LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Susan McDougal occasionally dabbed tears from her eyes as she testified that her husband's mental illness was the undoing of their marriage and business and ultimately led to the Whitewater investigation against President Clinton.
A former business partner of Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, McDougal testified almost four hours in her own defense Tuesday, answering some questions she refused to answer before a federal grand jury in 1996 and again last year.She returned to the stand Wednesday in her trial on charges of obstruction of justice and criminal contempt of court for refusing to answer grand jury questions.
Her lawyer, Mark Geragos, said the testimony Tuesday was a "cathartic" experience for his client. She has said she refused to answer federal grand jury questions because she feared retaliation from prosecutor Kenneth Starr if he didn't like what she said.
"The only way she was going to get out the true story here was to tell it in a courtroom," Geragos said outside the courthouse.
McDougal and her late ex-husband, James McDougal, were partners with the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate venture in northern Arkansas. The McDougals and then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker were convicted of business fraud in 1996.
After that, she refused to answer grand jury questions about the Clintons and spent 18 months in jail for civil contempt. She again refused to answer the questions in April last year and was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt and one count of obstruction of justice.