May 4, 1999
Prosecutors Say Greed Led to Lying About Clinton
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The New York Times: Clinton Impeachment Trial
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LEXANDRIA, Va. -- A Virginia woman who undercut
accusations that President Clinton
groped a White House volunteer,
Kathleen E. Willey, lied about the
incident to make money, prosecutors
told a jury Monday.
Defense lawyers countered that
Kenneth W. Starr, the independent
counsel, indicted the woman, Julie
Hiatt Steele, because her testimony
was helpful to the President.
"Julie Hiatt Steele has committed
no crime," a defense lawyer, Nancy
Luque, said. "She just got in the way
of a runaway train."
Ms. Steele is charged with obstructing justice and making false
statements. The case boils down to
one question: Did Ms. Willey tell Ms.
Steele in 1993 that Clinton had
made an unwanted sexual advance?
Clinton has denied under oath
doing so.
Starr declined to refer
the matter to the House last year in
his impeachment report.
Referring to the President 37
times in his 30-minute opening statement, a prosecutor, David Barger,
outlined Ms. Willey's accusation that
Clinton groped her near the Oval
Office. Barger said Ms. Willey
told Ms. Steele of such an encounter
hours after it happened.
But Ms. Steele told F.B.I. agents
and two grand juries that she did not
hear the accusation until 1997, when
Ms. Willey asked her to corroborate
her account to a Newsweek reporter,
Michael Isikoff.
Ms. Luque said Ms. Steele made a
mistake at the time by bowing to
pressure from Ms. Willey and supporting her account. But Ms. Luque
said Ms. Steele had corrected that
version and given a consistent account ever since.
A witness who once dated Ms.
Steele testified that she told him in
April 1997 that she had heard firsthand Ms. Willey's account of being
groped by Clinton soon after the
incident was said to have occurred,
in November 1993.
The witness, William Poveromo of
Richmond, said that as Starr
was investigating the accusation in
March 1998 Ms. Steele tried to convince him otherwise, saying: "I never told you about Kathleen."
Another witness, Gregory Edward
Mathieson, said he helped Ms. Steele
sell a photograph of Ms. Willey with
Clinton. Mathieson said that
at one point a British publication was
interested in paying $100,000. Ms.
Steele sold the photograph to The
National Enquirer for $7,000.
