Whitewater figure tells her side

Even though Whitewater figure Susan McDougal’s new book is titled The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk, she had no problem talking with a group of 50 corporate communications and public affairs majors and faculty Wednesday afternoon in the Hughes-Trigg Forum.

After a brief introduction from CCPA Chairwoman Rita Whillock, McDougal told her story about the Whitewater investigation and the 18 months she spent in seven jails throughout five states during that time.

She was charged with civil contempt of court after she refused to answer questions during the grand jury assembled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright.

Although McDougal vowed to “never speak to these [Starr and the grand jury] people for the rest of my life,” she did choose to speak with the media in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer.

“If I can say so myself, I was absolutely brilliant. For hours I answered questions and it felt easy because they were about things that had happened to me,” McDougal said.

Little did she know that interview would be cut from hours of tape into six minutes that “made me look ignorant and made me feel justified in not trusting myself to talk and going out to tell the story,” she said.

Shortly after the interview, her ex-husband, Jim McDougal, told her that he was going to make a deal with the prosecutors so he could have a lighter sentence. She went with him while he made the deal and prosecutors gave him everything he wanted, but she stuck to her principles and did not agree to support the story, which would be used to convict Bill and Hilary Clinton.

McDougal never agreed to testify on her own behalf and against the Clintons.

“I didn’t think anyone would listen to me. I didn’t think I had my own voice,” McDougal said. “I love that I spent the time in jail because I found a voice, for myself and for the other women in jail.”

After she refused to answer Starr’s question, Larry King asked her to appear on “Larry King Live,” where she told her story to the media and was taken to jail the next day.

Two weeks after appearing on “Larry King Live,” McDougal received more than 50,000 letters from people who believed her and applauded her for standing up for her principles. Letters continued to arrive during her time in jail, and her fellow inmates read the letters to her because, “they wanted to be a part of something good and worth doing and they wanted [me] to make it through,” she said. “They [the female inmates] looked to me to be the one good thing in their lives.”

After 18 months in jail, which was a longer time than any of those convicted, she was given a release hearing. At her hearing, guards from all seven of the facilities she had been in testified on her behalf. According to one guard, when McDougal was there they were all so happy they could be there to help her because they believed in what she was doing.

“Susan is a role model for many of us because she stuck to her principles,” Whillock said.

McDougal’s book discusses the choices she has made throughout her life, but also tells stories about the Clintons, Kenneth Starr and about women in American prisons. McDougal also had a book signing at Borders Wednesday evening.