LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Susan McDougal testified Wednesday that her former husband, now dead, made up stories implicating President Clinton in Whitewater to appease prosecutors and win a lighter prison sentence.
Testifying at her trial for refusing to answer questions before the grand jury, McDougal said James McDougal urged her to tell what she called "stories" about the president, including that Clinton knew about a fraudulent $300,000 loan to his Whitewater business partners. Susan McDougal said she never discussed the loan with Clinton.But her ex-husband warned her, "If you don't tell this story, you're going to jail," she said.
James McDougal, who at first refused to cooperate with independent counsel Kenneth Starr, changed his mind after being convicted of fraud, Susan McDougal said. "He told me this is something he had to do because he did not want to die in jail," she testified.
Facing up to 84 years in prison, he was sentenced to three years because of his cooperation with prosecutors. He died in federal prison in March 1998.
Susan McDougal said she listened as her ex-husband tried out different versions of his "outlandish" story that Clinton discussed the loan briefly with him and former municipal judge David Hale, who made the federally backed $300,000 loan. Hale has said Clinton knew about the loan, but Susan McDougal maintains Hale lied, too.