White House Job? No Thanks

Cheryl Mills, a staunch defender of President Clinton who played a key role at his impeachment trial, turned down his history-making offer to make her the next White House counsel.

Mills would have been the first woman and first black to serve as the president's chief lawyer. But she informed Mr. Clinton of her decision Friday after considering his offer for much of the summer, officials said Sunday.

Mills has worked for Mr. Clinton since the start of his presidency, and became a central player on the legal team that defended him and Hillary Rodham Clinton during the many investigations of the last few years - from Whitewater and fund-raising to the Monica Lewinsky affair.

"Cheryl is a wonderful lawyer and a wonderful person, but I think she decided that it was time for her after 6 and a half years to move on. She is tired and wants to get her life centered," White House chief of staff John Podesta said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Podesta said Mills, 34, had some offers in the private sector, and "I'm confident she is going to continue to serve her community and to serve the public. That is what really motivates her."

Mills has agreed to remain at the White House as acting counsel until a successor to Charles F.C. Ruff is named. Ruff, who served as presidential counsel during the most turbulent years of Clinton's tenure, is returning to private practice.

A confidante of both the president and Mrs. Clinton, Mills worked her way up in the counsel's office from a junior lawyer working on the original Whitewater hearings in Congress in 1994 to the top deputy's spot.

She earned a reputation as an unapologetic and loyal Clinton defender, espousing a strategy of not giving an inch to presidential critics. It's a role that endeared her to the first family but landed her as a witness before grand juries and congressional committees investigating the administration.

Americans got their most extensive view of her during Mr. Clinton's impeachment trial Jan. 20. From the well of the Senate and before live television, she gave a spirited defense of the president's record and contested Republican allegations he had violated the civil rights of accuser Paula Jones.

Mills had argued that Mr. Clinton's behavior with Lewinsky was "not attractive or admirable," but his "record on civil rights, on women's rights, on all our rights, is unimpeachable."

Calling attention to her race and gender, she added, "I stand here before you today because President Bill Clinton believed I could stand here for him."

She finished her presentation to a hushed Senate, and afterwards Republicans and Democrats alike praised her. The next day's Washington Post headline blared, "In the city of legal stars, another is born."

Mills' tenure, however, was not without controversy. Republicans on a House subcommittee accused her last year of withholding two documents from investigators on an unreated matter. She denied withholding the documents.

And on the eve of her questioning by Senate Whitewater Committee staff a few years earlier, Mills' car was broken into and copies of notes stolen.