Hyping Willey's new book, WorldNetDaily falsely claimed she ID'ed "the person who threatened her just prior to her testimony against" Clinton

In a September 5 article previewing Kathleen Willey's forthcoming book, Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton (World Ahead Publishing), WorldNetDaily.com news editor Art Moore claimed: "Among its revelations is Willey's identification of the person [also known as "the jogger"] who threatened her just prior to her testimony against President Clinton -- a man who turned out to be linked to the Clintons." However, in her book, Willey writes: "I do not know who the jogger was."

As Media Matters for America previously noted, the same September 5 article, headlined "Kathleen Willey: Clintons stole my manuscript," stated: "Kathleen Willey, the woman who says Bill Clinton groped her in the Oval Office, claims she was the target of an unusual house burglary over the weekend that nabbed a manuscript for her upcoming book, which promises explosive revelations that could damage Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Willey told WND little else was taken from her rural Virginia home as she slept alone upstairs -- electronics and jewelry were left behind -- and she believes the Clintons were behind it." But the article did not note Willey's credibility problems, namely that independent counsel Robert W. Ray cited Willey's inconsistent testimony regarding her allegation that Bill Clinton groped her in the Oval Office in a formal report released on March 6, 2002, writing that that "Willey's Testimony to the Grand Jury About the Alleged Incident Differed Materially from Her Deposition Testimony Given in Jones v. Clinton," and noting Willey "said at her deposition ... that [Clinton] did not fondle her." Ray also found that Willey contradicted herself on the issue of whether she had told others about the alleged incident and suggested that a jury was unlikely to believe Willey.

World Ahead Publishing and WND Books, WorldNetDaily's publishing imprint, became partners in October 2006, a partnership the September 5 article noted.

The article further reported that Willey had "said" the alleged theft "reminded her of the widely reported incident 10 years ago in which she claimed she was threatened near the same Richmond-area home by a stranger just two days before she was to testify against President Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case." The article went on to state that among the upcoming book's "revelations is Willey's identification of the person who threatened her just prior to her testimony against President Clinton -- a man who turned out to be linked to the Clintons."

In the book, however, Willey cites speculation that the so-called "jogger" was Cody Shearer, the brother of a then-White House aide, before concluding: "I don't know who the jogger was." From Willey's book:

A year after the jogger confronted me, Jackie Judd, a reporter with ABC, sent Dan [Gecker, Willey's attorney] a photograph of a man whom she suspected was my "jogger." A lot of people suspected him. His name was Cody Shearer.

Shearer's twin sister, Brooke Shearer, was director of the White House Fellowship Program and she was married to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

[...]

Still, after all those months, I looked at the picture and I thought it was Shearer. I had spoken with the jogger for a few minutes, looking into his eyes when he threatened my children. I do not think I would forget such a man's face!

The man in Judd's photo was Cody Shearer, who had direct ties to the Clintons. At some point he had worked for Terry Lenzner, who owned a Washington D.C. investigation firm, Investigative Group International. The FBI investigators looked into it thoroughly. On the one hand, I was told that Shearer had an "airtight" and "ironclad" alibi but another source told me that was "uncheckable." In fact, when prosecutors for the Office of the Independent Counsel questioned Clinton aide Sid Blumenthal on it, he said that Cody Shearer "was in California during the so-called jogging incident, had the documents to prove it." In fact, Blumenthal claimed that Shearer's seatmate on a "trip back from Los Angeles to Washington happened to be former secretary of state Warren Christopher." David Schippers, chief investigative counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, said he did not think it was Cody Shearer. "I think they recruited somebody to come up from Arkansas," he said. So I do not know who the jogger was. All I know is that I was up against the Clinton machine, which had unlimited power and money. With those resources, I figured any alibi -- or any "jogger" -- could be arranged. [Pages 126-128]

As Media Matters documented in response to Willey's allegation that the Clintons were behind the purported burglary, Ray noted that Willey was not consistent in her claims that she had been intimidated near her home, shortly before giving her Jones deposition in 1998. According to the report:

Willey also alleged that in the period immediately preceding her January 1998 Jones deposition, her cat disappeared, her tires were punctured, and a male jogger whom she did not recognize approached her at her rural home, called her by her name, and asked about her tires, cat (which he named), children (whom he named), attorney, and her attorney's children (whom he also named), saying "I hope you're getting the message" or "You're just not getting the message, are you?" Willey 3/6/98 Int. at 18; Willey 3/10/98 GJ at 123-27. At her Jones deposition, however, Willey testified no one had tried to discourage her from testifying. Willey 1/11/98 Depo. at 86-87.

Willey told the grand jury that even though she was "terrified for my safety" because of these incidents, "I did give consideration to maybe not -- maybe not being very truthful in [her Jones v. Clinton] deposition because I thought that my -- that people close to me were in jeopardy." Willey 3/10/98 GJ at 170-71. Despite the threats, Willey told the grand jury, she "decided that I had to tell the truth" at her deposition. Willey 3/10/98 GJ at 127. As noted below, see infra p. 92 and notes 50-52, there were material differences between Willey's deposition testimony and what she told the grand jury about the incident between her and President Clinton.

Ray also wrote, "This Office investigated whether [Nathan] Landow [a Democratic fundraiser and Clinton supporter] or others had engaged in any criminal acts such as obstruction of justice or witness intimidation with respect to Willey, and determined there was insufficient evidence to support the filing of criminal charges."

From the September 5 WorldNetDaily article:

Kathleen Willey, the woman who says Bill Clinton groped her in the Oval Office, claims she was the target of an unusual house burglary over the weekend that nabbed a manuscript for her upcoming book, which promises explosive revelations that could damage Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Willey told WND little else was taken from her rural Virginia home as she slept alone upstairs -- electronics and jewelry were left behind -- and she believes the Clintons were behind it.

The break-in, she said, reminded her of the widely reported incident 10 years ago in which she claimed she was threatened near the same Richmond-area home by a stranger just two days before she was to testify against President Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

The theft of the manuscript early Saturday morning was suspicious, she told WND, coming only days after the first mainstream media mention of her upcoming book, which is expected to include accusations of campaign finance violations and new revelations about harassment and threats by the Clintons and their associates.

"Here we go again; it's the same thing that happened before," Willey told WND. "They want you to know they were there. And they got what they wanted. They pretty much managed to terrorize me again. It scared me to death. It's an awful feeling to know you're sound asleep upstairs and someone is downstairs."

The book, "Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton" by World Ahead Publishing, WND Books' partner, is due for release in November. Willey said the stolen manuscript was not the book's final copy.

Among its revelations is Willey's identification of the person who threatened her just prior to her testimony against President Clinton -- a man who turned out to be linked to the Clintons.

Willey believes the break-in and theft were prompted by teasers of the book's contents published last week in U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" column and the New York Daily News.

Willey said she is writing the book because of persistent misunderstanding about what happened 10 years ago.

"There is so much misinformation out there, and I had been so badly maligned in the press," she said. "I had the opportunity to set the record straight.

"And frankly," she added, "Hillary Clinton is running for president, and it's a story a lot of people should hear."

Willey points out her story was deemed credible by the FBI, Independent Counsel Ken Starr and CBS "60 Minutes" producers who allowed her to recount it in front of 29 million viewers.

Longtime Clinton lawyer David Kendall was not available for immediate response to Willey's new claims, and Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign has not responded.