i nature of president clinton s relationship with monica lewinsky a introduction this referral presents substantial and credible information that president clinton criminally obstructed the judicial process first in a sexual harassment lawsuit in which he was the defendant and then in a grand jury investigation the opening section of the narrative provides an overview of the object of the president s cover up the sexual relationship between the president and ms lewinsky subsequent sections recount the evolution of the relationship chronologically including the sexual contacts the president s efforts to get ms lewinsky a job ms lewinsky s subpoena in jones v clinton the role of vernon jordan the president s discussions with ms lewinsky about her affidavit and deposition the president s deposition testimony in jones the president s attempts to coach a potential witness in the harassment case the president s false and misleading statements to aides and to the american public after the lewinsky story became public and finally the president s testimony before a federal grand jury b evidence establishing nature of relationship physical evidence physical evidence conclusively establishes that the president and ms lewinsky had a sexual relationship after reaching an immunity and cooperation agreement with the office of the independent counsel on july ms lewinsky turned over a navy blue dress that she said she had worn during a sexual encounter with the president on february according to ms lewinsky she noticed stains on the garment the next time she took it from her closet from their location she surmised that the stains were the president s semen initial tests revealed that the stains are in fact semen based on that result the oic asked the president for a blood sample after requesting and being given assurances that the oic had an evidentiary basis for making the request the president agreed in the white house map room on august the white house physician drew a vial of blood from the president in the presence of an fbi agent and an oic attorney by conducting the two standard dna comparison tests the fbi laboratory concluded that the president was the source of the dna obtained from the dress according to the more sensitive rflp test the genetic markers on the semen which match the president s dna are characteristic of one out of trillion caucasians in addition to the dress ms lewinsky provided what she said were answering machine tapes containing brief messages from the president as well as several gifts that the president had given her ms lewinsky s statements ms lewinsky was extensively debriefed about her relationship with the president for the initial evaluation of her credibility she submitted to a detailed proffer interview on july after entering into a cooperation agreement she was questioned over the course of approximately days she also provided testimony under oath on three occasions twice before the grand jury and because of the personal and sensitive nature of particular topics once in a deposition in addition ms lewinsky worked with prosecutors and investigators to create an page chart that chronologically lists her contacts with president clinton including meetings phone calls gifts and messages ms lewinsky twice verified the accuracy of the chart under oath in the evaluation of experienced prosecutors and investigators ms lewinsky has provided truthful information she has not falsely inculpated the president harming him she has testified is the last thing in the world i want to do moreover the oic s immunity and cooperation agreement with ms lewinsky includes safeguards crafted to ensure that she tells the truth court ordered immunity and written immunity agreements often provide that the witness can be prosecuted only for false statements made during the period of cooperation and not for the underlying offense the oic s agreement goes further providing that ms lewinsky will lose her immunity altogether if the government can prove to a federal district judge by a preponderance of the evidence not the higher standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that she lied moreover the agreement provides that in the course of such a prosecution the united states could introduce into evidence the statements made by ms lewinsky during her cooperation since ms lewinsky acknowledged in her proffer interview and in debriefings that she violated the law she has a strong incentive to tell the truth if she did not it would be relatively straightforward to void the immunity agreement and prosecute her using her own admissions against her ms lewinsky s confidants between and ms lewinsky confided in people about her relationship with the president all have been questioned by the oic most before a federal grand jury andrew bleiler catherine allday davis neysa erbland kathleen estep deborah finerman dr irene kassorla marcia lewis ashley raines linda tripp natalie ungvari and dale young ms lewinsky told most of these confidants about events in her relationship with the president as they occurred sometimes in considerable detail some of ms lewinsky s statements about the relationship were contemporaneously memorialized these include deleted email recovered from her home computer and her pentagon computer email messages retained by two of the recipients tape recordings of some of ms lewinsky s conversations with ms tripp and notes taken by ms tripp during some of their conversations the tripp notes which have been extensively corroborated refer specifically to places dates and times of physical contacts between the president and ms lewinsky everyone in whom ms lewinsky confided in detail believed she was telling the truth about her relationship with the president ms lewinsky told her psychologist dr irene kassorla about the affair shortly after it began thereafter she related details of sexual encounters soon after they occurred sometimes calling from her white house office ms lewinsky showed no indications of delusional thinking according to dr kassorla and dr kassorla had no doubts whatsoever about the truth of what ms lewinsky told her ms lewinsky s friend catherine allday davis testified that she believed ms lewinsky s accounts of the sexual relationship with the president because i trusted in the way she had confided in me on other things in her life i just trusted the relationship so i trusted her dale young a friend in whom ms lewinsky confided starting in mid testified i f she was going to lie to me she would have said to me oh he calls me all the time he does wonderful things he can t wait to see me s he would have embellished the story you know she wouldn t be telling me he told me he d call me i waited home all weekend and i didn t do anything and he didn t call and then he didn t call for two weeks documents in addition to her remarks and email to friends ms lewinsky wrote a number of documents including letters and draft letters to the president among these documents are i papers found in a consensual search of her apartment ii papers that ms lewinsky turned over pursuant to her cooperation agreement including a calendar with dates circled when she met or talked by telephone with the president in and and iii files recovered from ms lewinsky s computers at home and at the pentagon consistency and corroboration the details of ms lewinsky s many statements have been checked cross checked and corroborated when negotiations with ms lewinsky in january and february did not culminate in an agreement the oic proceeded with a comprehensive investigation which generated a great deal of probative evidence in july and august circumstances brought more direct and compelling evidence to the investigation after the courts rejected a novel privilege claim secret service officers and agents testified about their observations of the president and ms lewinsky in the white house ms lewinsky agreed to submit to a proffer interview previous negotiations had deadlocked over her refusal to do so and after assessing her credibility in that session the oic entered into a cooperation agreement with her pursuant to the cooperation agreement ms lewinsky turned over the dress that proved to bear traces of the president s semen and the president who had spurned six invitations to testify finally agreed to provide his account to the grand jury in that sworn testimony he acknowledged inappropriate intimate contact with ms lewinsky because of the fashion in which the investigation had unfolded in sum a massive quantity of evidence was available to test and verify ms lewinsky s statements during her proffer interview and her later cooperation consequently ms lewinsky s statements have been corroborated to a remarkable degree her detailed statements to the grand jury and the oic in are consistent with statements to her confidants dating back to documents that she created and physical evidence moreover her accounts generally match the testimony of white house staff members the testimony of secret service agents and officers and white house records showing ms lewinsky s entries and exits the president s whereabouts and the president s telephone calls c sexual contacts the president s accounts a jones testimony in the jones deposition on january the president denied having had a sexual affair sexual relations or a sexual relationship with ms lewinsky he noted that t here are no curtains on the oval office there are no curtains on my private office there are no curtains or blinds that can close on the windows in my private dining room and added i have done everything i could to avoid the kind of questions you are asking me here today during the deposition the president s attorney robert bennett sought to limit questioning about ms lewinsky mr bennett told judge susan webber wright that ms lewinsky had executed an affidavit which ms jones s lawyers are in possession of saying that there is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner shape or form with president clinton in a subsequent colloquy with judge wright mr bennett declared that as a result of preparation of president clinton for this deposition the witness is fully aware of ms lewinsky s affidavit the president did not dispute his legal representative s assertion that the president and ms lewinsky had had absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner shape or form nor did he dispute the implication that ms lewinsky s affidavit in denying a sexual relationship meant that there was absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner shape or form in subsequent questioning by his attorney president clinton testified under oath that ms lewinsky s affidavit was absolutely true b grand jury testimony testifying before the grand jury on august seven months after his jones deposition the president acknowledged inappropriate intimate contact with ms lewinsky but maintained that his january deposition testimony was accurate in his account what began as a friendship with ms lewinsky came to include this conduct he said he remembered meeting her or having my first real conversation with her during the government shutdown in november of according to the president the inappropriate contact occurred later after ms lewinsky s internship had ended in early and once in early the president refused to answer questions about the precise nature of his intimate contacts with ms lewinsky but he did explain his earlier denials as to his denial in the jones deposition that he and ms lewinsky had had a sexual relationship the president maintained that there can be no sexual relationship without sexual intercourse regardless of what other sexual activities may transpire he stated that most ordinary americans would embrace this distinction the president also maintained that none of his sexual contacts with ms lewinsky constituted sexual relations within a specific definition used in the jones deposition under that definition a person engages in sexual relations when the person knowingly engages in or causes contact with the genitalia anus groin breast inner thigh or buttocks of any person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person contact means intentional touching either directly or through clothing according to what the president testified was his understanding this definition covers contact by the person being deposed with the enumerated areas if the contact is done with an intent to arouse or gratify but it does not cover oral sex performed on the person being deposed he testified i f the deponent is the person who has oral sex performed on him then the contact is with not with anything on that list but with the lips of another person it seems to be self evident that that s what it is let me remind you sir i read this carefully in the president s view any person reasonable person would recognize that oral sex performed on the deponent falls outside the definition if ms lewinsky performed oral sex on the president then under this interpretation she engaged in sexual relations but he did not the president refused to answer whether ms lewinsky in fact had performed oral sex on him he did testify that direct contact with ms lewinsky s breasts or genitalia would fall within the definition and he denied having had any such contact ms lewinsky s account in his grand jury testimony the president relied heavily on a particular interpretation of sexual relations as defined in the jones deposition beyond insisting that his conduct did not fall within the jones definition he refused to answer questions about the nature of his physical contact with ms lewinsky thus placing the grand jury in the position of having to accept his conclusion without being able to explore the underlying facts this strategy evidently an effort to account for possible traces of the president s semen on ms lewinsky s clothing without undermining his position that he did not lie in the jones deposition mandates that this referral set forth evidence of an explicit nature that otherwise would be omitted in light of the president s testimony ms lewinsky s accounts of their sexual encounters are indispensable for two reasons first the detail and consistency of these accounts tend to bolster ms lewinsky s credibility second and particularly important ms lewinsky contradicts the president on a key issue according to ms lewinsky the president touched her breasts and genitalia which means that his conduct met the jones definition of sexual relations even under his theory on these matters the evidence of the president s perjury cannot be presented without specific explicit and possibly offensive descriptions of sexual encounters according to ms lewinsky she and the president had ten sexual encounters eight while she worked at the white house and two thereafter the sexual encounters generally occurred in or near the private study off the oval office most often in the windowless hallway outside the study during many of their sexual encounters the president stood leaning against the doorway of the bathroom across from the study which he told ms lewinsky eased his sore back ms lewinsky testified that her physical relationship with the president included oral sex but not sexual intercourse according to ms lewinsky she performed oral sex on the president he never performed oral sex on her initially according to ms lewinsky the president would not let her perform oral sex to completion in ms lewinsky s understanding his refusal was related to trust and not knowing me well enough during their last two sexual encounters both in he did ejaculate according to ms lewinsky she performed oral sex on the president on nine occasions on all nine of those occasions the president fondled and kissed her bare breasts he touched her genitals both through her underwear and directly bringing her to orgasm on two occasions on one occasion the president inserted a cigar into her vagina on another occasion she and the president had brief genital to genital contact whereas the president testified that what began as a friendship came to include intimate contact ms lewinsky explained that the relationship moved in the opposite direction t he emotional and friendship aspects developed after the beginning of our sexual relationship d emotional attachment as the relationship developed over time ms lewinsky grew emotionally attached to president clinton she testified i never expected to fall in love with the president i was surprised that i did ms lewinsky told him of her feelings at times she believed that he loved her too they were physically affectionate a lot of hugging holding hands sometimes he always used to push the hair out of my face she called him handsome on occasion he called her sweetie baby or sometimes dear he told her that he enjoyed talking to her she recalled his saying that the two of them were emotive and full of fire and she made him feel young he said he wished he could spend more time with her ms lewinsky told confidants of the emotional underpinnings of the relationship as it evolved according to her mother marcia lewis the president once told ms lewinsky that she had been hurt a lot or something by different men and that he would be her friend or he would help her not hurt her according to ms lewinsky s friend neysa erbland president clinton once confided in ms lewinsky that he was uncertain whether he would remain married after he left the white house he said in essence w ho knows what will happen four years from now when i am out of office ms lewinsky thought according to ms erbland that maybe she will be his wife e conversations and phone messages ms lewinsky testified that she and the president enjoyed talking to each other and being with each other in her recollection we would tell jokes we would talk about our childhoods talk about current events i was always giving him my stupid ideas about what i thought should be done in the administration or different views on things one of ms lewinsky s friends testified that in her understanding the president would talk about his childhood and growing up and ms lewinsky would relay stories about her childhood and growing up i guess normal conversations that you would have with someone that you re getting to know the longer conversations often occurred after their sexual contact ms lewinsky testified w hen i was working there at the white house we d start in the back in or near the private study and we d talk and that was where we were physically intimate and we d usually end up kind of the pillow talk of it i guess sitting in the oval office during several meetings when they were not sexually intimate they talked in the oval office or in the area of the study along with face to face meetings according to ms lewinsky she spoke on the telephone with the president approximately times often after p m and sometimes well after midnight the president placed the calls himself or during working hours had his secretary betty currie do so ms lewinsky could not telephone him directly though she sometimes reached him through ms currie ms lewinsky testified w e spent hours on the phone talking their telephone conversations were s imilar to what we discussed in person just how we were doing a lot of discussions about my job when i was trying to come back to the white house and then once i decided to move to new york we talked about everything under the sun on to occasions she and the president had phone sex after phone sex late one night the president fell asleep mid conversation on four occasions the president left very brief messages on ms lewinsky s answering machine though he told her that he did not like doing so because in her recollection he felt it was a little unsafe she saved his messages and played the tapes for several confidants who said they believed that the voice was the president s by phone and in person according to ms lewinsky she and the president sometimes had arguments on a number of occasions in she complained that he had not brought her back from the pentagon to work in the white house as he had promised to do after the election in a face to face meeting on july the president reprimanded her for a letter she had sent him that obliquely threatened to disclose their relationship during an argument on december according to ms lewinsky the president said that he had never been treated as poorly by anyone else as i treated him and added that he spent more time with me than anyone else in the world aside from his family friends and staff which i don t know exactly which category that put me in testifying before the grand jury the president confirmed that he and ms lewinsky had had personal conversations and he acknowledged that their telephone conversations sometimes included inappropriate sexual banter the president said that ms lewinsky told him about her personal life her upbringing and her job ambitions after terminating their intimate relationship in he said he tried to be a friend to ms lewinsky to be a counselor to her to give her good advice and to help her f gifts ms lewinsky and the president exchanged numerous gifts by her estimate she gave him about items and he gave her about ms lewinsky s first gift to him was a matted poem given by her and other white house interns to commemorate national boss day october this was the only item reflected in white house records that ms lewinsky gave the president before in her account the sexual relationship began and the only item that he sent to the archives instead of keeping on november five days after the intimate relationship began according to ms lewinsky she gave him a necktie which he chose to keep rather than send to the archives according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned the night she gave him the tie then sent her a photo of himself wearing it the tie was logged pursuant to white house procedures for gifts to the president in a draft note to the president in december ms lewinsky wrote that she was very particular about presents and could never give them to anyone else they were all bought with you in mind many of the or so gifts that she gave the president reflected his interests in history antiques cigars and frogs ms lewinsky gave him among other things six neckties an antique paperweight showing the white house a silver tabletop holder for cigars or cigarettes a pair of sunglasses a casual shirt a mug emblazoned santa monica a frog figurine a letter opener depicting a frog several novels a humorous book of quotations and several antique books he gave her among other things a hat pin two brooches a blanket a marble bear figurine and a special edition of walt whitman s leaves of grass ms lewinsky construed it as a sign of affection when the president wore a necktie or other item of clothing she had given him she testified i used to say to him that i like it when you wear my ties because then i know i m close to your heart so literally and figuratively the president was aware of her reaction according to ms lewinsky and he would sometimes wear one of the items to reassure her occasionally on the day they were scheduled to meet or the day after they had met in person or talked by telephone the president would sometimes say to her did you see i wore your tie the other day in his grand jury testimony the president acknowledged that he had exchanged a number of gifts with ms lewinsky after their intimate relationship ended in he testified s he continued to give me gifts and i felt that it was a right thing to do to give her gifts back g messages according to ms lewinsky she sent the president a number of cards and letters in some she expressed anger that he was not paying enough attention to me in others she said she missed him in still others she just sent a funny card that i saw in early january she sent him along with an antique book about american presidents a n embarrassing mushy note she testified that the president never sent her any cards or notes other than formal thank you letters testifying before the grand jury the president acknowledged having received cards and notes from ms lewinsky that were somewhat intimate and quite affectionate even after the intimate relationship ended h secrecy mutual understanding both ms lewinsky and the president testified that they took steps to maintain the secrecy of the relationship according to ms lewinsky the president from the outset stressed the importance of keeping the relationship secret in her handwritten statement to this office ms lewinsky wrote that the president told ms l to deny a relationship if ever asked about it he also said something to the effect of if the two people who are involved say it didn t happen it didn t happen according to ms lewinsky the president sometimes asked if she had told anyone about their sexual relationship or about the gifts they had exchanged she falsely assured him that she had not she told him that i would always deny it i would always protect him and he responded approvingly the two of them had in her words a mutual understanding that they would keep this private so that meant deny it and take whatever appropriate steps needed to be taken when she and the president both were subpoenaed to testify in the jones case ms lewinsky anticipated that as we had on every other occasion and every other instance of this relationship we would deny it in his grand jury testimony the president confirmed his efforts to keep their liaisons secret he said he did not want the facts of their relationship to be disclosed in any context and added i certainly didn t want this to come out if i could help it and i was concerned about that i was embarrassed about it i knew it was wrong asked if he wanted to avoid having the facts come out through ms lewinsky s testimony in jones he said well i did not want her to have to testify and go through that and of course i didn t want her to do that of course not cover stories for her visits to see the president according to ms lewinsky t here was always some sort of a cover when visiting the president while she worked at the white house she generally planned to tell anyone who asked including secret service officers and agents that she was delivering papers to the president ms lewinsky explained that this artifice may have originated when i got there kind of saying oh gee here are your letters wink wink wink and him saying okay that s good to back up her stories she generally carried a folder on these visits in truth according to ms lewinsky her job never required her to deliver papers to the president on a few occasions during her white house employment ms lewinsky and the president arranged to bump into each other in the hallway he then would invite her to accompany him to the oval office later after she left the white house and started working at the pentagon ms lewinsky relied on ms currie to arrange times when she could see the president the cover story for those visits was that ms lewinsky was coming to see ms currie not the president while the president did not expressly instruct her to lie according to ms lewinsky he did suggest misleading cover stories and when she assured him that she planned to lie about the relationship he responded approvingly on the frequent occasions when ms lewinsky promised that she would always deny the relationship and always protect him for example the president responded in her recollection that s good or something affirmative n ot don t deny it once she was named as a possible witness in the jones case according to ms lewinsky the president