(3 of 7)
At one point in his deposition it is hard to tell whether Clinton is making one of his paper-thin distinctions or having trouble keeping his stories straight. When he denied having a sexual relationship with Browning, he said she "was mad at me because I'd never been her lover, especially since she thought I was now Gennifer Flowers' lover, and...I told her Gennifer Flowers' story was bogus--it's very hard to prove your innocence in a case like this, but that we'd done it." Just four pages on, however, Clinton admitted his relationship with Flowers hadn't been so innocent. Asked if he had ever had sexual relations with Flowers, Clinton replied, "Yes... Once."
For the Jones team Flowers gives an account of how Clinton relied on both deception and government power to cover up his affairs. In 1991 the Governor helped the cabaret singer get a state administrative job. That prompted a rival job seeker to file a grievance with the state, claiming she was more qualified but lost out because of Flowers' affair with the Governor. Called to testify at a state review-board hearing, Flowers phoned Clinton for advice, according to her statement to Jones' lawyers. Clinton told her that if she was asked under oath about sexual relations with him to "deny that we had ever had an affair."
Flowers said Clinton told her that she should tell the board she had read about the job in the newspapers. In fact, Flowers said, she had asked Clinton for help, and he smoothed her path. The Governor, she said, told her to call one of his assistants, who helped her with her application and sent her to another official for a successful job interview. Flowers said Clinton told her that his appointee, Don Barnes, who headed the review board, would be "very protective of me and take care of any problems that may arise" during the grievance hearing. When the hearing turned to the issue of her relationship with Clinton, she said, Barnes "stopped the questioning."
In depositions sworn out by former troopers--whose credibility has been assailed since they first told their stories to the American Spectator in 1993--a common thread is the role played by Buddy Young, who ran Clinton's security operation in Arkansas and who was appointed to a plum federal post after Clinton became President. Larry Patterson, who had worked for Young, said Young once admitted to an unusual job description, saying that one of his tasks was to "keep a lid on some of these women. I believe the term Buddy used was 'to keep the other shoe from falling.'" When contacted by TIME, Young denied making the comment. As reporters began to explore the story of Clinton's affairs, Young allegedly tried to keep a lid on his former subordinates too. Patterson said Young called him four times in the early 1990s and warned him to keep quiet, saying at one point, "Larry, if you know what's best for you and your family, keep your mouth shut." Another trooper, Roger Perry, swears to a similar story. Young says he "never threatened them."