Impeached POTUS

The New York Post, Jan. 13, 1999

Actress Who Claimed Sex with Bill Says IRS is Hounding Her

Elizabeth Ward Gracen

Elizabeth Ward Gracen, star of the "Highlander" TV series, has been deluged with dozens of letters from the tax man - claiming she didn't file returns and threatening to seize her wages and property.

Gracen, a former Miss America who says she had sex with Clinton in 1983, isn't the first woman linked to the president to interest the IRS.

Paula Jones, who settled her sex-harassment lawsuit against him last year, was audited after she rejected a deal with Clinton - and the Treasury Department is investigating why the IRS got involved.

Filming her TV show in Europe, Gracen refused to talk about her situation, but one of her lawyers contacted by The Post said the IRS is on her case for no good reason.

"She pays her taxes, she's really square," said the lawyer, Vincent Vento. "I don't think anybody wants to take on the government ... She just feels it's completely unfair."

The threat of an IRS probe came from the same anonymous caller who once warned Gracen she was about to get a subpoena and should get out of town, Vento said.

The former beauty queen has no idea who the caller was, but her lawyer said the list of people with a motive is a short one.

"The only person who would benefit would be the president of the United States, unless there's some other agenda out there," Vento said.

The first call came around Christmas 1997, when Gracen was at her parents' home in Little Rock, Ark., he said.

At the time, Jones' lawyers were trying to get Gracen to testify about her relationship with Clinton for the sex-harassment suit.

"The call was very professional and somewhat ominous," Vento said. "They said, 'Look, there's a subpoena out for you about Bill Clinton. I'd advise you not to be around.'"

Gracen wouldn't have given the call a second thought - except that the next day, after she'd left on a trip to Las Vegas, the subpoena was served in Little Rock.

Over the next few months, Gracen - who had publicly denied an affair with Clinton in 1992 - was on the road, dodging the process-servers.

In the spring, she recanted her six-year-old denial and admitted she and Clinton had once had sex. By summer, she was in Canada, filming her new show, "Highlander: The Raven."

In an interview with the Toronto Star about her show, she also talked about how her friends and family were intimidated and how she feared for her safety after the Clinton connection surfaced.

"The interview gets picked up and becomes a big story," Vento said.

Within weeks, Gracen got another phone call at an unlisted number in Canada, and she recognized the voice from the call warning her about the subpoena eight months before, Vento said.

"They say, 'You should really keep your mouth shut about Bill Clinton and go on with your life. You could be discredited. You could have an IRS investigation,'" the lawyer recounted.

A few weeks later, the letters from the IRS started coming in, sent to her parents' house, which is not listed on her tax filings, Vento said.

Impeachment Watch

The New York Post, September 27, 1998

Elizabeth Gracen: I was a victim of Clinton's reign of terror

investigating Clinton's goons

by Steve Dunleavy

"I spent a small fortune hiring investigators to investigate the investigators of the White House who I honestly believe were chasing me to head off my story," she told me on the set of her new TV show Highlander: The Raven.

And what was her story?

In the fall of 1983, when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, he invited Elizabeth to a place called Quapaw Tower in Little Rock.

"I believe the apartment was owned by one of his friends," she told me in her trailer in Toronto.

She had earlier used the word "rendezvous," but quickly corrected herself.

"To use the word rendezvous would give the impression it was romantic, but it was far from romantic," she said.

Rumor mills suggested Bubba forced himself on her.

"No, not true. It was consensual. I was married at the time, and so was he. No, I am not proud of it."

How did it all start?

"One of my friends, a girlfriend, was a baby sitter for the Clintons, and she introduced me to him back in 1979. And that was about it. I was Miss Arkansas at the time.

"Then in Hot Springs, I did a public-service announcement as Miss America. He was there.

"He offered me a lift back in his limo, and he flirted with me."

At that stage in the interview, tears well in her eyes, and she says to her boyfriend, an investment banker: "I really should not be saying these things."

We talk again. Composed, polite but not feeling too good, she continues.

"We did have that night in that apartment. Maybe we were there for two hours. It is not something I am proud of."

What happened next, come 1992, was vintage Clinton.

"Everybody in Arkansas, just about everybody - and I was brought up in Russellville, Ark. - knew about Gennifer Flowers and other women. I mean it really was common knowledge."

But whispers got out. Elizabeth had been with him for one night. The machine got going. Telephone calls, some friendly, some not, some downright threatening.

"In 1992, I came out and denied that night together with Clinton," she said.

"I believe if I came out and admitted it, he would never have been president. And nobody wants that sort of responsibility.

"After our night together in Little Rock, I was in New York doing commercials, and he called me at the apartment that I shared with my husband. I just said: 'You have the wrong number.' I didn't want any more to do with him.

"I learned later that movie director Harry Thomason [a Clinton friend] and White House big-wig Mickey Kantor sat down with my agent, Miles Levy, and worked out some kind of a deal that would have me deny anything to do with Bill Clinton."

Whatever was said that day in a deli in Los Angeles between Thomason, Kantor and agent Levy, things started looking up for a pretty girl who was struggling with commercials here and there.

"I suddenly got a very good acting job, a mini-series in Croatia, of all places," the 37-year-old said with a slight smile.

"Then I got another good, long-lasting role in Brazil. I thought, well at last they have recognized me. I think I was a little naive.