reminded her of the cover stories after telling her that she was a potential witness the president suggested that if she were subpoenaed she could file an affidavit to avoid being deposed he also told her she could say that when working at the white house she had sometimes delivered letters to him and after leaving her white house job she had sometimes returned to visit ms currie the president s own testimony in the jones case mirrors the recommendations he made to ms lewinsky for her testimony in his deposition the president testified that he saw ms lewinsky on two or three occasions during the november government furlough one or two other times when she brought some documents to me and sometime before christmas when ms lewinsky came by to see betty in his grand jury testimony the president acknowledged that he and ms lewinsky might have talked about what to do in a nonlegal context to hide their relationship and that he might well have said that ms lewinsky should tell people that she was bringing letters to him or coming to visit ms currie but he also stated that i never asked ms lewinsky to lie steps to avoid being seen or heard after their first two sexual encounters during the november government shutdown according to ms lewinsky her encounters with the president generally occurred on weekends when fewer people were in the west wing ms lewinsky testified he had told me that he was usually around on the weekends and that it was okay to come see him on the weekends so he would call and we would arrange either to bump into each other in the hall or that i would bring papers to the office from some of the president s comments ms lewinsky gathered that she should try to avoid being seen by several white house employees including nancy hernreich deputy assistant to the president and director of oval office operations and stephen goodin the president s personal aide out of concern about being seen the sexual encounters most often occurred in the windowless hallway outside the study according to ms lewinsky the president was concerned that the two of them might be spotted through a white house window when they were in the study together in the evenings he sometimes turned out the light once when she spotted a gardener outside the study window they left the room ms lewinsky testified that on december when i was getting my christmas kiss in the doorway to the study the president was looking out the window with his eyes wide open while he was kissing me and then i got mad because it wasn t very romantic he responded well i was just looking to see to make sure no one was out there fear of discovery constrained their sexual encounters in several respects according to ms lewinsky the president ordinarily kept the door between the private hallway and the oval office several inches ajar during their encounters both so that he could hear if anyone approached and so that anyone who did approach would be less likely to suspect impropriety during their sexual encounters ms lewinsky testified w e were both aware of the volume and sometimes i bit my hand so that i wouldn t make any noise on one occasion according to ms lewinsky the president put his hand over her mouth during a sexual encounter to keep her quiet concerned that they might be interrupted abruptly according to ms lewinsky the two of them never fully undressed while noting that the door to the hallway was always somewhat open the president testified that he did try to keep the intimate relationship secret i did what people do when they do the wrong thing i tried to do it where nobody else was looking at it ms lewinsky s notes and letters the president expressed concern about documents that might hint at an improper relationship between them according to ms lewinsky he cautioned her about messages she sent there were some occasions when i sent him cards or notes that i wrote things that he deemed too personal to put on paper just in case something ever happened if it got lost getting there or someone else opened it so there were several times when he remarked to me you know you shouldn t put that on paper she said that the president made this point to her in their last conversation on january in reference to what she characterized as a n embarrassing mushy note she had sent him in addition according to ms lewinsky the president expressed concerns about official records that could establish aspects of their relationship she said that on two occasions she asked the president if she could go upstairs to the residence with him no he said because a record is kept of everyone who accompanies him there the president testified before the grand jury i remember telling her she should be careful what she wrote because a lot of it was clearly inappropriate and would be embarrassing if somebody else read it ms lewinsky s evaluation of their secrecy efforts in two conversations recorded after she was subpoenaed in the jones case ms lewinsky expressed confidence that her relationship with the president would never be discovered she believed that no records showed her and the president alone in the area of the study regardless of the evidence in any event she would continue denying the relationship if someone looked in the study window it s not me she said if someone produced tapes of her telephone calls with the president she would say they were fakes in another recorded conversation ms lewinsky said she was especially comforted by the fact that the president like her would be swearing under oath that nothing happened she said t o tell you the truth i m not concerned all that much anymore because i know i m not going to get in trouble i will not get in trouble because you know what the story i ve signed under under oath is what someone else is saying under oath ii initial sexual encounters monica lewinsky began her white house employment as an intern in the chief of staff s office in july at white house functions in the following months she made eye contact with the president during the november government shutdown the president invited her to his private study where they kissed later that evening they had a more intimate sexual encounter they had another sexual encounter two days later and a third one on new year s eve a overview of monica lewinsky s white house employment monica lewinsky worked at the white house first as an intern and then as an employee from july to april with the assistance of family friend walter kaye a prominent contributor to political causes she obtained an internship starting in early july when she was years old she was assigned to work on correspondence in the office of chief of staff leon panetta in the old executive office building as her internship was winding down ms lewinsky applied for a paying job on the white house staff she interviewed with timothy keating special assistant to the president and staff director for legislative affairs ms lewinsky accepted a position dealing with correspondence in the office of legislative affairs on november but did not start the job and thus continued her internship until november she remained a white house employee until april when in her view because of her intimate relationship with the president she was dismissed from the white house and transferred to the pentagon b first meetings with the president the month after her white house internship began ms lewinsky and the president began what she characterized as intense flirting at departure ceremonies and other events she made eye contact with him shook hands and introduced herself when she ran into the president in the west wing basement and introduced herself again according to ms lewinsky he responded that he already knew who she was ms lewinsky told her aunt that the president seemed attracted to her or interested in her or something and told a visiting friend that she was attracted to president clinton she had a big crush on him and i think she told me she at some point had gotten his attention that there was some mutual eye contact and recognition mutual acknowledgment in the autumn of an impasse over the budget forced the federal government to shut down for one week from tuesday november to monday november only essential federal employees were permitted to work during the furlough and the white house staff of shrank to about people for the week white house interns could continue working because of their unpaid status and they took on a wide range of additional duties during the shutdown ms lewinsky worked in chief of staff panetta s west wing office where she answered phones and ran errands the president came to mr panetta s office frequently because of the shutdown and he sometimes talked with ms lewinsky she characterized these encounters as continued flirtation according to ms lewinsky a senior adviser to the chief of staff barry toiv remarked to her that she was getting a great deal of face time with the president c november sexual encounter ms lewinsky testified that wednesday november the second day of the government shutdown marked the beginning of her sexual relationship with the president on that date she entered the white house at p m left sometime thereafter white house records do not show the time reentered at p m and departed at a m on november the president was in the oval office or the chief of staff s office where ms lewinsky worked during the furlough for almost the identical period that ms lewinsky was in the white house that evening from p m on november to a m on november according to ms lewinsky she and the president made eye contact when he came to the west wing to see mr panetta and deputy chief of staff harold ickes then again later at an informal birthday party for jennifer palmieri special assistant to the chief of staff at one point ms lewinsky and the president talked alone in the chief of staff s office in the course of flirting with him she raised her jacket in the back and showed him the straps of her thong underwear which extended above her pants en route to the restroom at about p m she passed george stephanopoulos s office the president was inside alone and he beckoned her to enter she told him that she had a crush on him he laughed then asked if she would like to see his private office through a connecting door in mr stephanopoulos s office they went through the president s private dining room toward the study off the oval office ms lewinsky testified we talked briefly and sort of acknowledged that there had been a chemistry that was there before and that we were both attracted to each other and then he asked me if he could kiss me ms lewinsky said yes in the windowless hallway adjacent to the study they kissed before returning to her desk ms lewinsky wrote down her name and telephone number for the president at about p m in ms lewinsky s recollection she was alone in the chief of staff s office and the president approached he invited her to rendezvous again in mr stephanopoulos s office in a few minutes and she agreed asked if she knew why the president wanted to meet with her ms lewinsky testified i had an idea they met in mr stephanopoulos s office and went again to the area of the private study this time the lights in the study were off according to ms lewinsky she and the president kissed she unbuttoned her jacket either she unhooked her bra or he lifted her bra up and he touched her breasts with his hands and mouth ms lewinsky testified i believe he took a phone call and so we moved from the hallway into the back office h e put his hand down my pants and stimulated me manually in the genital area while the president continued talking on the phone ms lewinsky understood that the caller was a member of congress or a senator she performed oral sex on him he finished his call and a moment later told ms lewinsky to stop in her recollection i told him that i wanted to complete that and he said that he needed to wait until he trusted me more and then i think he made a joke that he hadn t had that in a long time both before and after their sexual contact during that encounter ms lewinsky and the president talked at one point during the conversation the president tugged on the pink intern pass hanging from her neck and said that it might be a problem ms lewinsky thought that he was talking about access interns were not supposed to be in the west wing without an escort and in addition that he might have discerned some impropriety in a sexual relationship with a white house intern white house records corroborate details of ms lewinsky s account she testified that her november encounters with the president occurred at about p m and p m and that in each case the two of them went from the chief of staff s office to the oval office area records show that the president visited the chief of staff s office for one minute at p m and for two minutes at p m in each case returning to the oval office she recalled that the president took a telephone call during their sexual encounter and she believed that the caller was a member of congress or a senator white house records show that after returning to the oval office from the chief of staff s office the president talked to two members of congress rep jim chapman from p m to p m and rep john tanner from p m to p m d november sexual encounter according to ms lewinsky she and the president had a second sexual encounter two days later still during the government furlough on friday november she was at the white house until p m then returned from to p m at p m a few minutes after ms lewinsky s reentry the president went from the oval office to the chief of staff s office where ms lewinsky worked during the furlough for one minute then returned to the oval office for minutes from there he went back to the chief of staff s office until p m approximately when ms lewinsky left the white house then went by the oval office and the ground floor before retiring to the residence at p m ms lewinsky testified we were again working late because it was during the furlough and jennifer palmieri had ordered pizza along with ms currie and ms hernreich and when the pizza came i went down to let them know that the pizza was there and it was at that point when i walked into ms currie s office that the president was standing there with some other people discussing something and they all came back to the office and mr i think it was mr toiv somebody accidentally knocked pizza on my jacket so i went to go use the restroom to wash it off and as i was coming out of the restroom the president was standing in ms currie s doorway and said you can come out this way ms lewinsky and the president went into the area of the private study according to ms lewinsky there either in the hallway or the bathroom she and the president kissed after a few minutes in ms lewinsky s recollection she told him that she needed to get back to her desk the president suggested that she bring him some slices of pizza a few minutes later she returned to the oval office area with pizza and told ms currie that the president had requested it ms lewinsky testified ms currie opened the door and said sir the girl s here with the pizza he told me to come in ms currie went back into her office and then we went into the back study area again several witnesses confirm that when ms lewinsky delivered pizza to the president that night the two of them were briefly alone ms lewinsky testified that she and the president had a sexual encounter during this visit they kissed and the president touched ms lewinsky s bare breasts with his hands and mouth at some point ms currie approached the door leading to the hallway which was ajar and said that the president had a telephone call ms lewinsky recalled that the caller was a member of congress with a nickname while the president was on the telephone according to ms lewinsky he unzipped his pants and exposed himself and she performed oral sex again he stopped her before he ejaculated during this visit according to ms lewinsky the president told her that he liked her smile and her energy he also said i m usually around on weekends no one else is around and you can come and see me records corroborate ms lewinsky s recollection that the president took a call from a member of congress with a nickname while ms lewinsky was at the white house that evening to p m the president had one telephone conversation with a member of congress from to p m he spoke with rep h l sonny callahan in his jones deposition on january president clinton who said he was unable to recall most of his encounters with ms lewinsky did remember her back there with a pizza during the government shutdown he said however that he did not believe that the two of them were alone testifying before the grand jury on august the president said that his first real conversation with ms lewinsky occurred during the november furlough he testified one night she brought me some pizza we had some remarks e december sexual encounter according to ms lewinsky she and the president had their third sexual encounter on new year s eve ms lewinsky by then a member of the staff of the office of legislative affairs was at the white house on sunday december until p m her time of arrival is not shown the president was in the oval office area from p m until about the time that ms lewinsky left p m when he went to the residence sometime between noon and p m in ms lewinsky s recollection she was in the pantry area of the president s private dining room talking with a white house steward bayani nelvis she told mr nelvis that she had recently smoked her first cigar and he offered to give her one of the president s cigars just then the president came down the hallway from the oval office and saw ms lewinsky the president dispatched mr nelvis to deliver something to mr panetta according to ms lewinsky she told the president that mr nelvis had promised her a cigar and the president gave her one she told him her name she had the impression that he had forgotten it in the six weeks since their furlough encounters because when passing her in the hallway he had called her kiddo the president replied that he knew her name in fact he added having lost the phone number she had given him he had tried to find her in the phonebook according to ms lewinsky they moved to the study and then we were kissing and he lifted my sweater and exposed my breasts and was fondling them with his hands and with his mouth she performed oral sex once again he stopped her before he ejaculated because ms lewinsky testified he didn t know me well enough or he didn t trust me yet according to ms lewinsky a secret service officer named sandy was on duty in the west wing that day records show that sandra verna was on duty outside the oval office from a m to p m f president s account of relationship as noted the president testified before the grand jury that on november ms lewinsky delivered pizza and exchanged some remarks with him but he never indicated that anything sexual occurred then or at any other point in testifying under oath before the grand jury the president said that he engaged in conduct that was wrong involving inappropriate intimate contact with ms lewinsky on certain occasions in early and once in early by implicitly denying any sexual contact in the president indicated that he and ms lewinsky had no sexual involvement while she was an intern in the president s testimony his relationship with ms lewinsky began as a friendship then later came to include this conduct iii january march continued sexual encounters president clinton and ms lewinsky had additional sexual encounters near the oval office in after their sixth sexual encounter the president and ms lewinsky had their first lengthy conversation on president s day february the president terminated their sexual relationship then revived it on march a january sexual encounter according to ms lewinsky she and the president had another sexual encounter on sunday january although white house records do not indicate that ms lewinsky was at the white house that day her testimony and other evidence indicate that she was there the president according to white house records was in the oval office most of the afternoon from to p m according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her early that afternoon it was the first time he had called her at home in her recollection i asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to be going into the office soon i said oh do you want some company and he said oh that would be great ms lewinsky went to her office and the president called to arrange their rendezvous w e made an arrangement that he would have the door to his office open and i would pass by the office with some papers and then he would sort of stop me and invite me in so that was exactly what happened i passed by and that was actually when i saw secret service uniformed officer lew fox who was on duty outside the oval office and stopped and spoke with lew for a few minutes and then the president came out and said oh hey monica come on in and so we spoke for about minutes in the oval office we sat on the sofas then we went into the back study and we were intimate in the bathroom ms lewinsky testified that during this bathroom encounter she and the president kissed and he touched her bare breasts with his hands and his mouth the president was talking about performing oral sex on me according to ms lewinsky but she stopped him because she was menstruating and he did not ms lewinsky did perform oral sex on him afterward she and the president moved to the oval office and talked according to ms lewinsky h e was chewing on a cigar and then he had the cigar in his hand and he was kind of looking at the cigar in sort of a naughty way and so i looked at the cigar and i looked at him and i said we can do that too some time corroborating aspects of ms lewinsky s recollection records show that officer fox was posted outside the oval office the afternoon of january officer fox who is now retired testified that he recalled an incident with ms lewinsky one weekend afternoon when he was on duty by the oval office t he president of the united states came out and he asked me he says have you seen any young congressional staff members here today i said no sir he said well i m expecting one he says would you please let me know when they show up and i said yes sir officer fox construed the reference to congressional staff members to mean white house staff who worked with congress i e staff of the legislative affairs office where ms lewinsky worked talking with a secret service agent posted in the hallway officer fox speculated on whom the president was expecting i described ms lewinsky without mentioning the name in detail dark hair you know i gave a general description of what she looked like officer fox had gotten to know ms lewinsky during her tenure at the white house and other agents had told him that she often spent time with the president a short time later ms lewinsky approached greeted officer fox and said i have some papers for the president officer fox admitted her to the oval office the president said you can close the door she ll be here for a while b january sexual encounter on sunday january according to ms lewinsky she and the president had another sexual encounter her time of white house entry is not reflected in records she left at p m the president moved from the residence to the oval office at p m and remained there until p m on that day according to ms lewinsky she saw the president in a hallway by an elevator and he invited her to the oval office according to ms lewinsky we had had phone sex for the first time the week prior and i was feeling a little bit insecure about whether he had liked it or didn t like it i didn t know if this was sort of developing into some kind of a longer term relationship than what i thought it initially might have been that maybe he had some regular girlfriend who was furloughed according to ms lewinsky she questioned the president about his interest in her i asked him why he doesn t ask me any questions about myself and is this just about sex or do you have some interest in trying to get to know me as a person the president laughed and said according to ms lewinsky that he cherishes the time that he had with me she considered it a little bit odd for him to speak of cherishing their time together when i felt like he didn t really even know me yet they continued talking as they went to the hallway by the study then with ms lewinsky in mid sentence he just started kissing me he lifted her top and touched her breasts with his hands and mouth according to ms lewinsky the president unzipped his pants and sort of exposed himself and she performed oral sex at one point during the encounter someone entered the oval office in ms lewinsky s recollection the president zipped up real quickly and went out and came back in i just remember laughing because he had walked out there and he was visibly aroused and i just thought it was funny a short time later the president got word that his next appointment a friend from arkansas had arrived he took ms lewinsky out through the oval office into ms hernreich s office where he kissed her goodbye c february sexual encounter and subsequent phone calls on sunday february according to ms lewinsky she and the president had their sixth sexual encounter and their first lengthy and personal conversation the president was in the oval office from to p m he had no telephone calls in the oval office before p m records do not show ms lewinsky s entry or exit according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her at her desk and they planned their rendezvous at her suggestion they bumped into each other in the hallway because when it happened accidentally that seemed to work really well then walked together to the area of the private study there according to ms lewinsky they kissed she was wearing a long dress that buttoned from the neck to the ankles and he unbuttoned my dress and he unhooked my bra and sort of took the dress off my shoulders and moved the bra h e was looking at me and touching me and telling me how beautiful i was he touched her breasts with his hands and his mouth and touched her genitals first through underwear and then directly she performed oral sex on him after their sexual encounter the president and ms lewinsky sat and talked in the oval office for about minutes ms lewinsky thought the president might be responding to her suggestion during their previous meeting about trying to get to know me it was during that conversation on february according to ms lewinsky that their friendship started to blossom when she prepared to depart according to ms lewinsky the president kissed my arm and told me he d call me and then i said yeah well what s my phone number and so he recited both my home number and my office number off the top of his head the president called her at her desk later that afternoon and said he had enjoyed their time together d president s day february break up according to ms lewinsky the president terminated their relationship only temporarily as it happened on monday february president s day the president was in the oval office from a m to p m that day he had no telephone calls between and p m records do not reflect ms lewinsky s presence at the white house in ms lewinsky s recollection the president telephoned her at her watergate apartment that day from the tone of his voice she could tell something was wrong she asked to come see him but