Judge levies $90,000 contempt-of-court fine against Clinton

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- The federal judge who last April found President Clinton in contempt of court levied a penalty of $90,686 against him Thursday, making him the first chief executive ever assessed such a fine.

Repeating her condemnation of Clinton's lying under oath in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright said she was imposing the sanction to cover some of Jones' legal expenses and "to deter others who might consider emulating the president's misconduct."

Clinton's private attorney, Robert S. Bennett, said he wouldn't challenge the ruling of Wright, who presides in Little Rock, Ark. "We accept the judgment of the court and will comply with it."

In a 19-page ruling, Wright made clear she had calculated the penalty amount to cover expenses incurred by Jones' attorneys as a result of the president's false statements in denying he had ever been alone with or had sexual contact with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

Legal experts viewed the ruling as fair to the president, considering the judge's strong language last spring in upbraiding Clinton for "false, misleading and evasive answers that were designed to obstruct the judicial process."

Thursday, the judge said, "Sanctions are not imposed to punish, but must be based upon evidence of actual loss."

Nonetheless, Wright's final determination in the civil case that led to last year's Lewinsky scandal -- and to the president's impeachment by the House and acquittal in the Senate -- threatened further legal trouble for Clinton.

The now-complete federal court record could aid independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr should he decide to pursue criminal prosecution of Clinton before or after he leaves the White House.

Wright, in figuring Clinton's monetary penalty, disregarded as "excessive" a demand by Jones' attorneys in Texas and Virginia for a court-imposed payment of nearly $500,000.

Noting Clinton made an out-of-court payment of $850,000 to Jones and her attorneys last November to settle the case, Wright said "it is appropriate to limit fees and expenses to those incurred" through extra legal work that resulted from his contempt-of-court conduct when he lied in his January 1998 deposition.

She awarded $79,999 to the Dallas law firm of Rader, Campbell, Fisher & Pike and $9,485 to the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute, a conservative public interest law firm that also assisted Jones. The judge added $1,202 to cover expenses of her own trip to Washington to preside at the president's deposition.

"The court takes no pleasure in imposing contempt sanctions against this nation's president and, no doubt like many others, grows weary of this matter," the judge wrote.

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