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 For Immediate Release
May 20, 1999 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172


FILEGATE LAWSUIT HEATS UP

Judicial Watch To Seek Court Leave to Depose Defendant Hillary Clinton

Defendants Livingstone, Marceca, and Nussbaum Set To Be Deposed In Next Few Weeks; Ickes, Pentagon's Bacon, and Stephanopoulos Ordered Back for More Questioning

(Washington, May 20). Several key witnesses will be questioned in the ongoing Filegate civil lawsuit in the next few weeks. The $90 million dollar lawsuit was filed against Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone, Anthony Marceca, the Clinton White House, and FBI on behalf of those Reagan and Bush staffers and others whose FBI files were illegally obtained and misused. Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Filegate victims. The depositions for defendants Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone, and Anthony Marceca have been scheduled for the following dates: Craig Livingstone: May 26; Bernard Nussbaum: June 4; Anthony Marceca: June 9.

Judicial Watch will seek Court permission to proceed with the deposition of defendant Hillary Rodham Clinton before June 12. In the course of its investigation, Judicial Watch has uncovered testimony and documentary evidence showing Mrs. Clinton was the "mastermind" of Filegate - among other things, hiring and supervising fellow defendant Craig Livingstone. Though provided many opportunities to do so, Mrs. Clinton has yet to deny the Filegate allegations under oath to Judicial Watch and the Court. Her testimony is crucial, as Judicial Watch is seeking to uncover the duties she hired and/or directed Livingstone to perform at The White House. This is relevant to an initial legal issue in the case; whether the government can substitute itself for Livingstone and some other defendants.

Other witnesses have been ordered back by the Court for additional questioning. Harold Ickes, scheduled to be deposed again on June 11, will face Judicial Watch questioning about his conversations with the President about Kathleen Willey. Judicial Watch uncovered that Bill Clinton conspired with James Carville to release the Privacy Act-protected letters from Willey to Clinton in an effort to destroy her reputation.

Ken Bacon, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, has been ordered by the Court to answer additional questions relating to another Privacy Act violation uncovered by Judicial Watch -- the release of confidential information from Linda Tripp's background file. Bacon must answer questions relating to the effort to cover-up the true circumstances of the illegal release, and whether Secretary of Defense Cohen was involved in that cover-up. Bacon's deposition is set for May 24.

George Stephanopoulos has been ordered back for additional questioning as well. Stephanopoulos was found by the Court to have lied about a document search for a previous deposition and will have to pay Judicial Watch's attorneys fees and costs as a result. Among other relevant issues, Stephanopoulos has been ordered to answer questions about notes which he now admits he took for his recently published book on the Clinton White House. Stephanopoulos previously denied under oath to Judicial Watch having such notes. Stephanopoulos' deposition will be scheduled shortly.

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