Paula Jones’ Legal Fund Pays Hair, Pet Bills

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Paula Corbin Jones’ legal fund paid for clothes, hairstyling, pet boarding, public relations and other personal items unrelated to her legal bills, President Clinton’s lawyers claimed in court papers made public Wednesday.

Still, a federal judge said Jones can keep the names of contributors secret, although she must surrender other information about the fund to Clinton.

The spending information is attributed to documents that the Paula Jones Legal Fund has already turned over to Clinton’s lawyers and which accompany papers filed under seal in support of the president’s motion to force disclosure of contributors’ names.

U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright unsealed the papers Wednesday.

The documents “significantly undercut any suggestion that the fund is a lofty policy-oriented organization engaged in expressive conduct that deserves the absolute protection of the 1st Amendment,” Clinton lawyer Robert S. Bennett contended in the motion.

Bennett has said the fund-raising documents could prove his contention that Jones has been bankrolled by Clinton’s political enemies, a claim she vigorously disputes. The theory seemed to gain some credence Oct. 1 when the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia conservative group, took over fund-raising duties.

Jones’ lawyers did not return telephone messages left at their Dallas office.

In ruling that contributors’ names not be revealed, the judge said she was “concerned that compelled disclosure of the names of individual donors would chill expressive activity not only in this case, but in future cases as well.”