McDougal Defense Likes Starr Tactics To Nazis
Bill Nalty
8.41 p.m. ET (042 GMT) April 7, 1999
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The defense in Susan McDougal's obstruction of
justice trial Wednesday accused prosecutors working for independent
counsel Kenneth Starr of using methods "you expect to find in the Third
Reich.''
Defense attorney Mark Geragos, in his closing summation before the
six-man, six-woman jury, condemned Starr's controversial investigation,
accusing prosecutors of pressuring witnesses to testify and using
indictments "as punishments.''
"This is something you expect to find in the Third Reich,'' he said,
referring to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.
The jury was expected to begin deliberations Thursday morning. Geragos,
accompanied by a smiling McDougal, said outside the court he thought his
client would be acquitted.
"I'm about as hopeful as I can be. I think it went as well as it could
have,'' he told reporters.
Prosecutors, who objected three times to Geragos' closing comments,
earlier urged the jury to remember that it was McDougal who was on trial
and not Starr or his tactics. Starr deputy Julie Myers said McDougal
clearly violated the law by refusing to testify before a grand jury
despite a court order.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the court order is not like Burger
King. The defendant does not have a right to 'have it her way,''' Myers
said.
The 44-year-old McDougal is charged with obstruction of justice and
contempt of court for refusing to testify before a grand jury
investigating President Clinton's involvement in the failed Whitewater
real estate scheme.
If convicted, McDougal could face a maximum of five years in prison for
obstructing justice and five more for each of two counts of criminal
contempt of court.
McDougal repeatedly refused to testify and served 18 months in jail for
contempt of court because she said Starr wanted her to concoct testimony
that would implicate Clinton, who she said is not guilty of any
financial wrongdoing.
Prosecutors slammed McDougal's credibility, calling her a devious woman
who invented her allegations that Starr's prosecutors in 1996 had
suggested through her ex-husband that she should claim a fictitious sex
affair with Clinton.
"That is a bald-faced lie,'' Starr deputy Mark Barrett told the jury
about the allegations.
Geragos said the goal of Starr's prosecutors "was to crush everything
between themselves and President and Mrs. Clinton.''
"They came down here (to Little Rock) with a plan like in some Third
World country where people are identified and presumed guilty,'' he
said.
Geragos said McDougal was one of the few witnesses targeted by Starr who
was willing to stand up and not tell the kind of story that prosecutors
demanded from her.
"This woman has the courage, the guts, the innocent reason to say, 'I am
not going to be used like that,''' he added.
In her closing arguments, Myers tried to undermine Geragos' efforts to
put the independent counsel on trial.
"Only the defendant is on trial here. You're not trying the United
States, society or the treatment of witnesses,'' Myers said, referring
to McDougal's claims that Starr's office pushed her to concoct testimony
against Clinton.
"The issues in this case are cut and dried,'' Myers said.
She said McDougal refused to answer grand jury questions in September
1996 and April 1998 despite a federal judge's order to talk and a grant
of immunity from prosecution for anything she might say.
© 1999, News America Digital Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Fox News Online.
© Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved
GLC1173
>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The defense in >Susan McDougal's obstruction of
>justice trial Wednesday accused prosecutors >working for independent
>counsel Kenneth Starr of using methods >"you expect to find in the Third
>Reich.''
>Defense attorney Mark Geragos, in his >closing summation before the
>six-man, six-woman jury, condemned Starr's >controversial investigation,
>accusing prosecutors of pressuring >witnesses to testify and using
>indictments "as punishments.''
Either Geragos is a liar or he has never practiced criminal law.
As anyone who has even court-appointed represented nobody slum kids knows,
it is the NORM in American courts for prosecutors to "buy" testimony with
lighter sentences through plea bargains.
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rose...@idt.net
> As anyone who has even court-appointed represented nobody slum kids knows,
>it is the NORM in American courts for prosecutors to "buy" testimony with
>lighter sentences through plea bargains.
So you agree.
Starr did naughty things?
bre...@no-spam.com
Saying "It's the norm" or "Everybody does it" -- was not considered a
vaild defense of Clinton and Monica. :-)
If this sort of plea-bargain for perjury/betrayal is indeed the norm
-- that norm needs to be changed!!
Cheers,
Bredon
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Email mailto:Pres...@whitehouse.gov to "Pardon the Lewinskys!"
Julie Steele defense site: (trial May 3, 1999)
http://www.juliehiattsteele.com/
News site worth checking? http://www.consortiumnews.com/
Petition against Starr, and good info:
http://www.rain.org/~openmind/petition.htm
http://www.rain.org/~openmind/jonesrev.htm
The Eight Classic Moral Principles:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/4809/
*****************************************************
bre...@no-spam.com
wrote:
>McDougal Defense Likes Starr Tactics To Nazis
>
>8.41 p.m. ET (042 GMT) April 7, 1999
>
>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The defense in Susan McDougal's obstruction of
>justice trial Wednesday accused prosecutors working for independent
>counsel Kenneth Starr of using methods "you expect to find in the Third
>Reich.''
>
>Defense attorney Mark Geragos, in his closing summation before the
>six-man, six-woman jury, condemned Starr's controversial investigation,
>accusing prosecutors of pressuring witnesses to testify and using
>indictments "as punishments.''
>
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