Release of Sealed Documents in Paula Jones’ Case Delayed

WASHINGTON —  A federal judge, reacting to fears voiced by President Clinton’s lawyers of a “media circus,” put off Thursday her plan to release scores of sealed documents in Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual misconduct case against Clinton.

As a result, hundreds of pages of never-disclosed papers--many of them likely to be embarrassing to the president--will not become public Monday, as U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright had ordered.

Wright said Thursday she would not release any of the papers for at least two weeks, while she studies a plea by the president’s lawyers that she reconsider the issue. The new development rebuffs an effort by 14 media organizations to obtain access to a vast array of evidence gathered when the Jones case appeared headed for trial.

On April 1, Wright dismissed Jones’ lawsuit without a trial, saying Jones could not prove that Clinton acted illegally when, according to Jones, he made a crude sexual overture toward her in 1991, when he was Arkansas governor and she was a state employee. Jones is seeking to revive her lawsuit with an appeal.

With the lawsuit dismissed, media groups asked to see everything that had been filed in the case. Jones’ lawyers had gathered many sworn statements about Clinton’s alleged history of extramarital sex. And lawyers for an Arkansas state trooper who was also sued in the case had accumulated evidence about Jones’ personal life.

Late last month, Wright agreed to open much of the sealed material but ordered the deletion of names of private individuals who did not want to be identified.

Some of the material under seal had come out as the Jones case developed. But Clinton’s lawyers said this week that “much remains” that has not been disclosed and that the release of it would aid further efforts to harm the president “for profit and personal gain.”