8th Circuit rejects McDougal appeal over records

By

LITTLE ROCK — Whitewater figure Susan McDougal will not be able to use a transcript of her grand jury testimony as she prepares a screenplay or novel about the investigation into her business relationship with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis rejected an appeal by McDougal to unseal part of the grand jury proceedings. Judge Diana E. Murphy wrote that McDougal failed to show she had a "particularized need" for the records, siding with a special judge who rejected her request last June.

Though the need for grand jury secrecy diminishes at the end of hearings, Murphy wrote that there is no statute that specifically authorizes releasing the records after their completion.

"Although McDougal's appellate brief and argument suggest that her request for access was motivated by a desire to recount in a screenplay or novel about (Independent Counsel Ken) Starr's allegedly coercive tactics in the Whitewater investigation, she did not mention this in the district court," Murphy wrote.

McDougal claimed court clerks sealed more of the grand jury proceedings than actually requested by the judge who oversaw the panel's work - and Murphy acknowledged that could be the case. However, the judge wrote that McDougal failed to ask a lower court judge to review the records privately to determine whether a seal over the records was too broad.

Judges Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. and Lavenski R. Smith concurred with Murphy's decision.

McDougal, a Camden native, could not be reached for comment Friday. Her lawyer, Bobby McDaniel of Jonesboro, did not immediately return a message left at his office.