McDougal says she no longer feels bitter
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
The bitterness Susan McDougal held toward special counsel Kenneth Starr, who headed the Whitewater real estate investigation, has been replaced with g ratitude, she said Friday at the Women’s Action for New Directions Mother’s Day luncheon.
“The judge looked over at the independent counsel’s table and thanked them for their prayers, as if God had something to do with our convictions,” McDougal said about the trial that ended in her conviction.
McDougal was convicted in 1996 of four counts of felony fraud and conspiracy relating to illegal loans obtained through the Small Business Administration.
In September 1996, U. S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright sent McDougal to jail on civil contempt of court charges after she refused to answer questions before a Whitewater grand jury.
She remained jailed for contempt until March 1998 and then served three months of her two-year sentence on the felony convictions. Upon her June 1998 release, she was charged with criminal contempt of court and obstruction of justice, but her 1999 trial ended with a hung jury on the contempt charge and an acquittal on the obstruction charge.
She was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001.
McDougal said Friday that it surprised her fellow inmates that “I’d gone to jail for not talking.” “‘ Even on TV, girl, they tell you that you’ve got the right to remain silent, ’” McDougal said, mimicking the inmates, who didn’t understand that you could only remain silent to avoid selfincrimination. “They took [my story ] as their own and saw it as something bright and noble and good.” McDougal was the keynote speaker for the women’s group, which honored Anna Cox, who created the Dharma Friends Prison Outreach Project, as Peacemaker of the Year.
Though McDougal still feels that she was imprisoned for “doing what was right,” she said, the story of her experience was filled with humor Friday.
“I was in seven jails in five states,” she said. “I thought I might do a travel guide to jails.” McDougal hasn’t yet written a travel guide, but she has published a book about the Whitewater trials titled The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk: Why I Refused to Testify Against the Clintons and What I Learned in Jail.
In her book and in her speech, McDougal maintains that the independent counsel attempted to coerce her into corroborating testimony that could be used against the Clintons.
Her rehashing of the injustice she said she faced at trial was brief, however.
“When I went to jail, I would cackle at night about what I would do if I could get my hands on Starr,” she chuckled. “I was empty, angry and vindictive.” But her time, particularly the time she spent with the other prisoners and the horrific stories the women shared, changed her outlook on her own plight, McDougal said.
After hearing many stories of rape and abuse, often at the hands of family members, that led to the downward spiral of many of the inmates, “I was ashamed that I had been so angry,” McDougal said. “I’d had a loving family, a good education. These kids hadn’t even made it through high school. I had encountered truth and was no longer angry.” McDougal now works as an advocate for prisoners and spends much of her time speaking around the country about jail conditions.
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