A federal gag order barring the release of secret court files in Paula Jones' sexual-harassment lawsuit against President Clinton will remain in place indefinitely.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright put off opening the case file after Clinton's lawyers on Thursday asked her to maintain a secrecy order intended to prevent the release of potentially embarrassing information gathered while the lawsuit was alive.If the judge ultimately decides to open the file, the president could ask an appeals court to stop her.
Wright, who said June 30 that the secrecy order would expire Friday, pushed back the effective date of her order until Monday. Even then, she said, no documents would be released until she rules again.
In her now-dismissed civil lawsuit, Jones claimed Clinton asked her to perform a sex act in an Arkansas hotel room in 1991, when he was governor and she was a state employee.