Hale Gets 28 Months In Whitewater Fraud

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNN, March 25) -- A key witness in the government's Whitewater investigation, David Hale, was sentenced to 28 months in jail today and ordered to pay back $2 million.

Hale, a former Little Rock municipal judge, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and fined $10,000. Hale pleaded guilty two years ago to felony charges of defrauding the Small Business Administration through a small business investment company.

Hale, who claims that President Bill Clinton exerted pressure on him to provide an illegal $300,000 loan, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain agreement in which he agreed help the Whitewater Special Counsel Kenneth Starr.

Hale said in 1986, Clinton pressured him to make a loan to James and Susan McDougal, partners with the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate deal. Whitewater prosecutors say the allegations made by Hale helped persuade a grand jury to indict the McDougals and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

Hale Gets 28 Months In Whitewater Fraud

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