he said he did not know how long he would be there ms lewinsky went to the white house then walked to the oval office sometime between noon and p m the only time she ever went to the oval office uninvited ms lewinsky recalled that she was admitted by a tall slender hispanic plainclothes agent on duty near the door the president told her that he no longer felt right about their intimate relationship and he had to put a stop to it ms lewinsky was welcome to continue coming to visit him but only as a friend he hugged her but would not kiss her at one point during their conversation the president had a call from a sugar grower in florida whose name according to ms lewinsky was something like fanuli in ms lewinsky s recollection the president may have taken or returned the call just as she was leaving ms lewinsky s account is corroborated in two respects first nelson u garabito a plainclothes secret service agent testified that on a weekend or holiday while ms lewinsky worked at the white house most likely in the early spring of ms lewinsky appeared in the area of the oval office carrying a folder and said i have these papers for the president after knocking agent garabito opened the oval office door told the president he had a visitor ushered ms lewinsky in and closed the door behind her when agent garabito s shift ended a few minutes later ms lewinsky was still in the oval office second concerning ms lewinsky s recollection of a call from a sugar grower named fanuli the president talked with alfonso fanjul of palm beach florida from to p m mr fanjul had telephoned a few minutes earlier at p m the fanjuls are prominent sugar growers in florida e continuing contacts after the break up on february according to ms lewinsky there continued to sort of be this flirtation when we d see each other after passing ms lewinsky in a hallway one night in late february or march the president telephoned her at home and said he was disappointed that because she had already left the white house for the evening they could not get together ms lewinsky testified that the call sort of implied to me that he was interested in starting up again on march ms lewinsky took a visiting friend natalie ungvari to the white house they bumped into the president who said to ms ungvari when ms lewinsky introduced them you must be her friend from california ms ungvari was shocked that the president knew where she was from ms lewinsky testified that on friday march she was walking down a hallway when she passed the president who was wearing the first necktie she had given him she asked where he had gotten the tie and he replied some girl with style gave it to me later he telephoned her at her desk and asked if she would like to see a movie his plan was that she would position herself in the hallway by the white house theater at a certain time and he would invite her to join him and a group of guests as they entered ms lewinsky responded that she did not want people to think she was lurking around the west wing uninvited she asked if they could arrange a rendezvous over the weekend instead and he said he would try records confirm that the president spent the evening of march in the white house theater mrs clinton was in athens greece f march sexual encounter on sunday march according to ms lewinsky she and the president resumed their sexual contact ms lewinsky was at the white house from a m to p m on that day the president was in the oval office from to p m his only call while in the oval office was from to p m mrs clinton was in ireland according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her at her desk and suggested that she come to the oval office on the pretext of delivering papers to him she went to the oval office and was admitted by a plainclothes secret service agent in her folder was a gift for the president a hugo boss necktie in the hallway by the study the president and ms lewinsky kissed on this occasion according to ms lewinsky he focused on me pretty exclusively kissing her bare breasts and fondling her genitals at one point the president inserted a cigar into ms lewinsky s vagina then put the cigar in his mouth and said it tastes good after they were finished ms lewinsky left the oval office and walked through the rose garden iv april ms lewinsky s transfer to the pentagon with white house and secret service employees remarking on ms lewinsky s frequent presence in the west wing a deputy chief of staff ordered ms lewinsky transferred from the white house to the pentagon on april easter sunday ms lewinsky told the president of her dismissal he promised to bring her back after the election and they had a sexual encounter a earlier observations of ms lewinsky in the west wing ms lewinsky s visits to the oval office area had not gone unnoticed officer fox testified that it was pretty commonly known that she did frequent the west wing on the weekends another secret service uniformed officer william ludtke iii once saw her exit from the pantry near the oval office she seemed startled and possibly embarrassed to be spotted officer john muskett testified that if the president was known to be coming into the diplomatic reception room a lot of times ms lewinsky just happened to be walking down the corridor you know maybe just to see the president ms lewinsky acknowledged that she tried to position herself to see the president although they could not date them precisely secret service officers and agents testified about several occasions when ms lewinsky and the president were alone in the oval office william c bordley a former member of the presidential protective detail testified that in late or early he stopped ms lewinsky outside the oval office because she did not have her pass the president opened the oval office door indicated to agent bordley that ms lewinsky s presence was all right and ushered ms lewinsky into the oval office agent bordley saw ms lewinsky leave about half an hour later another former member of the presidential protective detail robert c ferguson testified that one saturday in winter the president told him that he was expecting some staffers a short time later ms lewinsky arrived and said that t he president needs me agent ferguson announced ms lewinsky and admitted her to the oval office about or minutes later agent ferguson rotated to a post on the colonnade outside the oval office he glanced through the window into the oval office and saw the president and ms lewinsky go through the door leading toward the private study deeming her frequent visits to the oval office area a nuisance one secret service officer complained to evelyn lieberman the deputy chief of staff for operations ms lieberman was already aware of ms lewinsky in december according to ms lewinsky ms lieberman chided her for being in the west wing and told her that interns are not permitted around the oval office ms lewinsky who had begun her office of legislative affairs job told ms lieberman that she was not an intern anymore after expressing surprise that ms lewinsky had been hired ms lieberman said she must have ms lewinsky confused with someone else ms lieberman confirmed that she reprimanded ms lewinsky whom she considered what we used to call a clutch always someplace she shouldn t be in ms lewinsky s view some white house staff members seemed to think that she was to blame for the president s evident interest in her p eople were wary of his weaknesses maybe and they didn t want to look at him and think that he could be responsible for anything so it had to all be my fault i was stalking him or i was making advances towards him b decision to transfer ms lewinsky ms lieberman testified that because ms lewinsky was so persistent in her efforts to be near the president i decided to get rid of her first she consulted chief of staff panetta according to mr panetta ms lieberman told him about a woman on the staff who was spending too much time around the west wing because of the appearance that it was creating ms lieberman proposed to move her out of the white house mr panetta who testified that he valued ms lieberman s role as a tough disciplinarian and trusted her judgment replied fine although ms lieberman said she could not recall having heard any rumors linking the president and ms lewinsky she acknowledged that the president was vulnerable to these kind of rumors yes yes that was one of the reasons for moving ms lewinsky out of the white house later in september marcia lewis ms lewinsky s mother complained about her daughter s dismissal to ms lieberman whom she met at a voice of america ceremony ms lieberman according to ms lewis responded by saying something about monica being cursed because she s beautiful ms lewis gathered from the remark that ms lieberman as part of her effort to protect the president would want to have pretty women moved out most people understood that the principal reason for ms lewinsky s transfer was her habit of hanging around the oval office and the west wing in a memo in october john hilley assistant to the president and director of legislative affairs reported that ms lewinsky had been got ten rid of in part because of extracurricular activities a phrase he maintained in the grand jury that meant only that ms lewinsky was often absent from her work station white house officials arranged for ms lewinsky to get another job in the administration our direction is to make sure she has a job in an agency patsy thomasson wrote in an email message on april ms thomasson s office presidential personnel sent ms lewinsky s resume to charles duncan special assistant to the secretary of defense and white house liaison and asked him to find a pentagon opening for her mr duncan was told that though ms lewinsky had performed her duties capably she was being dismissed for hanging around the oval office too much according to mr duncan who had received as many as job referrals per day from the white house the white house had never given such an explanation for a transfer c ms lewinsky s notification of her transfer on friday april timothy keating staff director for legislative affairs informed ms lewinsky that she would have to leave her white house job according to mr keating he told her that she was not being fired merely being given a different opportunity in fact she could tell people it was a promotion if she cared to do so upon hearing of her dismissal ms lewinsky burst into tears and asked if there was any way for her to stay in the white house even without pay no mr keating said according to ms lewinsky he told me i was too sexy to be working in the east wing and that this job at the pentagon where i d be writing press releases was a sexier job ms lewinsky was devastated she felt that she was being transferred simply because of her relationship with the president and she feared that with the loss of her white house job i was never going to see the president again i mean my relationship with him would be over d conversations with the president about her transfer easter telephone conversations and sexual encounter on easter sunday april ms lewinsky told the president of her dismissal and they had a sexual encounter ms lewinsky entered the white house at and left at p m the president was in the oval office all afternoon from to p m according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her at home that day after they spoke of the death of the commerce secretary the previous week she told him of her dismissal i had asked him if he was doing okay with ron brown s death and then after we talked about that for a little bit i told him that my last day was monday and he seemed really upset and sort of asked me to tell him what had happened so i did and i was crying and i asked him if i could come see him and he said that that was fine at the white house according to ms lewinsky she told secret service officer muskett that she needed to deliver papers to the president officer muskett admitted her to the oval office and she and the president proceeded to the private study according to ms lewinsky the president seemed troubled about her upcoming departure from the white house he told me that he thought that my being transferred had something to do with him and that he was upset he said why do they have to take you away from me i trust you and then he told me he looked at me and he said i promise you if i win in november i ll bring you back like that he also indicated that she could have any job she wanted after the election in addition the president said he would find out why ms lewinsky was transferred and report back to her when asked if he had promised to get ms lewinsky another white house job the president told the grand jury what i told ms lewinsky was that i would do what i could to see if she had a good record at the pentagon and she assured me she was doing a good job and working hard that i would do my best to see that the fact that she had been sent away from the legislative affairs section did not keep her from getting a job in the white house and that is in fact what i tried to do but i did not tell her i would order someone to hire her and i never did and i wouldn t do that it wouldn t be right ms lewinsky when asked if the president had said that he would bring her back to the white house only if she did a good job at the pentagon responded no after this easter sunday conversation the president and ms lewinsky had a sexual encounter in the hallway according to ms lewinsky she testified that the president touched her breasts with his mouth and hands according to ms lewinsky i think he unzipped his pants because it was sort of this running joke that i could never unbutton his pants that i just had trouble with it ms lewinsky performed oral sex the president did not ejaculate in her presence during this encounter someone called out from the oval office that the president had a phone call he went back to the oval office for a moment then took the call in the study the president indicated that ms lewinsky should perform oral sex while he talked on the phone and she obliged the telephone conversation was about politics and ms lewinsky thought the caller might be dick morris white house records confirm that the president had one telephone call during ms lewinsky s visit from mr richard morris to whom he talked from to p m a second interruption occurred a few minutes later according to ms lewinsky she and the president were in the study ms lewinsky testified harold ickes has a very distinct voice and i heard him holler mr president and the president looked at me and i looked at him and he jetted out into the oval office and i panicked and thought that maybe because harold was so close with the president that they might just wander back there and the president would assume that i knew to leave ms lewinsky testified that she exited hurriedly through the dining room door that evening the president called and asked ms lewinsky why she had run off i told him that i didn t know if he was going to be coming back h e was a little upset with me that i left in addition to the record of the dick morris phone call the testimony of secret service officer muskett corroborates ms lewinsky s account officer muskett was posted near the door to the oval office on easter sunday he testified that ms lewinsky whom he knew arrived at about p m carrying a manila folder and seeming a little upset she told officer muskett that she needed to deliver documents to the president officer muskett or the plainclothes agent on duty with him opened the door and ms lewinsky entered about to minutes later according to officer muskett the telephone outside the oval office rang the white house operator said that the president had an important call but he was not picking up the agent working alongside officer muskett knocked on the door to the oval office when the president did not respond the agent entered the oval office was empty and the door leading to the study was slightly ajar ms lewinsky testified that the president left the door ajar during their sexual encounters the agent called out mr president there was no response the agent stepped into the oval office and called out more loudly mr president this time there was a response from the study area according to officer muskett huh the agent called out that the president had a phone call and the president said he would take it a few minutes later according to officer muskett mr ickes approached and said he needed to see president clinton officer muskett admitted him through ms currie s office less than a minute after mr ickes entered ms currie s reception area according to officer muskett the pantry or dining room door closed audibly officer muskett stepped down the hall to check and saw ms lewinsky walking away briskly at p m two minutes after ms lewinsky left the white house the president called the office of the person who had decided to transfer ms lewinsky evelyn lieberman april telephone conversations ms lewinsky testified that the president telephoned her the following friday april at home they talked for about minutes according to ms lewinsky the president said he had checked on the reason for her transfer h e had come to learn that evelyn lieberman had sort of spearheaded the transfer and that she thought he was paying too much attention to me and i was paying too much attention to him and that she didn t necessarily care what happened after the election but everyone needed to be careful before the election according to ms lewinsky the president told her to give the pentagon a try and if she did not like it he would get her a job on the campaign in the grand jury ms lieberman testified that the president asked her directly about ms lewinsky s transfer after i had gotten rid of her when i was in there during the course of a conversation president clinton said i got a call about i don t know if he said her name he said maybe an intern you fired and she was evidently very upset about it he said do you know anything about this i said yes he said who fired her i said i did and he said oh okay according to ms lieberman the president did not pursue the matter further three other witnesses confirm that the president knew why ms lewinsky was transferred to the pentagon in the president told chief of staff erskine bowles that there was a young woman her name was monica lewinsky who used to work at the white house that evelyn thought she hung around the oval office too much and transferred her to the pentagon according to betty currie the president believed that ms lewinsky had been unfairly transferred the president s close friend vernon jordan testified that the president said to him in december that he knew about ms lewinsky s situation which was that she was pushed out of the white house v april december no private meetings after ms lewinsky began her pentagon job on april she had no further physical contact with the president for the remainder of the year she and the president spoke by phone and had phone sex but saw each other only at public functions ms lewinsky grew frustrated after the election because the president did not bring her back to work at the white house a pentagon job on april ms lewinsky began working at the pentagon as confidential assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs b no physical contact according to ms lewinsky she had no physical contact with the president for the rest of i wasn t alone with him so when i saw him it was in some sort of event or group setting she testified c telephone conversations ms lewinsky and the president did talk by telephone especially in her first weeks at the new job by ms lewinsky s estimate the president phoned her sometimes leaving a message four or five times in the month after she started working at the pentagon then two or three times a month thereafter for the rest of during the fall campaign the president sometimes called from trips when mrs clinton was not accompanying him during at least seven of the calls ms lewinsky and the president had phone sex according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her at about a m on july the day he was leaving for the olympics in atlanta and they had phone sex after which the president exclaimed g ood morning and then said what a way to start a day a call log shows that the president called the white house operator at a m on july and asked for a wake up call at a m then at a m the president called and said he was already up in ms lewinsky s recollection she and the president also had phone sex on may july or october and december on those dates mrs clinton was in denver may prague and budapest july las vegas october and en route to bolivia december ms lewinsky repeatedly told the president that she disliked her pentagon job and wanted to return to the white house in a recorded conversation ms lewinsky recounted one call a month had passed and so he had called one night and i said well i said i m really unhappy you know and the president said i don t want to talk about your job tonight i ll call you this week and then we ll talk about it i want to talk about other things which meant phone sex she expected to talk with him the following weekend and she was ready to broach the idea of going to the campaign but he did not call ms lewinsky and the president also talked about their relationship during a phone conversation on september according to ms lewinsky she told the president that she wanted to have intercourse with him he responded that he could not do so because of the possible consequences the two of them argued and he asked if he should stop calling her no she responded d public encounters during this period ms lewinsky occasionally saw the president in public she testified i m an insecure person and i was insecure about the relationship at times and thought that he would come to forget me easily and if i hadn t heard from him it was very difficult for me u sually when i d see him it would kind of prompt him to call me so i made an effort i would go early and stand in the front so i could see him on may ms lewinsky saw the president at a reception for the saxophone club a political organization on june ms lewinsky and her family attended the taping of the president s weekly radio address and had photos taken with the president on august ms lewinsky attended the president s th birthday party at radio city music hall and she got into a cocktail party for major donors where she saw the president according to ms lewinsky when the president reached past her at the rope line to shake hands with another guest she reached out and touched his crotch in a playful fashion on october according to ms lewinsky she talked with the president at a fundraiser for senate democrats the two were photographed together at the event the president was wearing a necktie she had given him according to ms lewinsky and she said to him hey handsome i like your tie the president telephoned her that night she said she planned to be at the white house on pentagon business the next day and he told her to stop by the oval office at the white house the next day ms lewinsky did not see the president because ms lieberman was nearby on december ms lewinsky attended a holiday reception at the white house a photo shows her shaking hands with the president e ms lewinsky s frustrations continuing to believe that her relationship with the president was the key to regaining her white house pass ms lewinsky hoped that the president would get her a job immediately after the election i kept a calendar with a countdown until election day she later wrote in an unsent letter to him the letter states i was so sure that the weekend after the election you would call me to come visit and you would kiss me passionately and tell me you couldn t wait to have me back you d ask me where i wanted to work and say something akin to consider it done and it would be instead i didn t hear from you for weeks and subsequently your phone calls became less frequent ms lewinsky grew increasingly frustrated over her relationship with president clinton one friend understood that ms lewinsky complained to the president about not having seen each other privately for months and he replied every day can t be sunshine in email to another friend in early ms lewinsky wrote i just don t understand what went wrong what happened how could he do this to me why did he keep up contact with me for so long and now nothing now when we could be together vi early resumption of sexual encounters in president clinton and ms lewinsky had further private meetings which now were arranged by betty currie the president s secretary after the taping of the president s weekly radio address on february the president and ms lewinsky had a sexual encounter on march they had what proved to be their final sexual encounter throughout this period ms lewinsky continued to press for a job at the white house to no avail a resumption of meetings with the president role of betty currie a arranging meetings in with the presidential election past ms lewinsky and the president resumed their one on one meetings and sexual encounters the president s secretary betty currie acted as intermediary according to ms currie ms lewinsky would often call her and say she wanted to see the president sometimes to discuss a particular topic ms currie would ask president clinton and if he agreed arrange the meeting ms currie also said it was not unusual that ms lewinsky would talk by phone with the president and then call ms currie to set up a meeting at times ms currie placed calls to ms lewinsky for president clinton and put him on the line the meetings between the president and ms lewinsky often occurred on weekends when ms lewinsky would arrive at the white house ms currie generally would be the one to authorize her entry and take her to the west wing ms currie acknowledged that she sometimes would come to the white house for the sole purpose of having ms lewinsky admitted and bringing her to see the president according to ms currie ms lewinsky and the president were alone together in the oval office or the study for to minutes on multiple occasions secret service officers and agents took note of ms currie s role officer steven pape once observed ms currie come to the white house for the duration of ms lewinsky s visit then leave when calling to alert the officer at the west wing lobby that ms lewinsky was en route ms currie would sometimes say y ou know who it is on one occasion ms currie instructed officer brent chinery to hold ms lewinsky at the lobby for a few minutes because she needed to move the president to the study on another occasion ms currie told officer chinery to have ms lewinsky held at the gate for to minutes because the president already had a visitor ms lewinsky testified that she once asked the president why ms currie had to clear her in and why he could not do so himself h e said because if someone comes to see him there s a list circulated among the staff members and then everyone would be questioning why i was there to see him b intermediary for gifts ms lewinsky also sent over a number of packages six or eight ms currie estimated according to ms currie ms lewinsky would call and say she was sending something for the president the package would arrive addressed to ms currie courier receipts show that ms lewinsky sent seven packages to the white house between october and december evidence indicates that ms lewinsky on occasion also dropped parcels off with ms currie or had a