Susan Carol McDougal (née Henley; born 1955) is a real estate investor who served prison time as a result of the
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their as ...
.
Her refusal to answer "three questions" for a grand jury, on whether President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
lied in his testimony during her Whitewater trial, led her to receive a jail sentence of 18 months for
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
. That made up most of the total 22 months she spent incarcerated.
She received a full presidential pardon from Clinton in the final hours of his presidency in 2001.
Early life
McDougal was born as Susan Carol Henley in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
,
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
, the daughter of James B. Henley and Laurette (Mathieu) Henley. In 1976, Susan married
Jim McDougal
James B. McDougal (August 25, 1940 – March 8, 1998) was a native of White County, Arkansas, and his wife, Susan McDougal (the former Susan Carol Henley), were financial partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in the real estate venture ...
. The McDougals were partners with President Bill Clinton and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the failed
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their as ...
real estate venture in the 1980s.
McDougal separated from her husband in the late 1980s and moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. There, from 1989 to 1992, she worked in Los Angeles as a personal assistant to former actress
Nancy Kovack, the wife of conductor
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Mehta's father was the fou ...
. In late 1993, McDougal was charged with embezzling money from the Mehtas and began preparing her successful defense against the charges. After her release, her embezzlement trial in California began. In 1998, McDougal was acquitted on all 12 counts.
A suit in 1999 against Nancy Kovack for malicious prosecution was settled out of court.
Whitewater affair
On August 5, 1994,
Kenneth Starr became
Independent Counsel to prosecute McDougal and other Whitewater participants. Her federal trial began in 1996, in which the government's star witness,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
banker and former municipal judge
David Hale, claimed that President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
had discussed an illegal $300,000 loan with him and McDougal years earlier, while he was Governor of Arkansas. Hale was himself under investigation for having defrauded the
SBA out of $3.2 million. He also unsuccessfully sought to have his brother Milas Hale corroborate his testimony against Clinton.
McDougal was convicted of her role in Whitewater on May 28, 1996, and was sentenced to spend time in prison for four counts of fraud and conspiracy relating to the Whitewater scandal, but her prison term did not begin until March 7, 1998, as there were other court proceedings. Following her ex-husband's
James (Jim) B. McDougal's conviction but prior to his sentencing, he began to co-operate with the Office of Independent Counsel and tried to persuade her to do likewise to avoid a prison sentence.
Susan's defense lawyer,
Mark Geragos
Mark John Geragos (born October 5, 1957) is an American criminal defense lawyer and the managing partner of Geragos & Geragos, in Los Angeles.
Early life and education
Geragos was born in Los Angeles, California, where he attended Flintridge Pr ...
, stated that her 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 has always denied ever having had an affair with Clinton.
Ewing denied to reporters, during a break in the proceedings, that he had ever 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."
Rejecting her ex-husband's advice, McDougal's sentencing hearing began August 19, 1996. After the judge levied a sentence of two years in federal prison but before she left the courtroom, Starr had her served with a subpoena for another Whitewater grand jury, to begin two weeks later.
Grand jury
During the grand jury, McDougal stated her full name "for the record" and then refused to answer any questions. In her book, she explained, "I feared being accused of perjury if I told the grand jury the truth. The OIC had accepted David Hale's lies as the truth. They were also now relying on Jim McDougal's lies, which they'd carefully helped him construct. If I came in and directly contradicted those two – whose testimony had been used to convict me of four felonies – I feared the OIC would next accuse me of perjury." She also writes that she feared the same fate as
Julie Hiatt Steele, who had contradicted the testimony of White House aide
Kathleen Willey
Kathleen Willey (born June 2, 1946) is a former White House volunteer aide who, on March 15, 1998, alleged on the TV news program ''60 Minutes'' that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her on November 29, 1993, during his first term as Presid ...
: "Simply telling the truth cost Steele everything she had, almost landed her in jail
or perjury
Or or OR may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H
* Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew)
Music
* ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...
and jeopardized her custody of her adopted son."
McDougal's grand jury testimony included her response: "Get another independent counsel and I'll answer every question." She was publicly rebuked for refusing to answer "three questions" about whether President Clinton had lied in his testimony during her Whitewater trial, particularly when he denied any knowledge of an illegal $300,000 loan. U.S. District Court Judge
Susan Webber Wright
Susan Webber Wright (née Carter; born August 1, 1948) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Wright is a former judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveil ...
sentenced her for civil contempt of court.
Prison
From September 9, 1996, to March 6, 1998, McDougal spent the maximum possible 18 months' imprisonment for civil contempt, including eight months in
solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...
, and she was subjected to "
diesel therapy Diesel therapy is a form of punishment in the United States in which prisoners are shackled and then transported for days or weeks; the term refers to the diesel fuel used in prisoner transport vehicles. It has been alleged that some inmates are de ...
," described by McDougal as "the practice of hauling defendants around the country and placing them in different jails along the way."
McDougal was shuffled from Arkansas to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
to the
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
transfer center, and then on to the
Pulaski County Jail in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Following her release on March 7, 1998, for civil contempt of court, McDougal began serving the two-year sentence for her 1996 conviction.
Soon afterward, the Independent Counsel indicted McDougal on criminal charges of contempt of court and
obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...
. After serving four months on the Whitewater fraud conviction, she was released for medical reasons.
After McDougal's release, her embezzlement trial in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
began. In 1998, McDougal was acquitted on all 12 counts.
A suit in 1999 against Nancy Mehta for
malicious prosecution
Malicious prosecution is a common law intentional tort. Like the tort of abuse of process, its elements include (1) intentionally (and maliciously) instituting and pursuing (or causing to be instituted or pursued) a legal action ( civil or crimin ...
was settled out of court.
McDougal's trial for criminal charges of contempt of court and obstruction of justice began in March 1999. The jury deadlocked 7–5 in her favor on the charge of contempt of court and found her not guilty on the charge of obstruction of justice. In 2001, in the final hours of his presidency, President Clinton granted McDougal a full
presidential pardon.
Recent life
Following prison, she became an advocate for prison reform. She served as a chaplain of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (
UAMS) in
Little Rock
( The "Little Rock")
, government_type = Council-manager
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_party = D
, leader_title2 = Council
, leader_name2 ...
.
See also
*
List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton
*''
The Hunting of the President
''The Hunting of the President'' is a 2004 English-language documentary film about former US President Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage. The film is based on the book ''The Hunting of the President: ...
''
References
External links
“Womemories” - Susan McDougal- 10-minute extract from a one-hour interview from December, 2004.
“Memories” meets Susan McDougal- Hour interview with Susan McDougal from December, 2004.
"The trials and tribulations of Susan McDougal"CNN.com - April 8, 1999
CNN.com 1996
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDougal, Susan
1955 births
Living people
People from Little Rock, Arkansas
Recipients of American presidential pardons
Arkansas Democrats
Whitewater controversy
Date of birth missing (living people)
Bill Clinton