Bob Bennett, President Clinton's lead lawyer on the Paula Jones case (AP file photo) Related Links Full Coverage: Clinton Accused Jones Lawyers Outline Their Case Key Player: Bob Bennett

By The Associated Press
Friday, March 13, 1998; 8:44 p.m. EST

Excerpts from a news conference Friday by Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett:

It's clear from the filing today, which we're in the process of studying, that the very serious legal deficiencies fatal to Paula Jones' case remain.

She has no case. She has suffered no damages. She was never harassed. Her filing is really not a serious legal document. It's a scurrilous paper which really proves what we have been saying all along -- namely, that the plaintiff and her political and her financial backers are pursuing this case as a vehicle to humiliate and embarrass the president and to interfere with his presidency.

The Clinton-haters are trying to hound him out of office, and filings such as today's are a part of that scheme.

We have a trial date set of May 27. And I think you're all going to learn on May 27 that these six or seven hundred pages are like a big piece of cotton candy. When you bite into it, it just doesn't -- it just doesn't exist.

... there's a couple of very interesting things, which I think show their desperation. We asked them throughout discovery about, hey, what are her damages? You know, what are your damages? You never missed a day of work. You never had an hour off. You never took a sleeping pill or an aspirin.

And now they have an affidavit in there from some doctor who apparently has examined her -- let's see, what, six, seven years after the incident -- after the close of discovery.

So the president isn't going to admit to something that didn't happen. And if the courts don't protect the presidency like they should, we will go to trial and we will vigorously contest the charges.

It's very important for us to establish that this never happened, and we will, I believe to everyone's satisfaction. But, under the law, you know, her allegations, you know, at this posture, the court has to give deference to her allegations. But that's the theme of our pleadings, that even if her allegations were given some credence, that she still has not established a case as a matter of law.