family member do so and brought gifts to the president when visiting him ms currie testified that most packages from ms lewinsky were intended for the president although ms currie generally opened letters and parcels to the president she did not open these packages from ms lewinsky she testified that i made the determination not to open such letters and packages because i felt they were probably personal instead she would leave the package in the president s box and h e would pick it up to the best of her knowledge such parcels always reached the president c secrecy ms currie testified that she suspected impropriety in the president s relationship with ms lewinsky she told the grand jury that she had concern in her words h e was spending a lot of time with a year old young lady i know he has said that young people keep him involved in what s happening in the world so i knew that was one reason but there was a concern of mine that she was spending more time than most ms currie understood that the majority of the president s meetings with ms lewinsky were more personal in nature as opposed to business ms currie also testified that she tried to avoid learning details of the relationship between the president and ms lewinsky on one occasion ms lewinsky said of herself and the president as long as no one saw us and no one did then nothing happened ms currie responded don t want to hear it don t say any more i don t want to hear any more ms currie helped keep the relationship secret when the president wanted to talk with ms lewinsky ms currie would dial the call herself rather than go through white house operators who keep logs of presidential calls made through the switchboard when ms lewinsky phoned and ms currie put the president on the line she did not log the call though the standard procedure was to note all calls personal and professional according to secret service uniformed officers ms currie sometimes tried to persuade them to admit ms lewinsky to the white house compound without making a record of it in addition ms currie avoided writing down or retaining most messages from ms lewinsky to the president in response to a grand jury subpoena the white house turned over only one note to the president concerning ms lewinsky whereas evidence indicates that ms lewinsky used ms currie to convey requests and messages to the president on many occasions when bringing ms lewinsky in from the white house gate ms currie said she sometimes chose a path that would reduce the likelihood of being seen by two white house employees who disapproved of ms lewinsky stephen goodin and nancy hernreich ms currie testified that she once brought ms lewinsky directly to the study sneaking her back via a roundabout path to avoid running into mr goodin when ms lewinsky visited the white house on weekends and at night being spotted was not a problem in ms currie s words there would be no need to sneak so ms lewinsky would await the president in ms currie s office according to ms lewinsky she once expressed concern about records showing the president s calls to her and ms currie told her not to worry ms lewinsky also suspected that ms currie was not logging in all of her gifts to the president in ms lewinsky s evaluation many white house staff members tried to regulate the president s behavior but ms currie generally did as he wished observations by secret service officers officers of the secret service uniformed division noted ms lewinsky s visits to the white house from radio traffic about the president s movements several officers observed that the president often would head for the oval office within minutes of ms lewinsky s entry to the complex especially on weekends and some noted that he would return to the residence a short time after her departure it was just like clockwork according to one officer concerned about the president s reputation another officer suggested putting ms lewinsky on a list of people who were not to be admitted to the white house a commander responded that it was none of their business whom the president chose to see and in any event nobody would ever find out about ms lewinsky b valentine s day advertisement on february the washington post published a valentine s day love note that ms lewinsky had placed the ad said handsome with love s light wings did i o er perch these walls for stony limits cannot hold love out and what love can do that dares love attempt romeo and juliet happy valentine s day m c february message on february ms lewinsky visited the white house on pentagon business she went by ms currie s office ms currie sent a note to the president the only such note turned over by the white house in response to a grand jury subpoena monica lewinsky stopped by do you want me to call her d february sexual encounter according to ms lewinsky she and the president had a sexual encounter on thursday february their first in nearly months white house records show that ms lewinsky attended the taping of the president s weekly radio address on february she was at the white house from to p m the president was in the roosevelt room where the radio address was taped from to p m then moved to the oval office where he remained until p m he had no telephone calls while ms lewinsky was in the white house wearing a navy blue dress from the gap ms lewinsky attended the radio address at the president s invitation relayed by ms currie then had her photo taken with the president ms lewinsky had not been alone with the president since she had worked at the white house and she testified i was really nervous president clinton told her to see ms currie after the photo was taken because he wanted to give her something so i waited a little while for him and then betty and the president and i went into the back office ms lewinsky testified she later learned that the reason ms currie accompanied them was that stephen goodin did not want the president to be alone with ms lewinsky a view that mr goodin expressed to the president and ms currie once they had passed from the oval office toward the private study ms currie said i ll be right back and walked on to the back pantry or the dining room where according to ms currie she waited for to minutes while the president and ms lewinsky were in the study ms currie who said she acted on her own initiative testified that she accompanied the president and ms lewinsky out of the oval office because i didn t want any perceptions him being alone with someone in the study according to ms lewinsky the president started to say something to me and i was pestering him to kiss me because it had been a long time since we had been alone the president told her to wait a moment as he had presents for her as belated christmas gifts he gave her a hat pin and a special edition of walt whitman s leaves of grass ms lewinsky described the whitman book as the most sentimental gift he had given me it s beautiful and it meant a lot to me during this visit according to ms lewinsky the president said he had seen her valentine s day message in the washington post and he talked about his fondness for romeo and juliet ms lewinsky testified that after the president gave her the gifts they had a sexual encounter w e went back over by the bathroom in the hallway and we kissed we were kissing and he unbuttoned my dress and fondled my breasts with my bra on and then took them out of my bra and was kissing them and touching them with his hands and with his mouth and then i think i was touching him in his genital area through his pants and i think i unbuttoned his shirt and was kissing his chest and then i wanted to perform oral sex on him and so i did and then i think he heard something or he heard someone in the office so we moved into the bathroom and i continued to perform oral sex and then he pushed me away kind of as he always did before he came and then i stood up and i said i care about you so much i don t understand why you won t let me make you come it s important to me i mean it just doesn t feel complete it doesn t seem right ms lewinsky testified that she and the president hugged and he said he didn t want to get addicted to me and he didn t want me to get addicted to him they looked at each other for a moment then saying that i don t want to disappoint you the president consented for the first time she performed oral sex through completion when ms lewinsky next took the navy blue gap dress from her closet to wear it she noticed stains near one hip and on the chest fbi laboratory tests revealed that the stains are the president s semen in his grand jury testimony the president who because the oic had asked him for a blood sample and had represented that it had ample evidentiary justification for making such a request had reason to suspect that ms lewinsky s dress might bear traces of his semen indicated that he and ms lewinsky had had sexual contact on the day of the radio address he testified i was sick after it was over and i i was pleased at that time that it had been nearly a year since any inappropriate contact had occurred with ms lewinsky i promised myself it wasn t going to happen again the facts are complicated about what did happen and how it happened but nonetheless i m responsible for it later the president added referring to the evening of the radio address i do believe that i was alone with her from to minutes i do believe that things happened then which were inappropriate he said of the intimate relationship with ms lewinsky i never should have started it and i certainly shouldn t have started it back after i resolved not to in e march sexual encounter according to ms lewinsky she had what proved to be her final sexual encounter with the president on saturday march records show that she was at the white house from to p m admitted by ms currie the president was in the oval office during this period he left shortly after ms lewinsky did at p m and he did not have any phone calls during her white house visit according to ms lewinsky ms currie arranged the meeting after the president said by telephone that he had something important to tell her at the white house ms currie took her to the study to await the president he came in on crutches the result of a knee injury in florida two weeks earlier according to ms lewinsky their sexual encounter began with a sudden kiss t his was another one of those occasions when i was babbling on about something and he just kissed me kind of to shut me up i think the president unbuttoned her blouse and touched her breasts without removing her bra h e went to go put his hand down my pants and then i unzipped them because it was easier and i didn t have any panties on and so he manually stimulated me according to ms lewinsky i wanted him to touch my genitals with his genitals and he did so lightly and without penetration then ms lewinsky performed oral sex on him again until he ejaculated according to ms lewinsky she and the president had a lengthy conversation that day he told her that he suspected that a foreign embassy he did not specify which one was tapping his telephones and he proposed cover stories if ever questioned she should say that the two of them were just friends if anyone ever asked about their phone sex she should say that they knew their calls were being monitored all along and the phone sex was just a put on in his grand jury testimony the president implicitly denied this encounter he acknowledged inappropriate intimate contact with ms lewinsky on certain occasions in early and once in early the president indicated that the one occasion in was the radio address f continuing job efforts with the election past meanwhile ms lewinsky had continued striving to get a job at the white house she testified that she first broached the issue in a telephone call with the president in january and he said he would speak to bob nash director of presidential personnel she understood that mr nash was supposed to find a position for me to come back to the white house over the months that followed ms lewinsky repeatedly asked the president to get her a white house job in her recollection the president replied that various staff members were working on it including mr nash and marsha scott deputy assistant to the president and deputy director for presidential personnel according to ms lewinsky the president told her bob nash is handling it marsha s going to handle it and we just sort of need to be careful you know and he would always sort of validate what i was feeling by telling me something that i don t necessarily know is true oh i ll talk to her i ll you know i ll see blah blah blah and it was just i ll do i ll do i ll do and didn t didn t didn t ms lewinsky came to wonder if she was being strung along testifying before the grand jury the president acknowledged that ms lewinsky had complained to him about her job situation you know she tried for months and months to get a job back in the white house not so much in the west wing but somewhere in the white house complex including the old executive office building she very much wanted to come back and she interviewed for some jobs but never got one she was from time to time upset about it vii may termination of sexual relationship in may amid indications that ms lewinsky had been indiscreet president clinton terminated the sexual relationship a questions about ms lewinsky s discretion in april or may according to ms lewinsky the president asked if she had told her mother about their intimate relationship she responded no of course not in truth she had told her mother the president indicated that ms lewinsky s mother possibly had said something about the nature of the relationship to walter kaye who had mentioned it to marsha scott who in turn had alerted the president corroborating ms lewinsky s account mr kaye testified that he told ms lewinsky s aunt debra finerman that he understood that her niece was very aggressive a remark that angered ms finerman ms finerman told mr kaye that the president was the true aggressor he was telephoning ms lewinsky late at night ms finerman in mr kaye s recollection attributed this information to marcia lewis ms lewinsky s mother and ms finerman s sister mr kaye who had disbelieved stories he had heard from democratic national committee people about an affair between ms lewinsky and the president testified that he was shocked to hear of the late night phone calls b may break up on saturday may according to ms lewinsky the president ended their intimate relationship ms lewinsky was at the white house that day from to p m the president was in the oval office during most of this period from a m to p m he did not have any telephone calls according to ms lewinsky she got a call from ms currie at about a m that day inviting her to come to the white house at about p m ms lewinsky arrived wearing a straw hat with the hat pin the president had given her and bringing gifts for him including a puzzle and a banana republic shirt she gave him the gifts in the dining room and they moved to the area of the study according to ms lewinsky the president explained that they had to end their intimate relationship earlier in his marriage he told her he had had hundreds of affairs but since turning he had made a concerted effort to be faithful he said he was attracted to ms lewinsky considered her a great person and hoped they would remain friends he pointed out that he could do a great deal for her the situation he stressed was not ms lewinsky s fault ms lewinsky weeping tried to persuade the president not to end the sexual relationship but he was unyielding then and subsequently although she and the president kissed and hugged thereafter according to ms lewinsky the sexual relationship was over three days after this meeting on may the supreme court unanimously rejected president clinton s claim that the constitution immunized him from civil lawsuits the court ordered the sexual harassment case jones v clinton to proceed viii june october continuing meetings and calls ms lewinsky tried to return to the white house staff and to revive her sexual relationship with the president but she failed at both a continuing job efforts although ms lewinsky was not offered another white house job some testimony indicates that the president tried to get her one according to betty currie the president instructed her and marsha scott to help ms lewinsky find a white house job ms currie testified that she resisted the request because her opinion of ms lewinsky had shifted over time at first she testified she considered ms lewinsky a friend who had been wronged and had been maligned improperly but l ater on i considered her as a pain in the neck more or less the change of heart resulted in part from ms currie s many phone calls in from ms lewinsky who was often distraught and sometimes in tears over her inability to get in touch with the president deeming her a little bit pushy ms currie argued against bringing ms lewinsky back to work at the white house but the president told her and ms scott in ms currie s words to still pursue her coming back indeed according to ms currie the president was pushing us hard on the matter to the best of ms currie s recollection it was the only time the president instructed her to try to get someone a white house job according to ms lewinsky the president told her to talk with ms scott about a white house job in spring on june she met with ms scott the meeting did not go as ms lewinsky anticipated she later recounted in an email message there is most certainly a disconnect on what the president said he told her and how she acted she didn t even know what my title or my job was she didn t have any job openings to offer instead she made me go over what happened when i had to leave who told me and then proceeded to confirm the evelyn lieberman story about my inappropriate behavior then she asked me with such nasty women there and people gossiping about me why did i want to come back i was so upset i really did not feel it was her place to question me about that later on i said something about being told i could come back after november and she wanted to know who told me that so i have placed a call to him but i don t know what is going to happen ms lewinsky added that she was inclined to walk away from it all but acknowledged that i m always saying this and then i change my mind though she characterized her recollection as all jumbled ms scott corroborated much of ms lewinsky s account ms scott said that at some point she did ask ms lewinsky why she wanted to return to the white house ms scott also said that she was unaware of ms lewinsky s job title before their meeting over the next three weeks ms lewinsky tried repeatedly without success to talk with the president about her job quest in a draft of a letter to ms currie she wrote that the president said to me that he had told ms scott i had gotten a bum deal and i should get a good job in the west wing but ms scott did not seem eager to arrange for ms lewinsky s return ms lewinsky wrote i was surprised that she would question his judgment and not just do what he asked of her is it possible that in fact he did not tell her that does he really not want me back in the complex he has not responded to my note nor has he called me do you know what is going on if so are you able to share it with me ms currie testified to a vague recollection of having seen this letter on june ms lewinsky wrote several notes in a draft letter to ms scott ms lewinsky wrote that our last conversation was very upsetting to me and added marsha i was told that i could come back after the election i knew why i had to leave last year by mid april and i have been beyond patient since then i do not think it is fair to be told by the person whom i was told would get me a job that there is nothing for me and she doesn t really hear about positions in the complex anyway i know that in your eyes i am just a hindrance a woman who doesn t have a certain someone s best interests at heart but please trust me when i say i do ms lewinsky also drafted a note to the president pleading for a brief meeting the following tuesday referring to her inability to get in touch with him she wrote please do not do this to me i feel disposable used and insignificant i understand your hands are tied but i want to talk to you and look at some options around this time ms lewinsky told a friend that she was considering moving to another city or country b july letter v ery frustrated over her inability to get in touch with the president to discuss her job situation ms lewinsky wrote him a peevish letter on july opening dear sir the letter took the president to task for breaking his promise to get her another white house job ms lewinsky also obliquely threatened to disclose their relationship if she was not going to return to work at the white house she wrote then she would need to explain to my parents exactly why that wasn t happening some explanation was necessary because she had told her parents that she would be brought back after the election ms lewinsky testified that she would not actually have told her father about the relationship she had already told her mother but she wanted to remind the president that she had left the white house like a good girl in april of whereas other people might have threatened disclosure in order to retain the job ms lewinsky also raised the possibility of a job outside washington if returning to the white house was impossible she asked in this letter could he get her a job at the united nations in new york it was the first time that she had told the president that she was considering moving although not questioned about this particular letter the president testified that he believed ms lewinsky might disclose their intimate relationship once he stopped it he testified after i terminated the improper contact with her she wanted to come in more than she did she got angry when she didn t get in sometimes i knew that that might make her more likely to speak and i still did it because i had to limit the contact after receiving the july letter though the president agreed to see ms lewinsky in her account ms currie called that afternoon and told her to come to the white house at a m the next day c july meeting on friday july ms lewinsky had what she characterized as a very emotional visit with the president records show that ms lewinsky entered the white house at a m no exit time is recorded logs indicate that the president was in the oval office from until after a m in ms lewinsky s recollection their meeting began contentiously with the president scolding her i t s illegal to threaten the president of the united states he then told her that he had not read her july letter beyond the dear sir line he surmised that it was threatening because ms currie looked upset when she brought it to him ms lewinsky suspected that he actually had read the whole thing ms lewinsky complained about his failure to get her a white house job after her long wait although the president claimed he wanted to be her friend she said he was not acting like it ms lewinsky began weeping and the president hugged her while they hugged she spotted a gardener outside the study window and they moved into the hallway by the bathroom there the president was the most affectionate with me he d ever been ms lewinsky testified he stroked her arm toyed with her hair kissed her on the neck praised her intellect and beauty in ms lewinsky s recollection h e remarked that he wished he had more time for me and so i said well maybe you will have more time in three years and i was thinking just when he wasn t president he was going to have more time on his hands and he said well i don t know i might be alone in three years and then i said something about us sort of being together i think i kind of said oh i think we d be a good team or something like that and he jokingly said well what are we going to do when i m and i have to pee times a day and i told him that we d deal with that ms lewinsky testified that i left that day sort of emotionally stunned for i just knew he was in love with me just before leaving according to ms lewinsky she told the president that i wanted to talk to him about something serious and that while i didn t want to be the one to talk about this with him i thought it was important he know she informed him that newsweek was working on an article about kathleen willey a former white house volunteer who claimed that the president had sexually harassed her during a private meeting in the oval office on november ms lewinsky knew of the article from ms tripp who had worked at the white house at the time of the alleged incident and had heard about the incident from ms willey michael isikoff of newsweek had talked with ms tripp about the episode in march and again shortly before july and ms tripp had subsequently related the isikoff conversations to ms lewinsky ms lewinsky told the president what she had learned from ms tripp whom she did not name including the fact that ms tripp had tried to get in touch with deputy white house counsel bruce lindsey who had not returned her calls ms lewinsky testified about why she conveyed this information to the president i was concerned that the president had no idea this was going on and that this woman was going to be another paula jones and he didn t really need that she understood that ms willey was looking for a job and she thought that the president might be able to make this go away by finding her a job the president responded that the harassment allegation was ludicrous because he would never approach a small breasted woman like ms willey he further said that during the previous week ms willey had called nancy hernreich to warn that a reporter was working on a story about ms willey and the president ms willey wondered how she could get out of it according to ms lewinsky the president had no telephone calls during her time with him at a m probably after her departure her exit time is not shown on logs he placed two calls both potentially follow ups to the conversation about the newsweek article first he spoke with bruce lindsey for three minutes then with nancy hernreich for minutes d july discussions of linda tripp on the evening of monday july just after ms lewinsky had returned from an overseas trip the president had her come to the white house to discuss linda tripp and newsweek ms lewinsky entered the white house at p m and exited at p m the president was in the oval office area from to p m ms lewinsky testified that at around p m that evening ms currie telephoned and said that the president wanted to talk to her or see her at about or p m ms currie called again and asked ms lewinsky to come to the white house ms lewinsky testified that the president met her in ms currie s office then took her into ms hernreich s office records show that seven minutes after ms lewinsky s entry to the white house complex the president left the oval office for the appointment secretary s office according to ms lewinsky it was an unusual meeting it was very distant and very cold a t one point he asked me if the woman that i had mentioned on july th was linda tripp and i hesitated and then answered yes and he talked about that there was some issue to do with kathleen willey and that as he called it that there was something on the sludge report that there had been some information the president told ms lewinsky that ms willey had called the white house again this time to