The Arkansas Connection

When Asa Hutchinson, the star performer among the 13 house prosecutors, slipped across the Senate floor last Thursday to say hello to White House lawyer Bruce Lindsey, it was almost like old times. A sophomore Congressman from Arkansas, Hutchinson says he got to know Lindsey when they worked in state politics in the 1980s and early 1990s. Though always cordial, they were foes then too. Hutchinson was a rising Republican, while Lindsey was a close friend and adviser to the state's most powerful Democrat, Governor Bill Clinton. In Arkansas, Hutchinson says, "everybody's got some connection."

So it's no surprise that Hutchinson also has some old ties to the man he's trying to convict. Now 48, Hutchinson was a student at the University of Arkansas law school when Clinton taught there in the 1970s, though he never took a class with Clinton. Hutchinson went on to become a prosecutor, and in 1984, as a U.S. Attorney, he brought a cocaine-distributing charge against Roger Clinton, the Governor's wayward half-brother. Roger pleaded guilty, and at the sentencing, Governor Clinton thanked Hutchinson for helping save Roger's life.

Now the other Clinton brother is on trial, and the prosecutor who made the most effective case against him last week was Hutchinson. Using a pointer and charts as props, he took all the familiar, disparate facts of the case and reassembled them into a coherent, sinister whole. As he went along, Hutchinson punctured a few holes in the Clinton defense. For example, the President's lawyers maintain that Clinton's leading questions to Betty Currie on the day after his deposition in the Paula Jones case could not have been witness tampering because Currie had not been called as a witness. But Hutchinson showed how Clinton had repeatedly suggested to Jones' lawyers that they talk to Currie--the logical conclusion being that Clinton expected her to be called.

Hutchinson also cast doubt on the White House contention that the help Vernon Jordan and others gave Monica Lewinsky in finding a new job had nothing to do with her involvement in Jones' case. The Congressman laid out evidence that the help came in earnest only after Clinton learned that Lewinsky's name was on the witness list. "The question here," he said, "is not, Why did the President do a favor for an ex-intern, but, Why did he use the influence of his office to make sure it happened?" Hutchinson's answer: "To obstruct [and] impede justice."

Hutchinson's performance won effusive reviews from G.O.P. Senators. "He was outstanding," said Utah's Robert Bennett. Said another: "I thought the obstruction case was weak going in. Now I think it's pretty strong."