President Clinton offered his second videotaped testimony for a Whitewater trial in 10 weeks, a role a Republican critic called evidence that the president has breached the trust of the American people.
Clinton testified for two hours and 20 minutes Sunday in the case of Arkansas bankers Herby Branscum Jr. and Robert M. Hill. They are accused of illegally using bank funds to reimburse themselves for contributions to political candidates - including Clinton in 1990 when he ran for governor and in 1991 when he considered seeking the presidency.Afterward, a White House statement reiterated that Clinton is not the first president to testify in a criminal trial. It cited U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright's order that officials not discuss the deposition until after it is shown in court.
"The president has consistently stated that he will provide the court with whatever information he can offer, and today's deposition fulfills that promise," the statement said.
Branscum and Hill were said to have been present for Clinton's testimony. White House officials, citing the judge's order, would not confirm that.
Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing, but his testimony prompted renewed criticism Sunday from Republicans, who said he owes the nation a better explanation of his activities.
"It's pretty clear that the president has violated the trust that a plurality of the American people gave to him in 1992," Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"And the question is . . . whether the American people ought to give the president four more years when he won't stand up and tell them the truth about what's happened in his administration," Boehner said.
But Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the now-defunct Senate Whitewater Committee, said Clinton did not abuse his office - unlike the "direct presidential involvement in the abuse of power" of the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.
"If the president were not testifying, then I would feel very uncomfortable," Simon told CNN. "But the fact that he is willing to do so, I think, is a credit to him."
Branscum and Hill are charged with illegally using funds from their Perryville, Ark., bank and trying to conceal from the Internal Revenue Service large withdrawals the Clinton gubernatorial campaign made in 1990 for get-out-the-vote efforts.
Sunday's testimony was Clinton's second in 10 weeks. In April, he testified as a defense witness for just over four hours in the Whitewater trial of Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Clinton investment partners James and Susan McDougal, all of whom were subsequently convicted.