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State GOP chairman calls for investigation of claim Clinton eavesdropped Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Republican Party chief Tuesday called for a criminal investigation into an allegation in a recent book that Hillary Clinton listened to a secretly recorded phone conversation while her husband was Arkansas governor. The Pulaski County prosecutor questioned the sincerity of state GOP Chairman Dennis Milligan's request, however, considering Milligan made the request to the state attorney general, who has no criminal investigative authority, the state wiretapping law carries only a one-year statute of limitations and the law did not take effect until 1993, the year Bill Clinton took office as president. Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign dismissed the request as "politics as usual." In their book "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Clinton," authors Don Van Natta Jr. and Jeff Gerth claim that as Arkansas' first lady, Hillary Clinton once "listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of (Bill) Clinton critics plotting their next attack." A state law prohibits recording a telephone communication unless the person doing the recording is a party to the communication, or unless one of the parties has given prior consent. Milligan said he wants Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to investigate the book's claim. "If this law has in fact been violated, the people of this state and the country deserve to know," Milligan said Tuesday. If the claim is true, Arkansans have a right to ask the New York senator why she was willing to use wiretapping for political gain but voted against a bill granting extended wiretapping powers to the government, Milligan said. McDaniel is state chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. McDaniel spokesman Gabe Holmstrom said Tuesday the attorney general does not have the authority to investigate or bring legal proceedings on allegations of the type described by Milligan. Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley said Tuesday afternoon he had not heard from the Republican Party. "If I do hear from them, I'll see what they've got to complain about and go from there, but the statute that I'm told they cited is a Class A misdemeanor, and the statute of limitations on a Class A misdemeanor is one year." Jegley also said the state's wiretap law did not exist prior to 1993, the year Bill Clinton took office as president. "I find it curious that I haven't heard from anybody since the attorney general has told them where primary law enforcement jurisdiction lies," he said. "I'll give anybody that walks in the door here a fair hearing, but whenever you have stuff like this coming out, you've got to wonder." Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson issued the following statement Tuesday: "As Hillary Clinton continues to beat all Republicans in poll after poll, this is just politics as usual from Republicans who can't defend this president's failed policies. The story is categorically untrue." |
