Susan McDougal

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Susan McDougal on the cover of her book.

Susan McDougal is one of the few people who served prison time as a result of the alleged Whitewater Scandal, though fifteen individuals were convicted of federal charges.

Susan McDougal was married to James B. McDougal, also of Little Rock, AR. The McDougals were partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the failed Whitewater real estate venture in the 1980s, and were convicted along with then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker (D) in obtaining millions in illegal loans, including a $300,000 federally backed loan for Susan McDougal, through a small business investment firm owned by David Hale.

James McDougal began cooperating with Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr after his conviction and tried to persuade his former wife to do the same to avoid a prison sentence.

Her defense lawyer Mark Geragos, said McDougal's ex-husband told her that deputy independent counsel W. Hickman Ewing Jr. would be able to "get Clinton with a sex charge" before the 1996 election if she agreed to lie and say she had had an affair with Clinton. She denies ever having an affair with Clinton. Ewing told reporters during a break in the proceedings that he never heard of such a plan. "I never talked to Jim McDougal about that, and I wouldn't. I never heard any discussion along those lines in my office ever at the time frame she's talking about," Ewing said.

She was convicted on May 28, 1996, and spent time in prison for four counts of fraud and conspiracy relating to the Whitewater scandal. She was later charged with (and acquitted of) embezzlement against noted conductor Zubin Mehta.

She also spent 18 months in prison including 7 weeks in solitary confinement for civil contempt of court. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright sentenced her after McDougal refused to answer three questions from Whitewater prosecutors before the grand jury empaneled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to investigate the Whitewater Scandal. These questions included whether President Bill Clinton lied in his testimony during her Whitewater trial, particularly when he denied any knowledge of an illegal $300,000 loan. During that trial, the government's star witness, Arkansas banker and former municipal judge David Hale, made the sensational claim that then-Governor Bill Clinton had discussed an illegal $300,000 loan with himself and McDougal.

McDougal received a full Presidential pardon from outgoing President Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency in 2001. (See List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton)

McDougal has written The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk and works as an advocate for prison reform.

External links

• "The trials and tribulations of Susan McDougal" CNN.com - April 8, 1999