report that mr isikoff somehow knew of her earlier white house call the president wondered if ms lewinsky had mentioned the willey call to ms tripp who in turn might have told mr isikoff ms lewinsky acknowledged that she had done so ms lewinsky testified h e was concerned about linda and i reassured him he asked me if i trusted her and i said yes the president asked ms lewinsky to try to persuade ms tripp to call mr lindsey the president according to ms lewinsky also asked if she had confided anything about their relationship to ms tripp ms lewinsky said falsely that she had not the president left to participate in a conference call which ms lewinsky understood was with his attorneys while ms lewinsky sat with ms currie according to white house records at p m the president participated in a minute conference call with robert bennett his private attorney in the jones case and charles ruff white house counsel immediately after completing that call the president had a six minute phone conversation with bruce lindsey afterward the president returned and told ms lewinsky in her recollection to notify ms currie the following day without getting into details with her even mentioning names with her whether ms lewinsky had mission accomplished with linda the next day according to ms lewinsky she did talk with ms tripp then called ms currie and said she needed to talk with the president he called her that evening she told him that i had tried to talk to linda and that she didn t seem very receptive to trying to get in touch with bruce lindsey again but that i would continue to try the president was in a sour mood according to ms lewinsky and their conversation was brief e july meeting with marsha scott on july ms lewinsky met again with ms scott about returning to the white house ms scott said she would try to detail ms lewinsky from the pentagon to ms scott s office on a temporary basis according to ms lewinsky in that way ms scott said ms lewinsky could prove herself ms scott also said that they had to be careful and protect the president both ms scott and ms currie confirmed that ms scott talked with ms lewinsky about the possibility of being detailed to work at the white house ms scott testified that she tried to arrange the detail on her own without any direction from the president ms currie however testified that the president instructed her and ms scott to try to get ms lewinsky a job f july meeting on thursday july the day after her th birthday ms lewinsky visited the white house from to p m admitted by ms currie the president was in the oval office when she arrived he moved to the study at p m and remained there until her departure he had no telephone calls during ms lewinsky s visit according to ms lewinsky she went to the white house to pick up a photograph from ms currie who said the president might be available for a quick meeting ms currie put ms lewinsky in the cabinet room while the president finished another meeting then took her to see him they chatted for five to ten minutes and the president gave ms lewinsky as a birthday present an antique pin g newsweek article and its aftermath newsweek published the kathleen willey story in its august edition which appeared a week before the cover date the article quoted ms tripp as saying that ms willey after leaving the oval office on the day of the president s alleged advances looked disheveled flustered happy and joyful the article also quoted robert bennett as saying that ms tripp was not to be believed after the article appeared ms tripp wrote a letter to newsweek charging that she had been misquoted but the magazine did not publish it ms lewinsky subsequently told the president about ms tripp s letter he replied ms lewinsky said in a recorded conversation well that s good because it sure seemed like she screwed me from that article h august meeting on saturday august ms lewinsky tried unsuccessfully to resume her sexual relationship with the president she visited the white house on that day from to a m the president moved from the residence to the oval office at a m and remained in the oval office until a m after a one minute call to betty currie at her desk at a m evidently from the residence the president had no calls while ms lewinsky was at the white house the next day he left for a vacation on martha s vineyard ms lewinsky testified that she brought birthday gifts for the president his birthday is august i had set up in his back office i had brought an apple square and put a candle and had put his birthday presents out and after he came back in and i sang happy birthday and he got his presents i asked him if we could share a birthday kiss in honor of our birthdays because mine had been just a few weeks before so he said that that was okay and we could kind of bend the rules that day and so we kissed ms lewinsky touched the president s genitals through his pants and moved to perform oral sex but the president rebuffed her in her recollection h e said i m trying not to do this and i m trying to be good h e got visibly upset and so i hugged him and i told him i was sorry and not to be upset later in a draft note to handsome ms lewinsky referred to this visit it was awful when i saw you for your birthday in august you were so distant that i missed you as i was holding you in my arms i continuing job efforts ms lewinsky and ms scott talked by phone on september for minutes according to notes that ms lewinsky wrote to two friends ms scott told her that the detail slot in her office had been eliminated ms lewinsky told one friend so for now there isn t any place for me to be detailed so i should be patient i told her i was very upset and disappointed even though i really didn t want to work for her and then she and i got into it she didn t understand why i wanted to come back when there were still people there who would give me a hard time and that it isn t the right political climate for me to come back she asked me why i kept pushing the envelope on coming back there after all i had the experience of being there already so it s over i don t know what i will do now but i can t wait any more and i can t go through all of this crap anymore in some ways i hope i never hear from him again because he ll just lead me on because he doesn t have the balls to tell me the truth ms scott testified that t he gist of ms lewinsky s email message describing the conversation fits with what i remember telling her ms lewinsky expressed her escalating frustration in a note to the president that she drafted but did not send she wrote i believe the time has finally come for me to throw in the towel my conversation with marsha left me disappointed frustrated sad and angry i can t help but wonder if you knew she wouldn t be able to detail me over there when i last saw you maybe that would explain your coldness the only explanation i can reason for your not bringing me back is that you just plain didn t want to enough or care about me enough ms lewinsky went on to discuss other women rumored to be involved with the president who enjoy golden positions above criticism because they have your approval she continued i just loved you wanted to spend time with you kiss you listen to you laugh and i wanted you to love me back she closed as i said in my last letter to you i ve waited long enough you and marsha win i give up you let me down but i shouldn t have trusted you in the first place ms lewinsky continued trying to discuss her situation with the president on friday september she arrived at the white house without an appointment called ms currie and had a long wait at the gate when ms currie came to meet her ms lewinsky was crying ms currie explained that sometimes the president s hands are tied but she said she had gotten his authorization to ask john podesta the deputy chief of staff to help ms lewinsky return to work at the white house j black dog gifts before the president had left for vacation ms lewinsky had sent a note asking if he could bring her a t shirt from the black dog a popular vineyard restaurant in early september ms currie gave several black dog items to ms lewinsky in an email message to catherine davis ms lewinsky wrote well i found out from betty yesterday that he not only brought me a t shirt he got me t shirts a hat and a dress even though he s a big schmuck that is surprisingly sweet even that he remembered k lucy mercer letter and involvement of chief of staff a letter dated september styled as an official memo was found in ms lewinsky s apartment according to ms lewinsky she sent this letter or a similar one to the president addressed to handsome and bearing the subject line the new deal the faux memo proposed a visit that evening after everyone else goes home ms lewinsky wrote you will show me that you will let me visit you sans a crisis and i will be on my best behavior and not stressed out when i come to see you that is she closed with an allusion to a woman rumored to have been involved with an earlier president oh and handsome remember fdr would never have turned down a visit with lucy mercer ms lewinsky did not visit the white house the night of september but the president called her late the night of september or october according to ms lewinsky he may have mentioned during this call that he would get erskine bowles to help her find a white house job at around this time the president did ask the white house chief of staff to help in the job search mr bowles testified about a conversation with the president in the oval office he told me that there was a young woman her name was monica lewinsky who used to work at the white house that evelyn thought she hung around the oval office too much and transferred her to the pentagon the president asked mr bowles to try to find ms lewinsky a job in the old executive office building mr bowles assigned his deputy john podesta to handle it l news of job search failure on october according to ms lewinsky she was told that she would never work at the white house again ms tripp conveyed the news which she indicated had come from a friend on the white house staff ms lewinsky testified linda tripp called me at work on october th and told me that her friend kate in the nsc had heard rumors about me and that i would never work in the white house again kate s advice to me was get out of town for ms lewinsky who had previously considered moving to new york this call was the straw that broke the camel s back she was enraged in a note she drafted but did not send ms lewinsky expressed her frustration she wrote any normal person would have walked away from this and said he doesn t call me he doesn t want to see me screw it it doesn t matter i can t let go of you i want to be a source of pleasure and laughter and energy to you i want to make you smile she went on to relate that she had heard second hand from a white house employee that i was after the president and would never be allowed to work in the complex ms lewinsky said she could only conclude that all you have promised me is an empty promise i am once again totally humiliated it is very clear that there is no way i am going to be brought back she closed the note i will never do anything to hurt you i am simply not that kind of person moreover i love you when terminating their sexual relationship on may the president had told ms lewinsky that he hoped they would remain friends for he could do a great deal for her now having learned that he could not or would not get her a white house job ms lewinsky decided to ask him for a job in new york perhaps at the united nations a possibility that she had mentioned to him in passing over the summer on the afternoon of october ms lewinsky spoke of this plan to ms currie who quoted the president as having said earlier oh that s no problem we can place her in the un like that in a recorded conversation later on october ms lewinsky said she wanted two things from the president the first was contrition he needed to acknowledge that he helped fuck up my life the second was a job one that she could obtain without much effort i don t want to have to work for this position i just want it to be given to me ms lewinsky decided to write the president a note proposing that the two of them get together and work on some way that i can come out of this situation not feeling the way i do after composing the letter she said i want him to feel a little guilty and i hope that this letter did that in this letter which was sent via courier on october ms lewinsky said she understood that she would never be given a white house job and she asked for a prompt meeting to discuss her job situation she went on to advance a specific request i d like to ask you to help me secure a position in ny beginning december i would be very grateful and i am hoping this is a solution for both of us i want you to know that it has always been and remains more important to me to have you in my life than to come back please don t let me down ix october november united nations job offer having learned that she would not be able to return to the white house ms lewinsky sought the president s help in finding a job in new york city the president offered to place her at the united nations after initial enthusiasm ms lewinsky cooled on the idea of working at the u n and she prodded the president to get her a job in the private sector a october telephone conversation according to ms lewinsky the president telephoned her at approximately to a m on friday october they spent much of the hour and a half call arguing h e got so mad at me he must have been purple she later recalled according to ms lewinsky the president said if i had known what kind of person you really were i wouldn t have gotten involved with you he reminded ms lewinsky that she had earlier promised i f you just want to stop doing this i ll be no trouble ms lewinsky said she challenged the president t ell me when i ve caused you trouble the president responded i ve never worried about you i ve never been worried you would do something to hurt me when the conversation shifted to her job search ms lewinsky complained that the president had not done enough to help her he responded that on the contrary he was eager to help the president said that he regretted ms lewinsky s transfer to the pentagon and assured her that he would not have permitted it had he foreseen the difficulty in returning her to the white house ms lewinsky told him that she wanted a job in new york by the end of october and the president promised to do what he could b october meeting at approximately a m on saturday october according to ms lewinsky ms currie called and told her that the president wished to see her ms lewinsky entered the white house at a m and departed at a m the president entered the oval office at a m ms lewinsky met with the president in the study and they discussed her job search ms lewinsky told the president that she wanted to pursue jobs in the private sector and he told her to prepare a list of new york companies that interested her ms lewinsky asked the president whether vernon jordan a well known washington attorney who she knew was a close friend of the president and had many business contacts might help her find a job according to ms lewinsky the president was receptive to the idea in a recorded conversation ms lewinsky said that at the end of the october meeting she and the president joined ms currie in the oval office the president grabbed ms lewinsky s arm and kissed her on the forehead he told her i talked to erskine bowles about trying to get john hilley to give you a good recommendation for your work here later ms lewinsky and ms tripp discussed their concerns about the president s involvement in ms lewinsky s job search specifically ms lewinsky was nervous about involving the president s chief of staff ms lewinsky well see i don t really think i m going to tell him that i don t think erskine should have anything to do with this i don t think anybody who works there should ms tripp i don t see how that s how that s a problem ms lewinsky because look at what happened with webb hubbell ms lewinsky preferred that vernon jordan assist her in her job search ms tripp well i don t remember during the webb hubbell thing was vernon mentioned ms lewinsky yeah but there s a big difference i think somebody could construe okay somebody could construe or say well they gave her a job to shut her up they made her happy and he mr bowles works for the government and shouldn t have done that and with the other one mr jordan you can t say that c october the wish list on october ms lewinsky sent the president a packet which included what she called a wish list describing the types of jobs that interested her in new york city the note began my dream had been to work in communications or strategic planning at the white house i am open to any suggestions that you may have on work that is similar to that or may intrigue me the most important things to me are that i am engaged and interested in my work i am not someone s administrative executive assistant and my salary can provide me a comfortable living in ny she identified five public relations firms where she would like to work ms lewinsky concluded by saying of the united nations i do not have any interest in working there as a result of what happened in april i have already spent a year and a half at an agency in which i have no interest i want a job where i feel challenged engaged and interested i don t think the un is the right place for me in a recorded conversation ms lewinsky said she wanted the president to take her list seriously and not ask her to settle for a u n job she said she hoped that if he starts to pick a bone with me and the u n he sure as hell doesn t do it on the phone i don t want to start getting into a screaming match with him on the phone in addition to the wish list ms lewinsky said she enclosed in the packet a pair of sunglasses and a lot of things in a little envelope including some jokes a card and a postcard she said that she had written on the card wasn t i right that my hugs are better in person than in cards the postcard featured a very erotic egon schiele painting ms lewinsky also enclosed a note with her thoughts on education reform ms lewinsky testified that she felt that the president owed her a job for several reasons her relationship with him was the reason she had been transferred out of the white house he had promised her a job and so far had done nothing to help her find one and she had left the white house quietly without making an issue of her relationship with the president d the president creates options at some point around this time in the fall of ms currie asked john podesta the deputy chief of staff to help ms lewinsky find a job in new york mr podesta testified that during a presidential trip to latin america he approached then u n ambassador william richardson while aboard air force one and asked the ambassador to consider a former white house intern for a position at the u n at the time mr podesta could not recall the intern s name ambassador richardson and the president both testified that they never discussed ms lewinsky with each other ambassador richardson returned from latin america on sunday october within a few days his executive assistant isabelle watkins called mr podesta s secretary and asked whether she knew anything about a resume that john was going to send us mr podesta s secretary knew nothing about it and asked mr podesta what to do he instructed her to call ms currie at p m on october ms currie faxed ms lewinsky s resume to the united nations at p m a six minute call was placed to ms lewinsky s apartment from a u n telephone number identified in state department records as ambassador richardson s line ms lewinsky testified that she spoke to ambassador richardson a woman called ms lewinsky testified and said h old for ambassador richardson then the ambassador himself came on the line i remember because i was shocked and i was very nervous the purpose of the call was to schedule a job interview at a watergate apartment the following week at odds with ms lewinsky the ambassador and ms watkins both testified that ms watkins not the ambassador spoke with ms lewinsky a few days later according to ms lewinsky the president called her she had been upset because no one at the white house had prepared her for the ambassador s recent call and because she did not want the white house to railroad her into taking the u n job she reiterated that she was eager to pursue other opportunities especially in the private sector the president reassured her promising that a u n position was just one of many options ms lewinsky spoke to the president again one week later ms lewinsky testified that she told ms currie to ask the president to call her to assuage her nervousness before the u n interview according to ms lewinsky on october the night before the interview the president did call she characterized the conversation as a pep talk h e was trying to kind of build my confidence and reassure me the president told her to call ms currie after the interview in his jones deposition the president indicated that he learned of her interview with ambassador richardson not from ms lewinsky herself but from ms currie e the u n interview and job offer on friday morning october ambassador richardson and two of his assistants mona sutphen and rebecca cooper interviewed ms lewinsky at the watergate according to ambassador richardson he listen ed while mona and rebecca were interviewing her neither ambassador richardson nor any of his staff made inquiries before or after the interview about ms lewinsky s prior work performance on sunday november ms lewinsky drafted a letter to ms currie asking what to do in the event she received an offer from the u n she wrote i became a bit nervous this weekend when i realized that amb richardson said his staff would be in touch with me this week as you know the un is supposed to be my back up but because vj vernon jordan has been out of town this is my only option right now what should i say to richardson s people this week when they call ms lewinsky asked ms currie to speak to the president about her problem if you feel it s appropriate maybe you could ask the big guy what he wants me to do ahhhhh anxiety ms lewinsky also mentioned the president s promise to involve vernon jordan in her job search i don t think i told you that in my conversation last thursday night with him that he said that he would ask you to set up a meeting between vj and myself once vj got back i assume he ll mention this to you at some point hopefully sooner rather than later before ms lewinsky sent this letter in her recollection she received an offer from the u n phone records reflect that at a m on november a three minute call was placed to ms lewinsky from the u n line identified in state department records as ambassador richardson s ms lewinsky stated that she believes she spoke to ambassador richardson who extended her a job offer according to his assistant ambassador richardson made the decision to hire ms lewinsky ms sutphen testified i said are you sure and he said yeah yeah i m sure why and i said are you sure though you don t want to talk to anyone else and he said no no i think it s fine why don t you go ahead and give her an offer ambassador richardson and ms sutphen both testified that ms sutphen not the ambassador extended the job offer to ms lewinsky they recalled that the offer was made a week or days after the interview though ms sutphen when shown the phone records testified that the november call to ms lewinsky probably was the job offer ms lewinsky testified that she told ms currie about the offer and she probably also told the president directly ms currie first testified that she had probably told the president about ms lewinsky s u n offer then testified that she had in fact told him then testified that she could not remember though she acknowledged that the president was interested in ms lewinsky s getting a job when the president was asked in the jones deposition whether he knew that ms lewinsky had received the offer of a job at the u n he testified i know that she interviewed for one i don t know if she was offered one or not f the u n job offer declined three weeks after she received an offer on november ms lewinsky called ms sutphen and asked for more time to consider the offer because she wanted to pursue possibilities in the private sector ms sutphen told ambassador richardson who according to ms sutphen said the delay would be fine over a month later on january ms lewinsky finally turned down the job x november growing frustration ms lewinsky met with vernon jordan who promised to help her find a job in new york november proved however to be a month of inactivity with respect to both ms lewinsky s job search and her relationship with the president mr jordan did not meet with ms lewinsky again nor did he contact anyone in new york city on her behalf ms lewinsky became increasingly anxious about her inability to see the president except for a momentary encounter in mid november ms lewinsky did not meet with the president between october and december a interrogatories answered on november the president answered paula jones s second set of interrogatories two of those interrogatories asked the president to list any woman other than his wife with whom he had had proposed having or sought to have sexual relations during the time that he was attorney general of arkansas governor of arkansas and president of the united states president clinton objected to the scope and relevance of both interrogatories and refused to answer them b first vernon jordan meeting in mid october the president had agreed to involve vernon jordan in ms lewinsky s job search in a draft letter to ms currie dated november ms lewinsky wrote that the president had said he would ask you to set up a meeting between vj and myself according to ms lewinsky on november or november ms currie told her to call vernon jordan s secretary to arrange a meeting ms currie said she had spoken with mr jordan and he was expecting ms lewinsky s call in ms lewinsky s account ms currie sought mr jordan s aid at the president s direction mr jordan likewise testified that in his understanding the president was behind ms currie s request ms currie testified at various points that she contacted mr jordan on her own initiative that the president probably talked with her about ms lewinsky s new york job hunt and that she could not recall whether the president was involved in his jones deposition the president was asked whether he did anything to facilitate a meeting between mr jordan and ms lewinsky he testified i can tell you what my memory is my memory is that vernon said something to me about her coming in betty had called and asked if he mr jordan would see her ms lewinsky i m sure if he said something to me about it i said something positive about it i wouldn t have said anything negative about it when pressed the president testified that he did not think that he was the precipitating force in arranging the meeting between mr jordan and ms lewinsky at a m on november mr jordan spoke with the president by telephone for five minutes later that morning mr jordan and ms lewinsky met in his office for about twenty minutes she told him that she intended to move to new york and she named several companies where she hoped to work she showed him the wish list that she had sent the