LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—A federal judge has denied an attempt by Whitewater figure Susan McDougal to unseal her grand jury testimony from the case.

Lawyers for McDougal, who served 18 months in jail for civil contempt for refusing to answer grand jury questions, argued the reasons for sealing the case had “grown stale and disappeared” in the time since.

U.S. Senior Circuit Judge Pasco M. Bowman of Missouri disagreed, saying the reasons for jury secrecy often outlive individual cases, especially when considering the Whitewater investigation. McDougal’s petition had been assigned to Bowman after all the federal judges in Arkansas recused from the case.

“That is particularly true here, considering the high-profile nature of the investigations undertaken by the Whitewater grand jury and the involvement of the then-sitting President of the United States and First Lady—neither of whom was indicted and both of whom remain public figures today,” Bowman wrote in a five-page opinion filed Friday.

In January, McDougal asked that her appearances before the grand jury in the 1990s investigation of her Arkansas business dealings with former President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton be unsealed. Her attorney, Bobby McDaniel, said that a movie would be produced about his client’s role in the investigation and that the testimony would be pertinent to full public disclosure.

McDougal, a Camden native, could not be reached for comment Saturday. McDaniel, father to state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, did not immediately return a message left at his office.

McDougal was convicted of federal felony counts in the probe that produced no charges against the Clintons. She served two months of a two-year term. She also served 18 months in jail for civil contempt based on her refusal to answer grand jury questions.

She then was indicted on criminal counts for refusing to talk to the grand jury in 1996 and 1998. At the time, she said she thought she’d be charged with perjury unless she falsely implicated the Clintons.

A federal jury acquitted her in 1999 of an obstruction of justice charge, but deadlocked on two contempt counts. She was not retried, and Bill Clinton pardoned her before he left office in 2001.