Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- May 7, 1998
Jailhouse tapes show Hubbell job search
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
White House aide Marsha Scott sought employment for President Clinton's friend, Webster L. Hubbell, shortly after trying to stop Mr. Hubbell from filing a lawsuit that might hurt Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to tapes of Mr. Hubbell's jailhouse phone calls released yesterday.
"Peter Lewis is this very, very wealthy man from Cleveland and, in fact, I talked to him about you," Miss Scott told Mr. Hubbell on Sept. 11, 1996. "He owns Progressive Insurance Company."
Miss Scott said Mr. Lewis wanted to talk to Mr. Hubbell about setting up a fraud division in his company. Mr. Hubbell had pleaded guilty to fraud.
"I certainly know about it," he said with a chuckle.
"This is why I was talking about you," Miss Scott replied. "He said, 'God, he could ... come in and teach us a bunch of stuff.'"
"You bet," Mr. Hubbell replied.
"I said, 'He's been on both sides of it,'" Miss Scott said.
"I've seen it all," Mr. Hubbell said. "I've seen every bit of it."
Miss Scott explained she had vacationed with Mr. Lewis in Italy and "flew back on his jet with him." Mr. Hubbell urged her to continue pursuing job prospects for him.
"People are starting to talk about what you're going to do next -- how they can help," Miss Scott said. "You've not been forgotten. I mean, people have sought me out to tell me that. Frank was one of them. ... And he's talked to, I think, Mickey and some others."
Miss Scott did not mention the last names of Frank and Mickey.
In tapes released earlier by Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Mr. Hubbell's wife, Suzanna, said she was pressured by Miss Scott.
Mrs. Hubbell feared losing her job at the Interior Department if her husband sued the Rose law firm because it would expose Hillary Rodham Clinton to accusations of overbilling clients. Mr. Hubbell and Mrs. Clinton worked at the Little Rock law firm before Bill Clinton was elected president.
"I'm hearing the squeeze play," Mrs. Hubbell said on March 25, 1996.
"So I need to roll over one more time," Mr. Hubbell replied.
The batch of tapes released yesterday show that Mr. Hubbell's jailhouse job search included writing a letter to someone named "Vernon" and approving his wife's plan to call Democratic fund-raiser Nathan Landow.
It was not clear whether Mr. Hubbell was writing to President Clinton's confidant Vernon Jordan, who had earlier helped Mr. Hubbell find work. Mr. Jordan also tried to line up jobs for Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern at the heart of the presidential sex-and-lies scandal.
Mr. Landow said yesterday the Hubbells did not contact him about a job. He is also accused of trying to silence Kathleen E. Willey, a former White House volunteer who claims Mr. Clinton groped her.
Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr is investigating whether Mr. Clinton and those close to him sought to silence potentially damaging witnesses such as Mr. Hubbell and Miss Lewinsky by providing them with jobs.
White House spokesman James Kennedy declined to comment on the newly released tapes.
In one conversation on Sept. 6, 1996, Mr. Hubbell told his wife about the book he was writing.
"I got two letters from other publishers wanting to talk to me about the book," Mr. Hubbell said.
"Well, you wouldn't believe how much money Dick Morris has just made," said Mrs. Hubbell, referring to a former Clinton adviser. "For a book yet to be written, published by Random House, they're giving him an advance of $2 million."
"Wow," Mr. Hubbell said. "He certainly can't finish it before the end of the year -- right?"
"Oh, you never know," said Mrs. Hubbell, who called Mr. Morris a "sleazy guy."
Mr. Morris was forced from his job after being caught with a prostitute in 1996. In recent months, he has been increasingly critical of Mr. Clinton.
"Being called sleazy in a jailhouse conversation is like being called ugly by a frog," Mr. Morris said. "If the speculation is correct -- and I don't know if it is -- it would be ironic that I was paid to speak out and he may have been paid to shut up."Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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