president on october mr jordan said that he had spoken with the president about her and that she came highly recommended concerning her job search mr jordan said we re in business in the course of the day mr jordan placed four calls to ms hernreich whom he acknowledged calling when he wished to speak to the president and one to ms currie mr jordan testified that he could not remember the calls but i t is entirely possible that they concerned monica lewinsky mr jordan also visited the white house and met with the president at p m that day again mr jordan testified that he had no recollection of the substance of his conversation with the president on november the day after meeting with mr jordan ms lewinsky wrote him a thank you letter it made me happy to know that our friend has such a wonderful confidant in you also on november ms lewinsky wrote in an email to a friend that she expected to hear from mr jordan later next week the evidence indicates though that mr jordan took no steps to help ms lewinsky until early december after she appeared on the witness list in the jones case mr jordan initially testified that he had no recollection of having met with ms lewinsky on november when shown documentary evidence demonstrating that his first meeting with ms lewinsky occurred in early november he acknowledged that an early november meeting was entirely possible mr jordan s failure to remember his november meeting with ms lewinsky may indicate the low priority he attached to it at the time c november the zedillo visit on thursday november while ernesto zedillo the president of mexico was in the white house ms lewinsky met very briefly with president clinton in the private study ms lewinsky s visit which she described in an email as a hysterical escapade was the culmination of days of phone calls and notes to ms currie and the president over the course of the week that preceded november ms lewinsky made several attempts to arrange a visit with the president on monday november in addition to making frequent calls to ms currie she sent the president a note asking for a meeting she hoped to see him on tuesday november veterans day but he did not respond by courier she sent the president another note i asked you three weeks ago to please be sensitive to what i am going through right now and to keep in contact with me and yet i m still left writing notes in vain i am not a moron i know that what is going on in the world takes precedence but i don t think what i have asked you for is unreasonable she added this is so hard for me i am trying to deal with so much emotionally and i have nobody to talk to about it i need you right now not as president but as a man please be my friend that evening november according to ms lewinsky the president called and invited her to the white house the following day in an email to a friend ms lewinsky wrote that she and the president talked for almost an hour she added h e thought n ancy hernreich one of the meanies would be out for a few hours on thursday and i could come see him then the following morning november ms lewinsky tried to arrange a visit with the president she called repeatedly but suspected that ms currie was not telling the president of her calls around noon ms currie told ms lewinsky that the president had left to play golf ms lewinsky in her own words went ballistic after the president returned from the army navy golf course in the late afternoon ms lewinsky told ms currie that she was coming to the white house to give him some gifts ms currie suggested that ms lewinsky wait in ms currie s car in the white house parking lot ms lewinsky went to the white house only to find that the doors to ms currie s car were locked ms lewinsky waited in the rain ms currie eventually met her in the parking lot and in ms lewinsky s words they made a bee line into the white house sneaking up the back stairs to avoid other white house employees particularly presidential aide stephen goodin ms lewinsky left two small gifts for the president with ms currie then waited alone for about half an hour in the oval office study in the study ms lewinsky saw several gifts she had given the president including oy vey the things they say a guide to jewish wit nicholson baker s novel vox and a letter opener decorated with a frog the president finally joined ms lewinsky in the study where they were alone for only a minute or two ms lewinsky gave him an antique paperweight in the shape of the white house she also showed him an email describing the effect of chewing altoid mints before performing oral sex ms lewinsky was chewing altoids at the time but the president replied that he did not have enough time for oral sex they kissed and the president rushed off for a state dinner with president zedillo d november december inability to see the president after this brief november meeting ms lewinsky did not see the president again until the first week in december hoping to arrange a longer rendezvous she sent the president several notes as well as a cassette on which she recorded a message along with her chagrin over not seeing the president ms lewinsky was frustrated that her job search had apparently stalled a few days before thanksgiving she complained to ms currie that she had not heard from mr jordan ms currie arranged for her to speak with him before thanksgiving while ms lewinsky was in los angeles mr jordan told her to call him the following week to arrange another meeting in draft letters to the president which were recovered from her pentagon computer ms lewinsky reflected on the change in their relationship b oth professionally and personally our personal relationship changing has caused me more pain do you realize that she asked for the president s understanding i don t want you to think that i am not grateful for what you are doing for me now i d probably be in a mental institute without it but i am consumed with this disappointment frustration and anger ms lewinsky rued the brevity of her november visit with the president all you ever have to do to pacify me is see me and hold me she wrote maybe that s asking too much xi december the witness list and job search on friday december paula jones s attorneys faxed a list of their potential witnesses including ms lewinsky to the president s personal attorneys the following day president clinton saw ms lewinsky in an unscheduled visit and then discussed the jones case with his attorneys and deputy white house counsel bruce lindsey a few days later ms lewinsky met with mr jordan at his office and he arranged interviews for ms lewinsky at three companies in the middle of the night on december the president called and informed ms lewinsky that she was on the witness list and that she might have to testify under oath in the jones case a december the witness list on friday december attorneys for paula jones identified ms lewinsky as a potential witness in ms jones s sexual harassment case at p m they faxed their witness list to the president s attorney robert bennett ms lewinsky however would not learn of her potential involvement in the jones case for twelve more days when the president informed her president clinton was asked in the grand jury when he learned that ms lewinsky s name was on the witness list the president responded i believe that i found out late in the afternoon on the sixth b december christmas party at the white house on friday december ms lewinsky returned from department of defense travel in europe she asked ms currie if the president could see her the next day but ms currie said he was busy meeting with his lawyers in the late afternoon she attended a christmas party at the white house with a defense department colleague ms lewinsky exchanged a few words with the president in the reception line the christmas reception encounter heightened ms lewinsky s frustration on the evening of december she drafted an anguished letter to the president y ou want me out of your life she wrote i guess the signs have been made clear for awhile not wanting to see me and rarely calling i used to think it was you putting up walls she had purchased several gifts for him and she wrote i wanted to give them to you in person but that is obviously not going to happen ms lewinsky reminded the president of his words during their october telephone argument i will never forget what you said that night we fought on the phone if you had known what i was really like you would never have gotten involved with me i m sure you re not the first person to have felt that way about me i am sorry that this has been such a bad experience she concluded the letter i knew it would hurt to say goodbye to you i just never thought it would have to be on paper take care c december the northwest gate incident initial visit and rejection on the morning of saturday december ms lewinsky went to the white house to deliver the letter and gifts to the president the gifts included a sterling silver antique cigar holder a tie a mug a hugs and kisses box and an antique book about theodore roosevelt ms lewinsky planned to leave the parcel with ms currie who had told ms lewinsky that the president would be busy with his lawyers and unable to see her ms lewinsky arrived at the white house at approximately a m she told the secret service uniformed officers at the northwest gate that she had gifts to drop off for the president but that ms currie did not know she was coming ms lewinsky and the officers made several calls in an attempt to locate ms currie the officers eventually invited ms lewinsky inside the guard booth when ms currie learned that ms lewinsky was at the northwest gate she sent word that the president already had a guest in the o val so the officers should have ms lewinsky wait there for about minutes while ms lewinsky was waiting one officer mentioned that eleanor mondale was in the white house ms lewinsky correctly surmised that the president was meeting with ms mondale rather than his lawyers and she was livid she stormed away called and berated ms currie from a pay phone and then returned to her watergate apartment hands shaking and almost crying ms currie informed several secret service officers that the president was irate that someone had disclosed to ms lewinsky whom he was meeting with ms currie told sergeant keith williams a supervisory uniformed secret service officer that if he didn t find out what was going on someone could be fired she also told captain jeffrey purdie the secret service watch commander for the uniformed division at the time that the president was so upset he wants somebody fired over this ms lewinsky returns to the white house from her apartment ms lewinsky reached the president on the phone according to ms lewinsky the president was angry that she had made a stink and said that it was none of my business what he was doing then to ms lewinsky s surprise the president invited her to visit him she testified that none of the other times that we had really fought on the phone did it end up resulting in a visit that day waves records reflect that ms lewinsky was cleared to enter the white house at p m and exited at p m during their meeting ms lewinsky told the president that mr jordan had done nothing to help her find a job the president responded oh i ll talk to him i ll get on it ms lewinsky testified that overall she had a really nice and affectionate visit with the president in an email to a friend a few days later she wrote that although things have been crazy with the creep i did have a wonderful visit with him on saturday when he doesn t put his walls up it is always heavenly whatever just happened didn t happen later that day december the uniformed secret service officers at the northwest gate were told that no one would be fired so long as they remained quiet according to sergeant williams ms currie said that if the officers did not tell a lot of people what had happened then nothing would happen the president told captain jeffrey purdie the secret service watch commander for the uniformed division at the time i hope you use your discretion captain purdie interpreted the president s remark to mean that captain purdie wasn t going to say anything and he in turn told all of the officers involved not to discuss the incident one officer recalled that captain purdie told him and other officers whatever just happened didn t happen captain purdie told another officer i was just in the oval office with the president and he wants somebody s ass out here as far as you re concerned t his never happened in response that officer who considered the northwest gate incident a major event just shook his head and started making a set of his own notes in order to document the incident captain purdie recommended to his supervisor deputy chief charles o malley that no paperwork be generated regarding the northwest gate incident because ms currie was satisfied with the way things were handled according to captain purdie deputy chief o malley agreed and no record of the incident was made deputy chief o malley testified that the meeting between the president and captain purdie was the only occasion he could recall in fourteen years at the white house where a president directly addressed a job performance issue with a uniformed division supervisor the president was questioned in the grand jury about the incident at the northwest gate he testified that he knew that ms lewinsky had become upset upon learning that ms mondale was in the white house to see us that day he testified as i remember i had some other work to do that morning the president said that the disclosure of information that day was inappropriate and a mistake but he could not recall whether he wanted a secret service officer fired or gave any such orders he thought that the officers were told not to let it happen again and i think that s the way it should have been handled when asked if he told captain purdie that he hoped that he could count on his discretion the president stated i don t remember anything i said to him in that regard according to ms lewinsky the president later indicated to her that he had concerns about the discretion of the secret service uniformed officers on december she asked how paula jones s attorneys could have known enough to place her on the witness list the president replied that the source might be linda tripp or the uniformed officers d the president confers with his lawyers deputy counsel bruce lindsey testified that he met with the president and the president s personal attorney robert bennett at around p m on december to discuss the jones case according to mr lindsey it was likely that he learned about ms lewinsky s appearance on the witness list in that meeting earlier in the day at around p m after ms lewinsky stormed away from the northwest gate but before she returned and saw the president mr lindsey had received a page call betty asap mr lindsey testified that he did not recall the page nor did he know at the time that ms lewinsky had visited the white house e second jordan meeting the next day sunday december mr jordan visited the white house and met with the president mr jordan testified that he was fairly certain that he did not discuss the jones suit or ms lewinsky on thursday december ms lewinsky had her second meeting with mr jordan ms lewinsky testified that they discussed her job search and mr jordan told her to send letters to three business contacts that he provided her mr jordan noted that ms lewinsky was anxious to get a job as quickly as possible and he took action in the course of the day mr jordan placed calls on her behalf to peter georgescu chairman and chief executive officer at young rubicam richard halperin executive vice president and special counsel to the chairman of macandrews forbes holdings inc majority stockholder of revlon and ursula fairbairn executive vice president human resources and quality of american express mr jordan told ms lewinsky to keep him informed of the progress of her job search at one point in the conversation according to ms lewinsky mr jordan said y ou re a friend of the president this prompted ms lewinsky to reveal that she didn t really look at him as the president rather she reacted to him more as a man and got angry at him like a man and just a regular person when mr jordan asked why ms lewinsky got angry at the president she replied that she became upset when he doesn t call me enough or see me enough ms lewinsky testified that mr jordan advised her to take her frustrations out on him rather than the president according to ms lewinsky mr jordan summed up the situation you re in love that s what your problem is mr jordan recalled a similar conversation in which ms lewinsky complained that the president did not see her enough although he thought it took place during a meeting eight days later he testified that he felt the need to remind ms lewinsky that the president is the leader of the free world and has competing obligations mr jordan is certain that he had a conversation with the president about ms lewinsky at some point after this december meeting he told the president that he would be trying to get ms lewinsky a job in new york mr jordan testified that the president was aware that people were trying to get jobs for her that podesta was trying to help her that bill richardson was trying to help her but that she really wanted to work in the private sector f early morning phone call on december paula jones s lawyers served president clinton with her second set of document requests by overnight mail these requests asked the president to produce documents that related to communications between the president and monica lewisky sic this was the first paula jones discovery request to refer to monica lewinsky by name ms lewinsky testified that in the early morning hours of december at roughly or a m she received a call from the president the call lasted about half an hour the president gave ms lewinsky two items of news ms currie s brother had died in a car accident and ms lewinsky s name had appeared on the witness list in the jones case according to ms lewinsky the president said it broke his heart to see her name on the witness list the president told her that she would not necessarily be subpoenaed if she were he suggested she could sign an affidavit to try to satisfy ms jones s inquiry and not be deposed the president told ms lewinsky to contact ms currie in the event she were subpoenaed he also reviewed one of their established cover stories he told ms lewinsky that she should say she visited the white house to see ms currie and on occasion when working at the white house she brought him letters when no one else was around the president s advice was instantly familiar to ms lewinsky she testified that the president s use of this misleading story amounted to a continuation of their pre existing pattern later in the conversation according to ms lewinsky the president said he would try to get ms currie to come in over the weekend so that ms lewinsky could visit and he could give her several christmas presents ms lewinsky replied that since ms currie s brother had just died perhaps they should let betty be in his grand jury appearance the president was questioned about the december phone call he testified that although he could not rule it out he did not remember such a call the president was also asked whether in this conversation or a conversation before ms lewinsky s name came up in the jones case he instructed her to say that she was coming to bring letters the president answered i might well have said that but when asked whether he ever said anything along these lines after ms lewinsky had been identified on the witness list the president answered i don t recall whether i might have done something like that he speculated that he might have suggested this explanation in the context of a call from a reporter nonetheless he testified in the context of the jones case i never asked her to lie g job interviews on december ms lewinsky had two job interviews in new york city at macandrews forbes she met with executive vice president and special counsel to the chairman richard halperin who viewed the interview as an accommodation for vernon jordan at burson marstellar she interviewed with celia berk managing director of human resources a few days later on december ms lewinsky interviewed in washington d c with thomas schick executive vice president corporate affairs and communications of american express xii december january the subpoena ms lewinsky was served with a subpoena in the jones case on friday december she immediately called mr jordan and he invited her to his office mr jordan spoke with the president that afternoon and again that evening he told the president that he had met with ms lewinsky that she had been subpoenaed and that he planned to obtain an attorney for her on sunday december the president met with ms lewinsky who expressed concern about the subpoena s demand for the gifts he had given her later that day ms currie drove to ms lewinsky s apartment and collected a box containing some of the subpoenaed gifts ms currie took the box home and hid it under her bed a december ms lewinsky is subpoenaed on friday december sometime between p m and p m ms lewinsky was served with a subpoena at her pentagon office the subpoena commanded her to appear for a deposition in washington d c at a m on january the subpoena also required the production of certain documents and gifts among the items that ms lewinsky was required to produce were each and every gift including but not limited to any and all dresses accessories and jewelry and or hat pins given to you by or on behalf of defendant clinton as well as e very document constituting or containing communications between you and defendant clinton including letters cards notes memoranda and all telephone records ms lewinsky testified that after being served with the subpoena she burst into tears and then telephoned mr jordan from a pay phone at the pentagon mr jordan confirmed ms lewinsky s account he said he tried to reassure ms lewinsky c ome and talk to me and i will see what i can do about finding you counsel according to records maintained by mr jordan s law firm ms lewinsky arrived at his office at p m white house phone records show that at p m the president telephoned mr jordan the two men spoke from p m to p m at p m mr jordan placed a two minute call to a washington d c attorney named francis carter ms lewinsky and mr jordan gave somewhat different accounts of their meeting that day according to ms lewinsky shortly after her arrival mr jordan received a phone call and she stepped out of his office a few minutes later ms lewinsky was invited back in and mr jordan called mr carter mr jordan testified that he spoke to the president before ms lewinsky ever entered his office he told the president monica lewinsky called me up she s upset she s gotten a subpoena she is coming to see me about this subpoena i m confident that she needs a lawyer and i will try to get her a lawyer mr jordan told the president that the lawyer he had in mind was francis carter according to mr jordan the president asked him you think he s a good lawyer mr jordan responded that he was mr jordan testified that informing the president of ms lewinsky s subpoena was the purpose of his call according to mr jordan when ms lewinsky entered his office h er emotional state was obviously one of dishevelment and she was quite upset she was crying she was she was highly emotional to say the least she showed him the subpoena as soon as she entered ms lewinsky also testified that she discussed the subpoena with mr jordan she told him that she found the specific reference to a hat pin alarming how could the jones s attorneys have known about it mr jordan told her it was a standard subpoena when he indicated to ms lewinsky that he would be seeing the president that night ms lewinsky told him to please make sure that he told the president about her subpoena at some point according to mr jordan ms lewinsky asked him about the future of the clintons marriage because ms lewinsky seemed mesmerized by president clinton he asked her directly had there been any sexual relationship between her and the president mr jordan explained you didn t have to be einstein to know that that was a question that had to be asked by me at that particular time because heretofore this discussion was about a job the subpoena changed the circumstances ms lewinsky said she had not had a sexual relationship with the president ms lewinsky testified however that at this time she assumed that mr jordan knew with a wink and a nod that she was having a relationship with the president she therefore interpreted mr jordan s questions as what are you going to say rather than what are the actual answers when the meeting ended she asked mr jordan if he would give the president a hug that evening mr jordan visited the president at the white house according to mr jordan the two met alone in the residence and talked for about ten minutes he testified i told him that monica lewinsky had been subpoenaed came to me with a subpoena i told him that i was concerned by her fascination her being taken with him i told him how emotional she was about having gotten the subpoena i told him what she said to me about whether or not he was going to leave the first lady at the end of the term mr jordan asked the president t he one question that i wanted answered that question was mr president have you had sexual relations with monica lewinsky the president told mr jordan no never mr jordan told the president i m trying to help her get a job and i m going to continue to do that i m going to get her counsel and i m going to try to be helpful to her as much as i possibly can both with the lawyer and i ve already done what i could about the job and i think you ought to know that mr jordan testified he thanked me for telling him thanked me for my efforts to get her a job and thanked me for getting her a lawyer in his grand jury testimony the president recalled that he met with mr jordan on december however he testified that his memory of that meeting was somewhat vague i do not remember exactly what the nature of the conversation was i do remember that i told him that there was no sexual relationship between me and monica lewinsky which was true and that then all i remember for the rest is that he said he had referred her to a lawyer and i believe it was mr carter asked whether he recalled that mr jordan told him that ms lewinsky appeared fixated on him and hoped that he would leave mrs clinton the president testified i recall him saying he thought that she was upset with somewhat fixated on me that she acknowledged that she was not having a sexual relationship with me and that she did not want to be brought into that jones lawsuit b december meeting with vernon jordan mr jordan arranged for ms lewinsky to meet with attorney francis carter at a m on monday december on that morning according to ms lewinsky she called mr jordan and asked to meet before they went to mr carter s office she testified i was a little concerned i thought maybe mr jordan didn t really understand what it was that was happening here with me being subpoenaed and what this really meant she also wanted to find out whether he had in fact told the president of her subpoena mr jordan said that he had ms lewinsky also told mr jordan that she was worried that someone might have been eavesdropping on her telephone