Insurer Stops Paying Clinton’s Legal Bills for Harassment Suit

WASHINGTON — State Farm Insurance Co. has stopped paying President Clinton’s legal bills in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

The action coincides with an Aug. 23 ruling by a federal district judge who rejected Jones’ claims that Clinton defamed her. The allegations were thrown out of the lawsuit.

Mary Boone, a State Farm spokeswoman in Bloomington, Ill., said the ruling ends the company’s obligation to cover the president’s defense.

“Our only involvement in the case was the defamation charge, and with the dismissal it appears we’re no longer involved,” she said.

Efforts Monday night to reach Clinton’s attorneys were unsuccessful. But Boone said State Farm has worked with Robert S. Bennett, Clinton’s top lawyer in the matter, “all along.”

“We’ve been in contact with him since that defamation charge was dismissed, so [Clinton officials] are certainly aware,” she said.

State Farm and Pacific Indemnity have paid a reported $1.5 million for the president’s legal bills in the Jones case, the American Spectator said. It said a spokesman for Chubb Group, parent of Pacific Indemnity, declined to comment on whether that company would assume all coverage of Clinton’s legal bills.