Was Release Of Mcdougal Requested? Ex-Sen. Pryor Meets With Judge In Whitewater Case

Former Sen. David Pryor met privately with a federal judge in an apparent effort to obtain the release of Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Thursday.

The newspaper cited unnamed sources in its report.

Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat who retired from the Senate last year after serving three terms, confirmed that he met with U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright Tuesday. But he declined to say what they had discussed.

Pryor, a native of Camden, where Mrs. McDougal was born, said that he knows her family, “but I’ve not had any contact with them for years.”

The judge also declined to discuss the meeting.

Mrs. McDougal has been held in jail on a contempt of court citation since September 1996, following her refusal to testify before a Whitewater grand jury. She has yet to begin serving a two-year prison sentence for her May 1996 felony convictions in the Whitewater investigation.

Mrs. McDougal has said she won’t testify to the grand jury because she doesn’t trust Whitewater prosecutors. She says she fears she would face a perjury charge if her testimony doesn’t match what independent counsel Kenneth Starr wants to hear.

In 1996, she and her ex-husband - former business partners of President Clinton and his wife - were convicted of fraud along with former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in a Whitewater-related trial.