WWW – Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who launched a sexual harassment suit against then-President Bill Clinton, tells ABC News she was the first step in an effort by anti-Clinton forces that eventually led to his impeachment. Hillary Rodham Clinton famously blamed the scandals that led to her husband’s impeachment on a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Jones told ABC News Primetime’s Cynthia McFadden: “I agree that I was a small little entity in this big vast whatever-you-want-to-call-it that got erected.”
She continued, “It started with me – and they did use me for their own agendas.”
Jones spoke in reaction to the former president’s newly released memoir, My Life.
She said she was shocked by Clinton’s recent explanation of why he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton told CBS’ 60 Minutes that he did it “because I could.”
Jones said her first thought was: “Oh, my! He actually admitted that – and that’s why he did that with me.” (Jones’ lawsuit accused Clinton of exposing himself and making a sexual proposition to her in an Arkansas hotel room.)
She feels that Clinton’s motivations were the same with White House volunteer Kathleen Willey and former cabaret singer Gennifer Flowers, who also accused Clinton of sexual misbehavior.
“You know, he did it because he could,” Jones told McFadden in an interview airing Thursday night on ABC News’ Primetime. “Because he used his power. So that’s exactly my thought when he said that.”
Clinton denies sexually harassing Jones. The suit was dismissed. Jones appealed, and in November 1998, Clinton paid her $850,000 to settle the suit.
Willey testified in Jones’ sexual harassment case that Clinton had groped her. The president denied the allegation under oath.
Flowers rocked Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 1992 when she announced to the media she had had a 12-year affair with the would-be candidate. Clinton later admitted her allegations were at least partially true.
Jones also told McFadden she knew about the president’s relationship with Lewinsky before his wife learned of it. One of Jones’ lawyers confronted Clinton before the Lewinsky news became public, she said.
“I knew very little about her except she was an intern, that she worked in the White House … and that they had some relations,” Jones said.
Her lawyers were interested in Lewinsky because they were trying to establish a pattern of behavior by Clinton, “so it would be more believable that he did do it to me,” Jones said.
Jones was asked if she felt sorry for former first lady Hillary Clinton, now a U.S. senator from New York. “Well that’s between them, I guess, you know. To each his own,” Jones said.
But she added, “If she knows a lot of the stuff that he has done to her and if she’s still with him, that’s what she wants to do. And, no, I don’t feel sorry for her. She’s a very big, strong political woman. She knows what’s going on and, you know, there’s no reason for me to feel sorry for her. If they want to be together, let them be together. Probably they’re happy together.”