WASHINGTON — Today is the deadline for President Clinton to respond to two Arkansas disbarment complaints — remnants of the Sexgate scandal that could cost him his law license.
Clinton’s lawyer David Kendall refused to comment about what the president would do.
The president was given 30 days to respond to the complaints, but there’s been some speculation he might ignore today’s deadline and claim he’s been too busy as commander in chief to deal with the disbarment issue. If he were to do that, he’d effectively forfeit his law license.
“I don’t think I should be spending my time on this,” Clinton said at a press conference last month.
Southeastern Legal Foundation president Matthew Glavin pointed out that Clinton’s public schedule for the past two weeks shows that he attended seven fund-raisers — and he said if Clinton claimed he was too busy to deal with disbarment, “it wouldn’t pass the straight-face test.”
Clinton could fight the complaints, seek an extension, or surrender his law license as Richard Nixon did in California after Watergate.
One complaint is based on federal Judge Susan Webber Wright’s contempt citation against Clinton for lying about sex with Monica Lewinsky when he testified in front of the judge in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment lawsuit.
The conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation filed the other disbarment complaint against Clinton, accusing him of lying throughout the Sexgate scandal.
Meanwhile, sources said the independent counsel has completed his report on the Clinton administration’s collection of more than 900 FBI files — many of them on prominent Republicans.
The report will remain under seal until a federal three-judge panel makes it public, but sources said it doesn’t contain any devastating new information on either Clinton or wife Hillary.
Rather, it blames bureaucratic errors, sources said.