Trooper Says He Lied About Clinton Affairs Arkansas Officer Says Lawyer Promised Jobs In Return For Confirming Falsehoods

An Arkansas state trooper who guarded then-Gov. Bill Clinton says he confirmed falsehoods about Clinton’s reported marital infidelities as part of a proposed tell-all book project, The New Yorker says.

Two other magazines also quote from an affidavit that trooper Ronald Anderson gave to Clinton’s lawyers in 1994 in which Anderson says a Clinton foe had promised troopers high-paying jobs in exchange for their help in undermining Clinton.

The New Yorker, in its edition on newsstands today, said Anderson claims in the affidavit that in discussions with other troopers about a proposed book on Clinton’s marital cheating, he confirmed stories about the president even though he knew many “were nothing more than old fish tales with little, if any, basis in fact.”

He says in the affidavit that he participated in the deception because, after the 1992 Democratic National Convention that nominated Clinton for the presidency, he thought his knowledge of candidate Clinton might prove profitable.

The New Yorker and Time magazine, in its latest edition, both quote Anderson as saying that Cliff Jackson, an Arkansas lawyer and longtime Clinton foe, offered the troopers jobs outside Arkansas for seven years for $100,000 a year in exchange for their cooperation in publicizing alleged Clinton scandals.

Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday evening that the assertions in Anderson’s affidavit are “totally false” and “libelous.”

“I never guaranteed anything,” he said. “Where the $100,000 figure came from mystifies me. The seven-year period is absolute nonsense.”

Jackson said that when the troopers were talking about coming forward in 1993 with their accounts of Clinton’s extramarital affairs, they became concerned about their jobs in Arkansas.

As part of his professional contract with them, Jackson said he agreed he would “use his best efforts to secure alternate acceptable employable opportunities for bodyguards, if they so desire, outside the state of Arkansas.”

Jackson said that agreement was as close as he ever came to any type of offer to any state trooper. He said he never made any offer to compensate troopers to help hurt Clinton.

The writer of The New Yorker piece, Jane Mayer, said another trooper involved in the book project, which never materialized, was Danny Ferguson. He is the Clinton guard who contends he brought Paula Jones to an Arkansas hotel room where Jones has alleged that Clinton made sexual advances.

Mayer quoted Jackson as saying that Ferguson wouldn’t sign a release giving the troopers’ information to the media unless he was promised $1 million.

The piece also presented what it said is new information from a co-worker of Jones’ in Little Rock who said Jones, who is suing Clinton for sexual harassment, spoke enthusiastically about their 1991 meeting.

Pam Hood, a co-worker at the Arkansas Industrial Development Corp., compared Jones’ excitement at having met Clinton to the “bubbly enthusiasm” she had shown earlier when she had caught a glimpse of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Several of Jones’ friends and family members say Jones told them she was distressed by what she said were Clinton’s unwelcome sexual advances. Others have said that Jones was enthusiastic about meeting the governor.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that the president does not have the constitutional right to delay a civil suit until he is out of office, opening the way for Jones to pursue the case.

Anderson also was one of the troopers mentioned in a recent Washington Post article reporting that Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor investigating the Whitewater real estate scandal, is interviewing former troopers for information on Clinton’s personal life.

Both Time and Newsweek, in their editions coming out today, said Starr will release within two weeks his report on one aspect of his investigation - the death of White House aide and Clinton friend Vince Foster.

Starr, who has spent $30 million in his three-year investigation, will agree with police conclusions that Foster committed suicide, Newsweek said.