was paid "hush money" by presidential friends to discourage his cooperation with the Whitewater probe.

In one of dozens of prison calls, the former associate attorney general in March 1996 discussed the possibility with his wife, Suzy, that he would file a lawsuit airing the dirty laundry of the Rose Law Firm where he and Mrs. Clinton worked in Little Rock, Ark. Hubbell said the prospect left some people "scared, and rightfully so."

His wife suggested she was concerned she would lose her support at the White House - important for keeping her administration job - if Hubbell proceeded with the suit.

"I'm hearing the squeeze play," she tells her husband.

AP obtained the transcripts from the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed them from prison officials and transcribed them as part of its broad investigation into campaign fund-raising irregularities.

The taped conversation about White House pressure also was played by Whitewater prosecutors to Mrs. Clinton last weekend when she gave videotaped testimony to a federal grand jury investigating her legal work in Arkansas, the first lady's lawyer confirmed.

"What a coincidence, the independent counsel plays this tape at Mrs. Clinton's deposition on Saturday, and then five days later, House partisans leak it to the press," Mrs. Clinton's attorney David Kendall said.

"I heard this on Saturday as Mr. Hubbell saying simply that he did not want to embarrass the first lady by involving her in litigation," he added.

In an interview from his Washington home after the tapes were released, Hubbell decried the mve as illegal and said none of his comments in 1996 were meant to imply he knew of any wrongdoing by Mrs. Clinton.

"I think I have said 100 times, maybe a thousand times now, I know of no wrongdoing by Hillary," he told the AP.

Hubbell said he was simply telling his wife that any lawsuit he might pursue against the Rose Law Firm over his disputed law billings during a campaign year would negatively affect Mrs. Clinton, even if it did not raise wrongdoing on her part.

"They are in the middle of the campaign and I've already hurt her pretty damn bad already, both of them (Clintons)," he said.

"But for me to, in the middle of the campaign, accuse other members of the law firm, not Hillary, of doing anything wrong reflects on her, and I'm not going to hurt her or the people I love within the firm," he explained.

The tape recordings of Hubbell's conversations while he was at the federal prison in Cumberland, Md., emerged Thursday night, just hours after Hubbell was indicted by Whitewater prosecutors on tax-evasion charges.

The transcripts provide a glimpse of some of the worries the Hubbells had about their White House friends after he pleaded guilty to bilking his law firm in 1994 and began cooperating with prosecutors.

Hubbell's conversations were routinely taped by the prison where Hubbell served 18 months.

The tapes show Hubbell was cognizant he was being taped. During one conversation on overbillings by lawyers, Mrs. Hubbell questioned whether "that's an area where Hillary would be vulnerable." Hubbell immediately cautions his wife: "We're on a recorded phone."

In March 1996, Hubbell talked to his wife and their longtime friend, White House aide Marsha Scott, about the lawsuit plan he eventually abandoned.

"I have gotten Suzy to realize there are issues that I have to stay away from to protect others and I will. I always have," Hubbell told Scott. "Have I ever been disloyal?"

"Oh, God, no," replied Scott, a longtime friend of the Clintons and Hubbells who has worked in the White House since 1993.

Hubbell told the AP his comments to Scott were simply reflecting his feelings that any lawsuit against the firm would force questions about what Mrs. Clinton knew even if she did nothing wrong.

"Every law firm has things about them they don't want scrutinized. That doesn't mean criminal, and it doesn't mean illegal and it doesn't mean she (Mrs. Clinton) knows about it," he said.

In another conversation, Mrs. Hubbell expressed fears she'd lose her job at the Interior Department if her husband proceeded with filing the lawsuit.

"Webb, I've got to keep this job," she pleaded. "I have to have the support ... of my friends at the White House."

"By suing, it really makes it look like you really don't give a (expletive) and that you are opening Hillary up to all this,"Mrs. Hubbell said.

"Well, honey, I keep telling you sometimes you have to fight battles alone," Hubbell responded.

"I am the one that has to explain this to Marsha. She says you are not going to get any public support if you open Hillary up to this. ... Well, by public support I know what she means. I'm not stupid," his wife replied.

Hubbell reassures his wife: "I will not raise those allegations that might open it up to Hillary."

Mrs. Hubbell again raises the concerns about the White House, saying Scott "is ratcheting it up and making it sound like if Webb goes ahead and sues the firm, then any support I have at the White House is gone. I'm hearing the squeeze play," she said.

Her husband, who has endured years of Republican allegations that he has protected the Clintons by not cooperating fully with the Whitewater investigation, responds with a flip retort: "So I need to roll over one more time."

By John Solomon and Ron Fournier