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| For Immediate Release | |
| Jul 14, 1999 | Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
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Desperate, Last-Ditch Attempt to Avoid Oral Testimony; Hillary Clinton Defendant in $90 Million Filegate Lawsuit (Washington, July 14) In a desperate, last-ditch attempt to avoid testifying in Judicial Watch's Filegate lawsuit, Hillary Clinton filed a sworn declaration, full of loopholes and legalistic dodges, with a federal court on Monday. The declaration was signed last Sunday. Judicial Watch, which represents Reagan and Bush staffers and others whose FBI files were improperly taken and misused, is asking a federal court for permission to depose Mrs. Clinton, who is one of the defendants the ongoing Filegate lawsuit. In addition to Hillary Clinton, former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone, Anthony Marceca, the White House, and the FBI are putative defendants in the lawsuit. "Mrs. Clinton and this Clinton Administration have a poor track record when it comes to sworn testimony. After an early and unsuccessful motion to dismiss (which, conspicuously, did not contain a sworn denial), and after remaining silent in this case for the next 2 ½ years, her last-minute sworn declaration has several glaring omissions and is full of lawyerly words and artful language that beg many a question. In short, the issues raised in her declaration cry out for further inquiry, under cross-examination. This is the first time Mrs. Clinton has gone under oath publicly on Filegate. And it proves the need for her deposition testimony, which she wants to avoid at all costs," stated Judicial Watch. During pre-trial discovery, Judicial Watch has compiled compelling evidence tying Mrs. Clinton directly to Filegate: An authentic FBI document and sworn testimony shows Hillary Clinton hired the former bar bouncer Craig Livingstone, the individual who helped obtain the Republican FBI files. Livingstone boasted of his access to the White House residence and admitted to seeking the help of Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff in obtaining his White House job. Indeed, Secret Service logs confirm his access to the White House residence. Linda Tripp testified that she understood that FBI file information was being uploaded onto White House computers to be shared with the Democratic National Committee -- at the orders of Hillary Rodham Clinton. According to Ms. Tripp, Mrs. Clinton "ruled the school" at the Clinton White House. Testimonial evidence places the FBI file of former Travel Office director Billy Ray Dale and others in the late Vince Foster's office. Foster was a confidant and former law partner of Hillary Clinton. The FBI file of Chris Emery, the White House usher reportedly fired by Mrs. Clinton for helping Barbara Bush with a computer problem, was also seen in Vince Foster's safe. In 1996, Dick Morris, the Clintons' then-top political consultant, told Sherry Rowlands, his ex-girlfriend, that Hillary Clinton ordered the FBI files in 1993, that "she's a paranoid lady -- she did it." |
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