conversations with the president when mr jordan asked why she thought that would be of concern ms lewinsky said well we ve had phone sex ms lewinsky testified that she brought some of her gifts from the president showed them to mr jordan and implied that these items were not all of the gifts that the president had given her mr jordan in contrast testified that ms lewinsky never showed him any gifts from the president c december first meeting with francis carter mr jordan drove ms lewinsky to mr carter s office there he introduced ms lewinsky to mr carter explaining that she needed not only a lawyer but a counselor mr carter testified that after the initial referral he expected to have no further contact with mr jordan about ms lewinsky or her case mr carter and ms lewinsky then met for approximately an hour she explained that she did not want to be drawn into the jones case and would strongly prefer not to be deposed he said that he would try to persuade paula jones s attorneys not to depose her ms lewinsky testified that she suggested filing an affidavit to avert a deposition according to ms lewinsky she asked mr carter to get in touch with the president s personal attorney robert bennett just to let him know that i had been subpoenaed in this case she wanted to make clear that she was align ing her self with the president s side mr carter testified that while ms lewinsky was in his office he placed a call to mr bennett to arrange a meeting on the morning of tuesday december mr carter met for an hour with two of the president s personal attorneys mr bennett and katherine sexton the president s attorneys told mr carter that other witnesses had filed motions to quash their subpoenas and they offered legal research to support such a motion d december clinton denials to paula jones throughout the sexual harassment case ms jones s attorneys attempted to obtain information about president clinton s sexual relationships with any woman other than his wife on december the judge overseeing the jones case susan webber wright ruled that the president had to answer a written interrogatory naming every state and federal employee since with whom he had sexual relations or with whom he had proposed to have sexual relations on december the president answered the interrogatory none e december final meeting with the president a day or two after christmas ms lewinsky called ms currie and told her that the president had mentioned that he had presents for her ms currie called back and told her to come to the white house at a m on sunday december that morning ms lewinsky met with the president in the oval office waves records reflect that the visit was requested by ms currie and that ms lewinsky entered the white house at a m after she arrived at the oval office she the president and ms currie played with buddy the president s dog and chatted then the president took her to the study and gave her several christmas presents a marble bear s head a rockettes blanket a black dog stuffed animal a small box of chocolates a pair of joke sunglasses and a pin with a new york skyline on it ms lewinsky testified that during this visit she and the president had a passionate and physically intimate kiss ms lewinsky and the president also talked about the jones case in ms lewinsky s account she asked the president how he thought she got put on the witness list he speculated that linda tripp or one of the uniformed secret service officers had told the jones attorneys about her when ms lewinsky mentioned her anxiety about the subpoena s reference to a hat pin he said that sort of bothered him too he asked whether she had told anyone about the hat pin and she assured him that she had not at some point in the conversation ms lewinsky told the president m aybe i should put the gifts away outside my house somewhere or give them to someone maybe betty ms lewinsky recalled that the president responded either i don t know or let me think about that when ms lewinsky was asked whether she thought it odd for the president to give her gifts under the circumstances with a subpoena requiring the production of all his gifts she testified that she did not think of it at the time but she did note some hesitancy on the president s part h e had hesitated very briefly right before i left that day in kind of packaging all my stuff back up i don t think he said anything that indicated this to me but i thought to myself i wonder if he s thinking he shouldn t give these to me to take out but he did when asked in the jones deposition about his last meeting with ms lewinsky the president remembered only that she stopped by p robably sometime before christmas and he stuck his head out of the office said hello to her the deposition occurred three weeks after this december meeting with ms lewinsky in the grand jury the president acknowledged talking with ms lewinsky about her testimony or about the prospect that she might have to give testimony and she she talked to me about that he maintained however that they did not discuss ms lewinsky s subpoena s he was upset she well she we she didn t we didn t talk about a subpoena but she was upset in the president s recollection ms lewinsky said she knew nothing about sexual harassment why did she have to testify according to the president i explained to her that it was a political lawsuit they wanted to get whatever they could under oath that was damaging to me ms lewinsky s friend catherine allday davis testified about a conversation with ms lewinsky on january ms lewinsky told ms davis that she had met with the president and discussed the jones case a few days earlier ms davis testified that ms lewinsky and the president had noted that there was no evidence of their relationship e december concealment of gifts in the afternoon of december a few hours after ms lewinsky s white house visit ms currie drove to ms lewinsky s watergate apartment and collected a box containing the president s gifts ms currie then took the box home and hid it under her bed ms lewinsky ms currie and the president were all questioned as to why ms currie retrieved the box of gifts from ms lewinsky according to ms lewinsky the transfer originated in a phone call from ms currie that afternoon ms lewinsky testified that ms currie said i understand you have something to give me or the president said you have something to give me ms lewinsky understood that ms currie was alluding to the gifts ms currie said that she would stop by ms lewinsky s apartment and pick up the items ms lewinsky testified that she put many but not all of her gifts from the president into a box ms currie drove by her apartment and picked it up ms lewinsky was concerned because the gifts were under subpoena she did not throw them away however because they meant a lot to her the reason she gave the gifts to ms currie and not to one of her friends or her mother was a little bit of an assurance to the president that everything was okay she felt that because the gifts were with ms currie they were within the president s control not that the gifts were going to be in his possession but that he would understand whatever it was i gave to betty and that that might make him feel a little bit better ms lewinsky s account of the events of december in her sworn statement of february corroborates her later grand jury testimony ms l asked if she should put away outside her home the gifts he had given her or maybe give them to someone else ms currie called ms l later that afternoon as said that the pres had told her ms l wanted her to hold onto something for her ms l boxed up most of the gifts she had received and gave them to ms currie it is unknown if ms currie knew the contents of the box ms currie s testimony was somewhat at odds with ms lewinsky s though her overall recollection was hazy ms currie believed that ms lewinsky had called her and raised the idea of the gifts transfer ms currie was asked about the president s involvement in the transfer q and did the president know you were holding these things for monica bc i don t know i don t know q didn t he say to you that monica had something for you to hold bc i don t remember that i don t q did you ever talk to the president and tell him you had this box from monica bc i don t remember that either q do you think it happened though bc i don t know i don t know when asked whether a statement by ms lewinsky indicating that ms currie had in fact spoken to the president about the gift transfer would be false ms currie replied then she may remember better than i i don t remember according to ms currie ms lewinsky said that she was uncomfortable retaining the gifts herself because people were asking questions about them ms currie said she drove to ms lewinsky s residence after work collected the box brought it home and put it under her bed written on the top of the box were the words please do not throw away ms currie testified that she knew that the box contained gifts from the president for his part the president testified that he never asked ms currie to collect a box of gifts from ms lewinsky he said that he had no knowledge that ms currie had held those items until that was made public the president testified that he has no distinct recollection of discussing the gifts with ms lewinsky on december m y memory is that on some day in december and i m sorry i don t remember when it was she said well what if they ask me about the gifts you have given me and i said well if you get a request to produce those you have to give them whatever you have d december breakfast with vernon jordan ms lewinsky testified that in late december she realized that she needed to come up with some sort of strategy as to what to do if linda tripp divulged what she knew on december ms lewinsky telephoned mr jordan s office and conveyed either directly to him or through one of his secretaries that she was concerned about the jones case the following day ms lewinsky and mr jordan had breakfast together at the park hyatt hotel according to ms lewinsky she told mr jordan that a friend of hers linda tripp was involved in the jones case she told mr jordan i used to trust ms tripp but i didn t trust her any more ms lewinsky said that ms tripp might have seen some notes in her apartment mr jordan asked notes from the president to you ms lewinsky responded no notes from me to the president according to ms lewinsky mr jordan said go home and make sure they re not there ms lewinsky testified that she understood that mr jordan was advising her to throw away any copies or drafts of notes that she had sent to the president after breakfast mr jordan gave ms lewinsky a ride back to his office when ms lewinsky returned home to her apartment that day she discarded approximately draft notes to the president e january the final gift on sunday january ms lewinsky called ms currie at home and told her that she wanted to drop off a gift for the president ms currie invited ms lewinsky to her home and ms lewinsky gave her the package the package contained a book entitled the presidents of the united states and a love note inspired by the movie titanic xiii january january the affidavit on january ms lewinsky s attorney francis carter drafted an affidavit for ms lewinsky in an attempt to avert her deposition she spoke with the president that evening on january ms lewinsky talked to mr jordan about the affidavit which denied any sexual relations between her and the president on january ms lewinsky signed the affidavit on january she interviewed for a job in new york city after the interview went poorly mr jordan placed a phone call to the company s chairman on her behalf and ms lewinsky was given a second interview the following week after ms lewinsky told ms currie that she would need a reference from the white house the president asked chief of staff erskine bowles to arrange one a january francis carter meeting at p m on monday january ms lewinsky met with mr carter at his office for approximately one hour ms lewinsky testified that mr carter described what a deposition was like and threw out a bunch of different questions the questions that most concerned her related to the circumstances of her departure from the white house mr carter told ms lewinsky that he would draft an affidavit for her to sign in hopes of averting her deposition they arranged for ms lewinsky to pick up a draft of the affidavit the next day b january call from the president after her meeting with mr carter ms lewinsky sent word via ms currie that she needed to speak to the president about an important matter specifically ms lewinsky told ms currie she was anxious about something she needed to sign a few hours later according to ms lewinsky the president returned her call she mentioned an affidavit she would be signing and asked if he wanted to see it according to ms lewinsky the president responded that he did not as he had already seen about fifteen others ms lewinsky testified that she told the president that she was troubled by potential questions about her transfer from the white house to the pentagon she was concerned that people at the white house who didn t like her might contradict her and get her in trouble the president according to ms lewinsky advised her y ou could always say that the people in legislative affairs got it the pentagon job for you or helped you get it the president acknowledged in the grand jury that he was aware that ms lewinsky had signed an affidavit in early january but had no specific recollection of a conversation with her in that time period he testified that he did not recall telling ms lewinsky that she could say if asked that persons in the legislative affairs office of the white house had helped her obtain the job at the pentagon according to ms lewinsky she and the president also briefly discussed an antique book that she had dropped off with ms currie the day before with the book she enclosed a letter telling the president that she wanted to have sexual intercourse with him at least once in their phone conversation ms lewinsky told the president i shouldn t have written some of those things in the note she testified that the president agreed although the president had testified in the jones case that any personal messages from ms lewinsky to him had been unremarkable he told the grand jury that he had received quite affectionate messages from ms lewinsky even after their intimate relationship ended the president testified that he cautioned ms lewinsky about such messages i remember telling her she should be careful what she wrote because a lot of it was clearly inappropriate and would be embarrassing if somebody else read it i don t remember when i said that i don t remember whether it was in or when it was the president did remember the antique book ms lewinsky had given him but said he did not recall a romantic note enclosed with it c january the draft affidavit according to ms lewinsky in the afternoon of january she visited mr carter s office and picked up a draft of the affidavit later that day according to ms lewinsky she and mr jordan discussed the draft by telephone ms lewinsky testified that having mr jordan review the affidavit was like getting it blessed by the president ms lewinsky testified that she told mr jordan that she was worried about a sentence that implied that she had been alone with the president and thus might incline paula jones s attorneys to question her she eventually deleted it in addition paragraph of the draft affidavit provided in part i have never had a sexual relationship with the president the occasions that i saw the president with crowds of other people after i left my employment at the white house in april related to official receptions formal functions or events related to the u s department of defense where i was working at the time deeming the reference to crowds too far out of the realm of possibility ms lewinsky deleted the underscored phrase and wrote the following sentence at the end of this paragraph there were other people present on all of these occasions she discussed this proposed sentence as well as her general anxiety about paragraph with mr jordan when questioned in the grand jury mr jordan acknowledged that ms lewinsky called him with concerns about the affidavit but maintained that he told her to speak with her attorney phone records for january show that mr jordan had a number of contacts with ms lewinsky the president and mr carter less than thirty minutes after mr jordan spoke by phone to ms lewinsky he talked with the president for thirteen minutes immediately after this call at p m mr jordan called mr carter less than an hour later mr jordan placed a four minute call to the main white house number over the course of the day mr jordan called a white house number twice ms lewinsky three times and mr carter four times mr carter testified that his phone conversations with mr jordan this day and the next likely related to ms lewinsky and his litigation strategy for her in fact mr carter billed ms lewinsky for time for t elephone conference with atty jordan when questioned in the grand jury mr jordan testified that he could not specifically remember the january calls he said he assumed that he talked with ms lewinsky about her job search and he believed that he called mr carter to see how he was dealing with this highly emotional lady he said that he might have talked with the president about ms lewinsky but he maintained that there was no connection between his minute conversation with the president and the call he placed immediately thereafter to mr carter d january ms lewinsky signs affidavit ms lewinsky set an appointment with mr carter to finalize the affidavit for a m on january she signed the affidavit however she acknowledged in the grand jury that statements in it were false mr carter indicated to her that he intend ed to hold onto this until after i talk to plaintiff s lawyers he told her to keep in touch and said good luck on your job search according to mr jordan ms lewinsky came to his office on january and showed him the signed affidavit over the course of the day mr jordan placed three calls of significant duration to the white house he testified i knew the president was concerned about the affidavit and whether it was signed or not when asked whether the president understood that the affidavit denied a sexual relationship mr jordan testified i think that s a reasonable assumption according to mr jordan when he informed the president that ms lewinsky had signed the affidavit the president said fine good mr jordan said he was continuing to work on her job and the president responded good ten days after this conversation in the jones deposition president clinton was asked whether he knew that ms lewinsky had met with vernon jordan and talked about the jones case he answered i knew he met with her i think betty suggested that he meet with her anyway he met with her i i thought that he talked to her about something else i didn t know that i thought he had given her some advice about her move to new york seems like that s what betty said in his grand jury appearance however president clinton testified that mr jordan informed us on january that ms lewinsky had signed an affidavit to be used in connection with the jones case the president defended his deposition testimony by stating m y impression was that at the time i was focused on the meetings i believe the meetings he had were meetings about her moving to new york and getting a job i knew at some point that she had told him that she needed some help because she had gotten a subpoena i m not sure i know whether she did that in a meeting or a phone call and i was not i was not focused on that i know that i know vernon helped her get a lawyer mr carter and i i believe that he did it after she had called him but i m not sure but i knew that the main source of their meetings was about her move to new york and her getting a job e january the perelman call the day after she signed the affidavit january ms lewinsky interviewed in new york with jaymie durnan senior vice president and special assistant to the chairman at macandrews forbes holdings inc mfh mr durnan testified that although impressive ms lewinsky was not suited for any mfh opening he told her that he would pass on her resume to revlon an mfh company ms lewinsky called mr jordan and reported that she felt that the interview had gone very poorly mr jordan indicated in response that he d call the chairman at p m mr jordan called ronald perelman chairman and chief executive officer of mfh mr jordan told the grand jury with respect to mr perelman one c an t get any higher or any richer asked why he chose to call mr perelman mr jordan responded i have spent a good part of my life learning institutions and people and in that process i have learned how to make things happen and the call to ronald perelman was a call to make things happen if they could happen according to mr perelman mr jordan spoke of this bright young girl who i think is terrific and said that he wanted to make sure somebody takes a look at her mr perelman testified that in the roughly twelve years that mr jordan had been on revlon s board of directors he did not recall mr jordan ever calling to recommend someone after he spoke with mr perelman mr jordan telephoned ms lewinsky and told her i m doing the best i can to help you out ms lewinsky soon received a call from revlon inviting her to another interview over the course of january mr jordan placed three calls to the white house twice to a number at the white house counsel s office once to the main white house number as to the counsel s office calls mr jordan speculated that he was trying to reach cheryl mills deputy white house counsel to express his frustration about ms lewinsky according to mr jordan ms mills knew who ms lewinsky was t hat was no secret i don t think around the white house that i was helping monica lewinsky f january mission accomplished on the morning of friday january ms lewinsky interviewed with allyn seidman senior vice president of mfh and two individuals at revlon ms lewinsky testified that the interviews went well and that ms seidman called her back that day and informally offered her a position and she informally accepted ms lewinsky then called mr jordan and relayed the good news when shown records of a seven minute call at p m mr jordan testified i have to assume that if she got the job and we have a seven minute conversation and the day before i had talked to the chairman ronald perelman i have to assume the jordan magic worked according to mr jordan he believed that he notified ms currie and the president as soon as he learned that ms lewinsky had obtained an offer i am certain that at some point in time i told betty currie mission accomplished mr jordan testified that he also told the president directly that monica lewinsky s going to work for revlon and his response was thank you very much g january pre trial hearing in jones case on january judge wright held a hearing in the jones case to discuss pre trial issues including the president s upcoming deposition at that hearing judge wright required ms jones s counsel to list all the witnesses that they planned to call at trial ms jones s witness list named many women among them ms lewinsky to support her theory that the president had a pattern of rewarding women based on their willingness to engage in sexual relations with him at the hearing judge wright indicated that she would permit ms jones to call as witnesses some of the women she listed in support of her case h january references from the white house on tuesday january jennifer sheldon manager of corporate staffing of revlon called ms lewinsky and formally extended her a position as a public relations administrator asked whether this was a relatively quick hiring process ms sheldon responded in totality of how long open positions normally stay open yes this was pretty fast ms sheldon told ms lewinsky that she needed to send her some references according to ms lewinsky she then called ms currie because she was concerned that if i put mr hilley down as a reference he might not say flattering things about me at a m on january ms currie paged ms lewinsky and left the following message will know something this afternoon kay that day january the president talked with chief of staff erskine bowles about a reference for ms lewinsky the president told mr bowles that ms lewinsky had found a job in the private sector and she had listed john hilley as a reference and could we see if he could recommend her if asked mr bowles assured the president that mr hilley would give ms lewinsky a recommendation commensurate with her job performance thereafter mr bowles took the president s request to mr podesta the deputy chief of staff who in turn spoke with mr hilley mr hilley responded that because he did not know ms lewinsky personally he would have his office write a recommendation it would be a generic letter simply confirming the dates of employment because of the less than favorable circumstances surrounding ms lewinsky s departure from the white house ms lewinsky testified that ms currie called later that day and told her that mr podesta took care of it and everything would be fine with mr hilley at a m the next day wednesday january ms lewinsky faxed her acceptance to revlon and listed john hilley and her defense department supervisor as references the president was asked in the grand jury whether he ever spoke to mr bowles about obtaining a reference from mr hilley for ms lewinsky he testified that he did at ms lewinsky s request although he thought he had done so earlier than january or i january final jordan meeting according to ms lewinsky on tuesday january she stopped by mr jordan s office to drop off some thank you gifts for helping her find a job ms lewinsky offered to show him a copy of her signed affidavit in the jones case but he indicated that he did not need to see it j january lewinsky tripp conversation and talking points in a face to face conversation on january ms lewinsky told linda tripp this is what my lawyer taught me you really don t you don t very often say no unless you really need to the best is well not that i recall not that i really remember might have but i don t really remember ms lewinsky said that if asked in a deposition were you ever alone with the president she could say um it s possible i may have taken a letter on the weekend but you know i might have but i don t really ms lewinsky and ms tripp then discussed the situation ms lewinsky i don t think the way that man thinks i don t think he thinks of lying under oath ms tripp yes he is because he s the one who said deny deny deny of course he knows ms lewinsky right but it s hard to explain this it s like sigh ms tripp you know what i mean i mean i don t know do i think he is consciously ms lewinsky if if if i said if somebody said to him is monica lying under oath he would say yes but when he on his own thinks about it he doesn t think about it in those terms okay ms tripp probably ms lewinsky okay he thinks of it as we re safe we re being smart okay we re being smart we re being safe it s good for everybody on january ms lewinsky gave ms tripp a three page document regarding points to make in ms tripp s affidavit ms lewinsky testified that she wrote the document herself although some of the ideas may have been inspired by conversations with ms tripp k january the isikoff call in the grand jury