Panel Seeks Clinton Disbarment

Friday, November 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) â€” The state legal committee trying to disbar President Clinton has asked in court that he either admit or deny he tried to mislead lawyers for Paula Jones about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

The state Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct also asked in papers filed on Thursday that Clinton either admit or deny the body of evidence that led a federal judge to hold the him in contempt of court for giving misleading testimony in the Jones sexual harassment suit against him.

The committee has filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court to have Clinton stripped of his Arkansas law license â€” a first for a sitting president â€” contending he was unfit to practice law because he gave misleading testimony under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. It is seeking a hearing by the end of the year.

Clinton has said disbarment would be too harsh of a punishment.

The president's lawyers also filed papers Thursday seeking stipulations by the Supreme Court committee's executive director that events alleged in the complaint did not arise out of Clinton's practice of law, that the federal judge eventually dismissed Jones' suit, that the Jones case was settled, and that rarely does the committee invoke its strongest discipline against a lawyer not in active practice or who had not pleaded guilty or been convicted of a crime.

Each side has 30 days to respond to the requests.