frontline: once upon a time in arkansas: Two Key Documents

DOCUMENTS CENTRAL TO THE OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT COUNSEL'S INVESTIGATION

Here are pages from these billing records and an explanation of what investigators believe they reveal i.e., they tie Hillary Rodham Clinton directly to the fraudulent Castle Grande land deal that already has put three people in prison (Jim and Susan McDougal and Judge David Hale) and convicted a fourth (Jim Guy Tucker).

Videotaped trial testimony of President Bill Clinton in the Jim McDougal, Susan McDougal and Jim Guy Tucker criminal case (Click here for the full transcript or, click below for the key section)

At issue here in President Clinton's testimony is the perjury question. Judge David Hale testified in the Jim McDougal trial that he was pressured by Clinton to give Susan McDougal a $300,000 Small Business Administration loan. But when asked the question if this was true, President Clinton said in this sworn testimony it never happened. Click here for the pertinent section of Clinton's testimony

Background Note on Clinton's Testimony: In April 1996, Jim and Susan McDougal, and then-Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, went to trial in what would become the Independent Counsel's first Whitewater convictions. Each defendant was convicted of multiple counts of financial fraud for their involvement in transactions related to the Castle Grande land deal.

Susan McDougal was convicted for fraudulently obtaining a $300,000 loan from a Small Business Administration-backed lending operation run by Little Rock Municipal Judge, David Hale. Loans from Hale's operation, Capital Management Services, Inc., were intended for minorities and the economically disadvantaged.

The loan to Susan McDougal, ostensibly for the purpose of creating an advertising agency called Master Marketing, was deposited directly into her and Jim's personal account at Madison Guaranty. Some of the proceeds from the loan went to pay off outstanding debts on other McDougal loans, including a $25,000 payment to cover overdrafts in the Whitewater account.

As a witness for the prosecution during the Tucker/McDougal trial, David Hale testified that in late 1985, and early 1986, then-Govemor Bill Clinton inquired on several occasions about the status of Susan McDougal's loan.

As a witness for the defense, President Clinton testified via videotape that he had never spoken to David Hale or either of the McDougals about the $300,000 loan to Susan. The President categorically denied having any knowledge about or involvement in the Susan McDougal loan.

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