White House says Willey letters released to subvert allegations

June 12, 2000
Web posted at: 6:43 PM EDT (2243 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bill Clinton's lawyers released amicable letters from Kathleen Willey in an effort to contain allegations that the president groped the former White House volunteer from fueling a broader impeachment inquiry, according to a legal filing released Monday.

The legal document was filed on behalf of deputy White House counsel Bruce Lindsey in response to a pending lawsuit by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, which released it.

According to the filing, Lindsey and other White House lawyers contemplated releasing the letters after they learned Willey would detail her allegations in an episode of CBS's "60 Minutes."

Willey's allegations that Clinton groped her in 1993 while she was a volunteer at the White House surfaced in 1997. They were the subject of renewed attention when, in 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was investigating whether Clinton lied in testimony about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

The president was impeached by the House in December 1998 on perjury and obstruction of justice charges related to the Lewinsky matter. The following February, he was acquitted by the Senate.

Clinton has denied any improprieties in his relationship with Willey.

The filing released Monday said Lindsey and other White House lawyers "concluded that Ms. Willey's allegations, without any context, might bias the public and Congress, and thereby increase the potential for the expansion of the independent counsel's jurisdiction and the likelihood of impeachment proceedings against the president."

"Because the letters reflected a warm relationship with the president ... it was the collective view ... that the letters would help the president's defense by providing a more complete context for Ms. Willey's allegations," it said.

The White House released the 15 letters written by Willey the day after the broadcast aired in March 1998. In them, Willey said that she was the president's "number one fan" and requested a permanent government job.

A federal judge ruled in March that Clinton violated the federal Privacy Act by releasing the letters.

The White House appealed the ruling, arguing that the president is not covered by the law.

In May, a federal appeals court refused to intervene in the lawsuit, writing: "We do not take seriously" White House arguments that the office of the president and his aides is hindered by the ruling.

The White House acknowledged in the filing released Monday that Clinton agreed with a recommendation to release the letters but to delay a decision on when to release them until the groping allegations were broadcast.

It said the lawyers concluded releasing the letters would not violate a self-imposed pledge not to personally attack any of the president's accusers. "Because these letters were Ms. Willey's own words, the use of them would not be inconsistent with that commitment," it said.

The filing was submitted by U.S. Justice Department attorneys representing the White House, in the form of a response to questions by Judicial Watch, and verified by Lindsey in an attachment.

Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman said the documents help bolster the organization's suit against the White House over its gathering of hundreds of secret FBI background files on Republican appointees.

"In a civil case, if you can show a pattern of similar conduct, that raises the evidentiary implication that the same thing happened in your case," Klayman said. "That goes to prove that the same thing happened with the FBI files." White House spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to elaborate on the statements in the court filing.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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