WASHINGTON, July 25: Bill Clinton's former top bodyguard has testified here that the president and Monica Lewinsky were seen ``alone'' in 1996 in the study adjoining the oval office, but ``nothing improper'' had taken place there.Secret agent Larry Cockell, who along with Clinton's former top aide Harold Ickes appeared before the grand jury yesterday, said he and Ickes went to the oval office but did not find the president there.``We then realised the president is in the study with Lewinsky,'' CBS Radio quoted Cockell as saying. Ickes, who is a former deputy chief of staff at the White House, however, denied the agent's version. Cockell had headed Clinton's secret service detail until recently and is viewed as a key witness in the case for his close proximity to the president.The two former White House insiders appeared before the federal court house yesterday to testify before the grand jury probing the sex and perjury case against Clinton.Meanwhile, Paula Jones said that the letters written toher by her previous lawyers should not have been made public in her sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton.The letters were released last month when the US district judge Susan Webber Wright, who dismissed the lawsuit, entered them into the public record. Jones asked Wright to vacate her order that made the letters public, saying the letters were addressed to her, dealt with legal issues and included advice in the lawsuit.``Therefore, on their face, these are attorney-client privileged communications,'' her motion said. ``Why these letters were in the possession of the court is unknown to Jones herself.'' The letters were written by Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert K Davis last year during the negotiations for a possible settlement of the lawsuit. They told her a settlement for US $ 700,000 and a vague apology would have been complete ``victory,'' even if Clinton admitted no wrongdoing.However, Jones turned down the offer, saying she wanted a full apology, according to the letter. The lawyers saidthe refusal was a shift in her original intentions. ``You understand that your present need for an apology was not sought for more than three years after the event,'' the lawyers wrote.