"I knew nothing about my agent talking to Clinton's friends, but this year, late last year, I started getting calls that made things fall into place.

"Some friendly calls telling me to get out of town to dodge a subpoena from [independent counsel] Kenneth Starr. Some nasty calls saying my character was about to be assassinated.

"Luckily, I had work and a boyfriend who travels a lot, and really, who wants to talk about something you regret in 1982.

"Yes, I was out of town a lot."

Elizabeth claims the heat was turned up.

"My friends were being asked mystery questions about tapes," she said. "Believe me, I don't tape people, and no tapes existed."

She said she got a lot of weird phone calls - and her parents got some, too.

Then the crunch.

"I was with my boyfriend on vacation in St. Martin. We went jogging. We were staying in one of those cabanas. Left behind was a Rolex watch and $2,000 in cash on the coffee table."

"When we came back, the place was ransacked. The $2,000 and the Rolex watch were still there. Nothing was stolen. They were looking for tapes that did not exist.

"The gentleman looking after our room said he saw two men in suits enter the place and one man in a suit waiting outside. He didn't challenge them, he thought they were our friends.

"Then the telephone calls again. To me, to my parents' place. I was in an undisclosed location, but the calls came to me. It was pretty much the same kind of call. Get out of town before I get hit with a subpoena.

"On one particular occasion during the Paula Jones case, I disappeared. The next day, a subpoena arrived at my parents' place. I started to keep on getting the calls. I hired lawyer Bruce Cutler and investigators.

"Yes, I was physically scared. We are talking about the presidency of the country here, and between the friendly calls on one hand telling me to get out of town for my own good and then talking about smear tactics on the other, I got scared. Yes, physically scared.

"There were always veiled threats. Always. I did nothing wrong except one stupid night a long time ago. But now this last year has become very frightening."

Today, "Raven" debuts in New York, where Elizabeth plays Amanda, a sword-wielding immortal avenger.

"I wanted Cutler to play a cameo role where he defends me, but I would like Clinton to play a cameo role.

"Then in the series, I could cut his head off with my sword," she added with a laugh.

"You know we don't deserve this man. I read what Monica Lewinsky was saying. Some people laugh. Some people don't. Some of the things sound strange. But I was her age once, and I was taken in by his charm, regrettably.

"Yes, it was a giddy experience to have the governor of Arkansas take so much notice of you. You always think you are special, which when it comes to him is pretty stupid.

"Monica was taken in by the president. Same charm, same cuddly little boy. Not true. How can any world leader believe him? Really.

"Every week on the show I battle evil. But all those evil people have a charming side. Have I made my point?"

Tragically, Elizabeth, you have.

from The Electronic Telegraph
Sept. 28, 1998

Actress's career blossomed 'after sex with Clinton'
By Hugh Davies in Washington

A FORMER Miss America who spent "one stupid night a long time ago" with Bill Clinton said yesterday that a deal was worked out with her agent for her to ridicule the idea of a fling in return for help in her acting career.

The details of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, if true, are strikingly similar to the effort to buy the silence of Monica Lewinsky with a Revlon job in New York.

Miss Gracen, 37, of Booneville, Arkansas, claimed that two of Mr Clinton's friends, Harry Thomason, a Hollywood producer, and Mickey Kantor, a former White House adviser, met her agent in private and settled an arrangement "that would have me deny anything to do with Bill Clinton".

Mr Thomason wields a lot of influence in the film world. In times of trouble, he has also often come to Mr Clinton's rescue.

He launched the successful television situation comedy Designing Women and credits Hillary Clinton with suggesting the title of another wildly successful series, Evening Shade, which starred Burt Reynolds and featured Mr Clinton's brother, Roger, who warmed up studio audiences with his guitar playing.

According to Ms Gracen, offers started pouring for her to work in distant places. "I suddenly got a very good acting job, a mini-series in Croatia, and then I got another good, long-lasting role in Brazil."

She is now the star of Highlander: The Raven. She plays Amanda, a sword-wielding avenger. "I would like Clinton to play a cameo role. Then, in the series, I could cut his head off with my sword," she said.

Her reason, she said in a New York Post interview, was that she had become the victim of a campaign of harassment in which she was "physically scared" of investigators from the White House "who I honestly believed were chasing me to head off my story".

They were apparently worried that lawyers acting for Paula Jones in her sexual harassment case against the President were chasing her as a witness to his conduct when governor of Arkansas.

"There were veiled threats . . . This last year has become very, very frightening."

The slender Ms Gracen, Miss Arkansas before becoming Miss America in 1982, spent four months travelling between the Caribbean, Canada and Paris and avoided the witness stand.

She became state beauty queen after being discovered by an agent while ordering a meal at the Whatta-burger in Russellville, Arkansas.

In 1983, she went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to make a public-service announcement as Miss America. Mr Clinton offered her a lift in his official limousine "and he flirted with me".

A few days later, they spent two hours having sexual relations in a flat at the Quapaw Tower, Little Rock, Arkansas.

"I believe the apartment was owned by one of his friends. It was far from romantic. It was consensual. I was married at the time, and so was he. It is not something I am proud of.

"In 1992, I came out and denied that night together with Clinton. I believe that if I had come out and admitted it, he would never have been President. And nobody wants that sort of responsibility.

"After our night together in Little Rock, I was in New York doing commercials, and he called me at the apartment that I shared with my husband. I just said: 'You have the wrong number.' I didn't want any more to do with him."