betty currie testified that on thursday january she received a telephone call from michael isikoff of newsweek who inquired about courier receipts reflecting items sent by ms lewinsky to the white house ms currie called mr jordan and asked for guidance in responding to mr isikoff s inquiry because in her words she had a comfort level with vernon after ms currie arranged to meet with mr jordan at his office ms lewinsky drove her there mr jordan confirmed in the grand jury that ms currie expressed concern about a call from mr isikoff he invited her to his office but advised her to talk to mike mccurry and bruce lindsey because i cannot give you that advice in a recorded conversation that day january ms lewinsky encouraged ms tripp not to disclose her lewinsky s relationship with the president ms lewinsky tried to persuade ms tripp to lie by telling her that others planned to lie i m not concerned all that much anymore because i m not going to get in trouble because you know what the story i ve signed under oath is what someone else is saying under oath when ms tripp asked who ms lewinsky responded he will referring to the president ms lewinsky stated that she did not think the president would slip up at his deposition because she was not a big issue like gennifer flowers and paula jones in contrast she regarded herself as nothing more than rumor and innuendo one of ms lewinsky s friends natalie ungvari testified that when ms lewinsky was implicated in the jones case it seemed to me that monica was just confident everybody would say the right thing that everything would be orchestrated to come out a secret l january developments in the jones law suit on january president clinton s counsel served ms jones s attorneys with the president s responses to ms jones s document requests one of the requests specifically sought all documents reflecting communications between the president and monica lewinsky president clinton objected to the scope of this request but notwithstanding his objection he stated that he did not have any responsive documents also on january mr carter drafted a motion to quash the subpoena issued by paula jones s attorneys to ms lewinsky attached to the motion was ms lewinsky s signed affidavit at the request of katherine sexton one of the president s personal attorneys mr carter faxed a copy of the affidavit to her law offices mr carter testified that he asked ms sexton why she needed the affidavit that day i said well katie you re going to get it tomorrow because i m filing it and it s going to be attached as an exhibit to the motion she said well but you ve already provided it to the other side so can i get a copy words to that effect i said i have no problem and so i faxed it to her on january mr carter arranged for the overnight delivery of the motion to quash and the accompanying affidavit to judge susan webber wright s law clerk and paula jones s attorneys xiv january present the deposition and afterward the president was asked a number of questions about ms lewinsky during his january deposition in the jones case in sworn testimony the president denied having a sexual affair or sexual relations with her that evening the president called ms currie and asked her to meet him the following day to discuss ms lewinsky after allegations that the president had an affair with a white house intern became public the president emphatically denied the reports to aides and to the american public a january the deposition on saturday january the president testified under oath at a deposition in the jones case judge susan webber wright traveled from little rock arkansas to preside at the deposition in washington d c prior to any questions judge wright reminded the parties about her standing protective order she specifically stated i f anyone reveals anything whatsoever about this deposition it will be in violation of the protective order this includes the questions that were asked you may acknowledge that the deposition took place but that is it judge wright accepted the following definition of the term sexual relations for the purposes of this deposition a person engages in sexual relations when the person knowingly engages in or causes contact with the genitalia anus groin breast inner thigh or buttocks of any person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person contact means intentional touching either directly or through clothing after the president had answered a few questions about ms lewinsky his attorney robert bennett urged judge wright to limit further inquiries mr bennett stated that ms lewinsky had executed an affidavit saying that there is absolutely no sex of any kind of any manner shape or form with president clinton when judge wright cautioned mr bennett not to make remarks that could be arguably coaching the witness mr bennett represented to judge wright in preparation of the witness for this deposition the witness is fully aware of ms lewinsky s affidavit so i have not told him a single thing he doesn t know president clinton who was present when mr bennett made his objection did not contradict his attorney s comment rejecting mr bennett s argument judge wright permitted the questioning about ms lewinsky to continue over the course of extensive questioning the president testified that he had seen ms lewinsky on two or three occasions during the government shutdown in the fall of including one occasion when she brought pizza to him and one or two other occasions when she delivered documents to him he could not recall whether he had been alone with ms lewinsky on such occasions although he acknowledged that it was possible the president further testified that he could not remember the subject of any conversations with ms lewinsky president clinton recalled that he received only a couple of unremarkable personal messages from ms lewinsky and he could not recall ever having received a cassette tape from her he received presents from her o nce or twice a book or two and a tie the president originally testified that he could not recall any gifts he might have given her later in the deposition however he remembered that some merchandise he had purchased from a martha s vineyard restaurant might have reached her through ms currie the president stated that he might have given ms lewinsky a hat pin though he could not recall for certain the president testified that his last conversation with ms lewinsky had been before christmas when she had visited the white house to see ms currie the president stated i stuck my head out said hello to her he said it was also possible that during that encounter he had joked with ms lewinsky that the plaintiff s attorneys were going to subpoena every woman i ever talked to and ms lewinsky would qualify the president testified that he was unaware that mr jordan had talked with ms lewinsky about the jones case in which she had also been subpoenaed to testify at a deposition the president emphatically denied having had sexual relations with ms lewinsky at the conclusion of the deposition judge wright said before the president leaves i want to remind him as the witness in this matter and everyone else in the room that this case is subject to a protective order regarding all discovery and all parties present including the witness are not to say anything whatsoever about the questions they were asked the substance of the deposition any details and this is extremely important to this court sometime after the president s deposition mr podesta saw bruce lindsey deputy white house counsel at the white house and inquired how the deposition went according to mr podesta mr lindsey said that the president had been asked about monica lewinsky mr lindsey testified that during a break in the president s deposition the president had told him that ms lewinsky s name had come up that same evening mr lindsey met with the president in the oval office where they discussed the deposition mr lindsey relying on the attorney client presidential communication deliberative process and work product privileges declined to say what specifically was discussed at this meeting b the president meets with ms currie soon after the deposition the president called ms currie and asked her to come to the white house the next day ms currie acknowledged that it s rare for the president to ask me to come in on sunday the president wanted to discuss ms lewinsky s white house visits at approximately p m on sunday january ms currie met with the president the meeting took place at her desk outside the oval office according to ms currie the president appeared concerned he told ms currie that during his deposition the previous day he had been asked questions about monica lewinsky ms currie testified i think he said there are several things you may want to know he proceeded to make a series of statements one right after the other you were always there when she was there right we were never really alone monica lewinsky came on to me and i never touched her right you can see and hear everything right ms currie testified that based on his demeanor and the way he made the statements the president wanted her to agree with them ms currie testified that she did in fact agree with the president when he said you were always there when she was there right before the grand jury however ms currie acknowledged the possibility that ms lewinsky could have visited the president when she was not at the white house with respect to whether the president was never really alone with ms lewinsky ms currie testified that there were several occasions when the president and ms lewinsky were either in the oval office or in the study without anyone else present ms currie explained that she did not consider the president and ms lewinsky to be alone on such occasions because she was at her desk outside the oval office accordingly they were all together in the same general area ms currie testified that the president for all intents and purposes is never alone there s always somebody around him as to whether ms lewinsky came on to him ms currie testified that she would have no reason to know whether ms lewinsky ever came on to the president because ms currie was not present all the time finally as to whether she could see and hear everything ms currie testified that she should not have agreed with the president she testified that when the president and ms lewinsky were alone together in the study while ms currie was at her desk she could hear nothing the president also made the following statement during their january meeting according to ms currie monica lewinsky wanted to have sex with me but i told her i couldn t do that when the president was questioned about this meeting with ms currie in the grand jury he testified that he recalled the conversation but he denied that he was trying to get betty currie to say something that was untruthful rather the president testified that he asked a series of questions in an effort to quickly refresh his memory the president explained i wanted to establish that betty was there at all other times in the complex and i wanted to know what betty s memory was about what she heard what she could hear a nd i was trying to figure it out in a hurry because i knew something was up in his grand jury testimony the president acknowledged that in fairness ms currie may have felt some ambivalence about how to react to his statements the president maintained that he was trying to establish that ms currie was always there and could see and hear everything at the same time he acknowledged that he had always tried to prevent ms currie from learning about his relationship with ms lewinsky i did what people do when they do the wrong thing i tried to do it where nobody else was looking at it the president was also asked about his statement that ms currie was always in the oval office when ms lewinsky visited he explained that he may have intended the term oval office to include the entire oval office complex the president further explained i was talking about i was never ever trying to get betty currie to claim that on the occasions when monica lewinsky was there when she wasn t anywhere around that she was when asked whether he restricted his remarks to the year the president responded well i don t recall whether i did or not but i assumed ms currie knew what i was talking about when questioned about his statement to ms currie you could see and hear everything the president responded my memory of that was that that she had the ability to hear what was going on if she came in the oval office from her office and a lot of times you know when i was in the oval office she just had the door open to her office then there was the door was never completely closed to the hall so i think there was i m not entirely sure what i meant by that but i could have meant that she generally would be able to hear conversations even if she couldn t see them and i think that s what i meant finally when asked about his statement to ms currie that monica came on to me and i never touched her the president refused to answer c january attempts to reach ms lewinsky in the wake of her sunday afternoon session ms currie paged ms lewinsky four times she testified that the president may have asked me to call ms lewinsky to see what she knew or where she was or what was happening later that evening at p m the president called ms currie to ask whether she had spoken to ms lewinsky over a two hour span the next morning monday january ms currie made eight unsuccessful attempts to contact ms lewinsky by either pager or telephone after speaking with the president to let him know that she was unable to reach ms lewinsky ms currie again paged her the purpose of these calls according to ms currie was to tell ms lewinsky that her name had been mentioned in the president s deposition mr jordan also tried unsuccessfully to reach ms lewinsky that morning that afternoon mr jordan met with the president in the oval office later ms lewinsky s attorney frank carter called mr jordan and told him that ms lewinsky had obtained new counsel william ginsburg and nathaniel speights mr jordan passed this information on to the president that evening in a seven minute phone conversation d january lewinsky story breaks after the publication of an article alleging a sexual relationship with ms lewinsky president clinton conferred with his attorneys and issued a number of denials to his aides and to the american public clinton accused on wednesday january the washington post published a story entitled clinton accused of urging aide to lie starr probes whether president told woman to deny alleged affair to jones s lawyers the white house learned the essentials of the post story on the night of january president clinton placed a number of phone calls that night and the following morning from a m to a m he spoke with his personal attorney robert bennett mr bennett would be quoted in the post article as saying the president adamantly denies he ever had a relationship with ms lewinsky and she has confirmed the truth of that he added this story seems ridiculous and i frankly smell a rat immediately after his call to mr bennett president clinton called deputy white house counsel bruce lindsey they spoke for about half an hour until a m at a m the president called ms currie at home and spoke to her for minutes ms currie testified that the president was concerned that her name was mentioned in the post article soon after this call the president called mr lindsey a few hours later at approximately a m the president called mr jordan in new york city to tell him according to mr jordan that the post story was untrue from a m to a m the president spoke again with mr lindsey responding to the post story that day the white house issued a statement personally approved by the president declaring that he was outraged by these allegations and that he has never had an improper relationship with this woman white house spokesperson mike mccurry said that the statement was prepared by the counsel s office and i reviewed it with the president to make sure that it reflected what he wanted me to say he looked at it and he said fine it was prepared in consultation between the lawyers and the president the counsel s office gave it to me i wanted to of course verify that that s exactly what the president wanted me to say denials to aides according to mr lindsey the remainder of the morning was spent in a series of meetings about the lewinsky matter including preparing the president for anticipated lewinsky related questions in three previously scheduled media interviews at these meetings president clinton denied the allegations to several of his top aides the president met with chief of staff erskine bowles along with his two deputies john podesta and sylvia matthews according to mr bowles the president told them i want you to know i did not have sexual relationships with this woman monica lewinsky i did not ask anybody to lie and when the facts come out you ll understand the president made a similar denial that morning to harold ickes his former deputy chief of staff the president also discussed the matter with ms currie for a second time according to ms currie the president called her into the oval office and gave a sort of a recapitulation of what we had talked about on sunday you know i was never alone with her that sort of thing the president spoke with the same tone and demeanor that he used during his previous session with her ms currie testified that the president may have mentioned that she might be asked about ms lewinsky later that day the president summoned sidney blumenthal to the oval office they spoke for about minutes the president said to mr blumenthal i haven t done anything wrong mr blumenthal testified that the president told him monica lewinsky came on to me and made a sexual demand on me the president said that he rebuffed her the president also told mr blumenthal that ms lewinsky had threatened him she said that she would tell people they d had an affair that she was known as the stalker among her peers and that she hated it and if she had an affair or said she had an affair then she wouldn t be the stalker any more mr blumenthal then asked the president whether he and ms lewinsky were alone when she threatened him the president responded well i was within eyesight or earshot of someone according to mr blumenthal the president complained i feel like a character in a novel i feel like somebody who is surrounded by an oppressive force that is creating a lie about me and i can t get the truth out i feel like the character in the novel darkness at noon soon thereafter in the course of a meeting about the progress of the president s state of the union address the president made a second denial of the allegations to mr podesta mr podesta testified h e said to me that he had never had sex with her and that and that he never asked you know he repeated the denial but he was extremely explicit in saying he never had sex with her well i think he said he said that there was some spate of you know what sex acts were counted and he said that he had never had sex with her in any way whatsoever that they had not had oral sex the president was asked during his grand jury appearance whether he recalled denying a sexual relationship with ms lewinsky to his senior aides and advisors including mr bowles mr podesta mr blumenthal mr ickes and mr jordan the president did not recall specific details but did remember the following i met with certain people and to a few of them i said i didn t have sex with monica lewinsky or i didn t have an affair with her or something like that i had a very careful thing i said and i tried not to say anything else i remember that i issued a number of denials to people that i thought needed to hear them but i tried to be careful and to be accurate and i believe sir that you ll have to ask them what they thought but i was using those terms in the normal way people use them the president testified that he had said things that were true about this relationship that i used in the language i used i said there s nothing going on between us that was true i said i did not have sex with her as i defined it that was true the president qualified this answer however i said things that were true they may have been misleading and if they were i have to take responsibility for it and i m sorry initial denials to the american public on the afternoon of january the president made his first of a series of previously scheduled media appearances in an interview on national public radio s all things considered the following colloquy took place q mr president m any americans woke up to the news today that the whitewater independent counsel is investigating an allegation that you encouraged a young woman to lie to lawyers in the paula jones civil suit is there any truth to that allegation wjc no sir there s not it s just not true q is there any truth to the allegation of an affair between you and the young woman wjc no that s not true either the charges are not true and i haven t asked anybody to lie that evening the president appeared on the pbs program the news hour with jim lehrer he was asked again whether the allegation of an affair with a white house intern was true the president replied that is not true that is not true i did not ask anyone to tell anything other than the truth there is no improper relationship and i intend to cooperate with this inquiry but that is not true when asked to define what he meant by the term improper relationship the president answered well i think you know what it means it means that there is not a sexual relationship an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship the following morning on january the president again denied he had done anything improper speaking at a televised white house photo opportunity with palestinian authority chairman yasser arafat the president stated t he allegations are false and i would never ask anybody to do anything other than tell the truth that is false the president also gave an interview to roll call that day he stated t he relationship was not improper and i think that s important enough to say but let me answer it is not an improper relationship and i know what the word means the relationship was not sexual and i know what you mean and the answer is no at each of these interviews the president pledged he would cooperate fully with the investigation on npr the president stated i have told people that i would cooperate in the investigation and i expect to cooperate with it i don t know any more about it really than you do but i will cooperate i m doing my best to cooperate with the investigation to mr lehrer he said w e are doing the best to cooperate here but we don t know much yet i think it s important that we cooperate i will cooperate but i want to focus on the work at hand in his photo opportunity with mr arafat the president stated t he american people have a right to get answers we are working very hard to comply get all the requests for information up here and we will give you as many answers as we can as soon as we can at the appropriate time consistent with our obligation to also cooperate with the investigations and that s not a dodge that s really what i ve i ve talked with our people i want to do that i d like for you to have more rather than less sooner rather than later so we will work through it as quickly as we can and get all those questions out there to you finally in his roll call interview the president vowed i m going to cooperate with this investigation and i ll cooperate we just have to win amidst the flurry of press activity on january the president s former political consultant dick morris read the post story and called the president according to mr morris he told the president you poor son of a bitch i ve just read what s going on the president responded mr morris recalled oh god this is just awful i didn t do what they said i did but i did do something i mean with this girl i didn t do what they said but i did do something and i may have done enough so that i don t know if i can prove my innocence there may be gifts i gave her gifts a nd there may be messages on her phone answering machine mr morris assured the president t here s a great capacity for forgiveness in this country and you should consider tapping into it the president said but what about the legal thing you know the legal thing you know starr and perjury and all you know ever since the election i ve tried to shut myself down i ve tried to shut my body down sexually i mean but sometimes i slipped up and with this girl i just slipped up mr morris suggested that he take a poll on the voters willingness to forgive confessed adultery the president agreed mr morris telephoned the president later that evening with the poll results which showed that the voters were willing to forgive the president for adultery but not for perjury or obstruction of justice when mr morris explained that the poll results suggested that the president should not go public with a confession or explanation he replied well we just have to win then the president had a follow up conversation with mr morris during the evening of january when mr morris was considering holding a press conference to blast monica lewinsky out of the water the president told mr morris to be careful according to mr morris the president warned him not to be too hard on ms lewinsky because there s some slight chance that she may not be cooperating with starr and we don t want to alienate her by anything we re going to put out meanwhile in california the president s good friend and hollywood producer harry thomason had seen the president s interview with jim lehrer on televison mr thomason who had occasionally advised the president on matters relating to the media traveled to washington d c and met with him the next day mr thomason told the president that the press seemed to be saying that the president s comments were weak and that he mr thomason thought his response wasn t as strong as it could have been mr thomason recommended that the president should explain it so there s no doubt in anybody s mind that nothing happened the president agreed you know you re right i should be more forceful than that in the ensuing days the president through his cabinet issued a number of firm denials on january the president started a cabinet meeting by saying the allegations were untrue afterward several cabinet members appeared outside the white house madeline albright secretary of state said i believe that the allegations are completely untrue the others agreed i ll second that definitely commerce secretary william daley said secretary of education richard riley and secretary of health and human services donna shalala concurred the next day ann lewis white house communications director publicly announced that those of us who have wanted to go out and speak on behalf of the president had been given the green light by the president s legal team she reported that the president answered the allegations directly by denying any improper relationship she believed that in issuing his public denials the president was not splitting hairs defining what is a sexual relationship talking about is rather than was you know i always thought perhaps i was naive since i ve come to washington when you said a sexual relationship everybody knew what that meant ms lewis expressly said that the term includes oral sex