4° cscrge dicted? Washingtonians can’t stop talking about the fate of the first lady. But despite all the rumor- mongering, Hillary Rodham Clinton is not about to go down without a fight. By Daniel Wattenberg lent acts wit gerbils and/or prostitutes, cow York has its aligators-in-the plumbing legends. LAL, its tales of Woshington, meanwhile, tillats itself with culation of impending indictments of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Whitewater in Jependent counsel Kenneth Start. ln the past few months, the town has been abuzz with talk that the ist lady will be brought toa Tt would be historic, unprecedented, and bout Mrs sme, One pre ziven the feelings many have Chinton-not entirely une lection rumor had it that 2 32-count inc nent of Hillary Clinton had already opted; the canny Judge State was wating unl alter President Clinton's r-« on, lest h he appear paisa These rumors don’t com fom the inside snot leak. Nob the Statrinvestigation outside his small bao and in «stigators tally knows what new evidenc i any, Judge Stare has amassed against the fist lady. Washington has an informat scuum ands filled with speculation, Just lays after President Clinton was re-elected for example, Don Nickele—the Senate assis tant majority leader and second-ranking Senate Republican remarked on. national television that he “wouldn't be surprised” if Starr indicted Hillary Chaton for periury and obstruction of justice. presidental par lon, headed ominowsly, would provoke im peachment hearings Bur the chiel source of fodder for rumor mongers has been the paranoid behavior of the Clinton White House. The president himself echoed the elaim of Susan McDou fall his convicted former real estate partner {in jail for refusing to testify before a Lite Rock grand jury), that Starrs coaxing her to periure herself t incriminate the Clintons More recently, Clintonite James Carville an nounced plans to aise money fora publicity campaign aimed at assailing Star as “par san political hack Republican” witha person: al vendeta agains the president But rumors aside, the sight of Hillary Clinton in shackles, or tesifjing in cour, is not one you're likely to see. Truth is, the ‘dil of her being indicted are slim. Certain- ly most informed Beltway scandal trackers congressional investigators, journalists, legal alysts—ate betting agsinst indictment, “They list the following reasons: The evidence ‘may look bad, but’ circumstantial the frst lady would make ahi dant; and Ken Stare ingexperiencea ly sympathetic defen a cautious man, lack: a prosecutor. Hillary Clinton has two particular legal prablem ateas: hee role in the sacking of the White House tvel olfice staff and the still unexplained materalization of her Rose Law rm billing secon in the White House book. vom: Indictments, they were tae returned, would probably stem from these. But in both ‘eases, Hillary Clinton has some advantages. “The travel office In a sworn interrogatory taken by the General Accounting Office in its investigation ofthe firing ofthe White House travel office staff the first lady disclaimed any responsibility forthe dismissals. An apparent Iyeontadictory memo writen by then White Frouse aide David Watkins later surfaced. Watkins wrote that he fired the travel offic staff under pressue from the first lady ‘There ‘would be “hello pay” fe didn't, he recalled Buta source familiar with the investigation says the apparent contradiction between Watkins's memo and Hillary Clinton's de- rials dissolves on close reading of the memo. "Watkins never said that he heard what he's atribated to her from her directly” she argues “He says he heard it from others. It becomes so attenuated that unless he's got more, i's not something he can use against her Moreover, argues a Republican source in volved in congressional investigations of Watkins's ‘memo and maybe his grand jury testimony— is prey thin, Clinton scandals, the evidenc itis ae sad, she said? stu- ation, I don't know whether that's enough to convinee a D.C, jury to convict and, there fore, Starr to indict The billing records: Hillary Cl Rove Law Fiem billing records turned up ona table in the White House book room almost ‘so years after they had been subpoenaed by the previous Whitewater special prosecutor, Robert Fiske. Located next ro a study in the residential quarters of the White House, the book room is accessible to the first tamil their overnight guests, and a few aides and ‘maintenance staffers, Hillary Clinton's tinge prints are on the records. Ifshe concealed the records from investigators, she could face ob- struction-of justice charges ‘The fingeeprints “look bad,” allows a Demo: but “fingerprints are not enough, and there is no other testimony. ©LUX eter ad on) Politics, Culture, and the State of 12m) obo) Brain-taxing trivia games, * Conspiracy Week, and much / more Cort Nisa Cele Te nn ee ue roy unless Tam missing something, thats ot 0 ing tobe an indictment. His Hillary Clinton’ claims ofinnocence. “She is is shared by many who doubt the one that most likely put them there,” says a Republican lawyer. But he too doubts that the evidence would hold up in cout. “They were her records, They were found in the White House in a secure room. Her finger prints were on them, but we don’t have a videotape of her putting them there. So the Aefense position would be that she didn't do it and you have to prove somebody guilty be yond a reasonable doubs.”| But obstruction of justice isn’t the only is sue: Hillary Clinton could also face charges of perjury or false statements (a broader statute encompassing unsworn statements to a federal department of agency) in connec: tion with the records. Before discovery her billing records, Hillary Clinton swore t federal investigators that she had not been involved in an Arkansas real estate develop ment known as Castle Grande, later found to be associated with “sham transactions cording to investigators for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. When the billin records indicated she had p legal work on the development, the first lady re fined her story: She had known of the Castle Grande development under another name TDG, the name ofthe entity selling the prop- ent and the name, she says, by which it was referred to within the Rose firm, Skeptics and they are numerous—point out that the development was widely known as C Grande in Lite Rock, where it. attention in the late "80s, followin ike [Star] has anything there, either” says a Clinton friendly source familiar with the investiga, ing that Hillary Clinton's tion, an tal testimony on the matter to investigators re flected honest confusion about nomenela ture, “Her statements about Castle Grand with the information she had) ce insists, “IF you nds 1e wasn't being truthful when they said they didn’t remember something ‘There are still some variables in the indie uation. Former Clinton b ment equation MeDo ess pare perating with nis sill the yp that does noe 1 fraud sentence, and 1 resolved, the evie dentiary record remains very much open: Noboxly knows what the ex-White House aide David Watkins—swho president's helicopter Star His former wi count against her ever ‘until thar impasse h: using the told the grand jury about Hillary Clinton's the travel office staff 's guess whether in role in the dismissal And finally, its anyb dictments of high level White House aides, past and tongues or Hillary, 1 day in jal for er. butthey won't If Starr di wet Hillary Clinton, the White House has several options=in thea The president could fire Starr or pardon his wife (and a host of her associates, one at cely trigger impeachment hearings J, says the Democratic puree, that “war-gaming them i silly The best option for the White House tums outta be the most indicted, the White ve one," shes Let the expedi concludes the source So why all the rumors? The mind onservative Washington, seared by Water and Iran-¢ontra, is inc unprecedented: an in