Clinton Accepts 5-Year Law Suspension

Friday, January 19th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” President Clinton has reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid an indictment, requiring him to make a written acknowledgment of his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter and agree to a suspension of his law license, government sources said Friday.

On his final day in office, Clinton was preparing the statement to be made as early as Friday and would accept a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license, the officials said.

White House press secretary Jake Siewert would not confirm the deal.

``The president has long said that he wanted to put this thing behind him,'' Siewert said. ``We will have a statement at 2 p.m.''

In his statement, Clinton will acknowledge he may have made misleading statements in his sworn testimony in the Lewinsky matter, the sources said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

The deal effectively brings to an end the six-year Whitewater investigation that began with questions about the Clintons' Arkansas land deal but expanded to his conduct in the Oval Office.

Independent Counsel Robert Ray, who took over the investigation more than a year ago, had been using a grand jury to decide whether Clinton should be indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice after he leaves office.

Ray reached the deal with Clinton's attorney David Kendall, the sources said. ``The deal is going to be announced within hours,'' said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deal addresses the remaining legal issues from the president's affair with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, which prompted his impeachment by the House in December 1998 and acquittal in a Senate trial the following February.

The Arkansas Supreme Court had begun proceedings to revoke Clinton's law license, but the president has now agreed to have the license suspended for five years.

In addition to impeachment, a federal judge fined Clinton for misleading testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit that helped spur the Lewinsky revelations.

In recent months, Clinton had defiantly and repeatedly suggested that he would fight any indictment by Ray's office.