Hubbell Mulled Suing Rose Law Firm, Prison Transcripts Show

WASHINGTON —  In a prison telephone conversation with his wife, Webster L. Hubbell pondered suing his former law firm but said he would avoid raising “allegations that might open it up to Hillary”--his former law partner and wife of President Clinton.

Hubbell acknowledged that the prospect of legal action by him that would air the dirty laundry of the Rose Law Firm would leave some people “scared, and rightfully so,” according to a transcript of a March 26, 1996, prison telephone conversation obtained by the Associated Press.

His wife, Suzanna, suggested in that same conversation that she was concerned she would lose her support at the White House--important for keeping her administration job--if Hubbell proceeded with the plan.

Among the most stark conversations on the transcripts is one in March 1996 between Hubbell and his wife. Mrs. Hubbell is quoted in the transcript as saying she feared she would lose her job at the Interior Department if her husband proceeded with filing a lawsuit against the Rose Law Firm.

“Webb, I’ve got to keep this job,” she pleaded. “I have to have the support . . . of my friends at the White House.

“By suing it really makes it look like you really don’t give a [expletive] and that you are opening Hillary up to all this.”

Her husband, who has endured years of Republican allegations that he has protected the Clintons by not cooperating fully in the Whitewater investigation, later responded with a flip retort: “So I need to roll over one more time.”