Jones Case

WASHINGTON -- Saying she wants to fight on and expects to win "my day in court," Paula Corbin Jones said yesterday that she will appeal her sexual misconduct case against President Clinton to a federal appeals court."

WASHINGTON -- As if liberated by the dismissal of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual harassment case, President Clinton has returned to the detailed policy issues that he believes are the key to his appeal.Pretending for the moment that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr doesn't exist, the president's schedulers have reinstituted the event-of-the-day strategy they were employing before Monica Lewinsky all but overwhelmed Washington's political system.On Monday, Clinton moved to ban more cheap assault rifles.

WASHINGTON -- Not surprisingly, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry was quick to proclaim "vindication" for President Clinton in Judge Susan Webber Wright's dismissal of Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against him. In the narrow legal sense, he could do so -- vindication in the specific charge that whatever happened in that Little Rock hotel room in 1991 didn't damage Ms. Jones in her job or her psyche.But Judge Wright's action included no finding on the allegation that started the whole fiasco -- that then Governor Clinton exposed himself to Ms. Jones and solicited a sex act from her. Only in the unlikely case of the dismissal being overturned on appeal will that charge be raised in court again, and even then we might never know the truth.

WASHINGTON -- Nobody got out of the Paula Jones case untouched.Judge Susan Webber Wright, in dismissing Ms. Jones' three-count suit against President Clinton, made America safe for sexual predators. She concluded that even if then-Gov. Bill Clinton exposed himself, grabbed Ms. Jones, groped her, stroked her hair, grabbed her again, talked about his friendship with her boss -- and did all this with a state trooper guarding the door -- the behavior was "boorish" but not within the "color of the law."

WASHINGTON -- As Robert S. Bennett walked out of the federal courthouse here a couple of weeks ago, a student asked the president's lawyer for an autograph. "Want a little advice?" Bennett quipped to the young visitor. "Be a dentist."As the Paula Corbin Jones case dragged into its fourth year, exposing Clinton to increasingly salacious charges of sexual misconduct, Bennett had been taking a beating, attracting unaccustomed criticism for his handling of the lawsuit -- especially his failure to dispense with it long ago.But Wednesday night, after the Jones case was dismissed by a federal judge, Bennett waltzed into the tony Palm restaurant downtown to hearty applause, sipped Dom Perignon on the house and celebrated the biggest victory of his career, one that would go a long way toward vindicating the bearish and blustery $475-an-hour lawyer.

WASHINGTON -- The sudden demise of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct suit has dramatically shifted the terrain on Capitol Hill, making Republican talk of impeachment all the more politically toxic.Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr made it clear yesterday he will proceed vigorously with his investigation of criminal allegations against the president, despite the fact that those allegations arise from a civil lawsuit that, for the moment, no longer exists.And Republicans in the House and Senate gamely insist the Jones ruling will have no impact on their decision on whether to proceed with an inquiry of impeachment.

WASHINGTON -- Far from retreating after the dismissal of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct lawsuit, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr came out swinging yesterday, declaring that he will press on with his investigation into whether President Clinton or his top advisers committed criminal violations."

WASHINGTON -- Paula Corbin Jones' loss in a federal court yesterday is not likely to harm independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's continuing probe for possible criminal acts by President Clinton, his associates and aides.Whatever additional political woe the ruling may create for Starr, already suffering in public opinion polls, the decision may actually facilitate his ability to carry on the grand jury investigation, legal experts suggest.In fact, analysts said, the end of the Jones case -- and it does appear to be over since there is only a long-shot chance of a revival on appeal -- could make Starr's task easier as he continues an investigation begun over the Whitewater land deal.

WASHINGTON -- In a stunning legal victory for scandal-battered President Clinton, a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., threw out Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct case yesterday, bringing a likely close to a matter that has plagued and preoccupied Clinton for nearly four years.In dismissing all the charges in the case, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright said that Jones, a former Arkansas state worker, "failed to demonstrate she has a case worthy of being submitted to a jury."Jones' allegations that Clinton, as Arkansas governor, made an unwelcome sexual advance toward her, if true, might be "boorish and offensive," Wright said, but did not "reveal a basis for a claim of criminal sexual assault."

WASHINGTON -- After weeks of headline-grabbing legal filings by both sides in the Paula Corbin Jones case, the federal judge overseeing the case yesterday ordered them both to knock it off.U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright issued an order saying she cannot ignore that lawyers for both President Clinton and Jones have "filed a number of contentious pleadings and have perhaps engaged in activities in violation of court orders."Specifically, lawyers for Jones and Clinton have exchanged a tit-for-tat series of pleadings that made public scandalous claims about the president and his alleged sexual liaisons and raised questions about his accusers.