WASHINGTON, SEPT 22: United States President Bill Clinton testified in August about what he called an ``inappropriate'' relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, now threatening his presidency.Excerpts from the testimony:Q: Mr President, would you raise your right hand, please? Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give in this matter will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?Clinton: I do.Q: Could you please tell the grand jury what that oath means to you for today's testimony?Clinton: I have sworn on oath to tell the grand jury the truth and that's what I intend to do.Q: Mr President, were you physically intimate with Monica Lewinsky?Clinton: (Reading from statement) When I was alone with Ms Lewinsky on certain occasions in early 1996, and once in early 1997, I engaged in conduct that was wrong. These encounters did not consist of sexual intercourse. They did not constitute sexual relations, as Iunderstood that term to be defined at my January 17, 1998 deposition.But they did involve inappropriate, intimate contact. These inappropriate encounters ended at my insistence in early 1997. I also had occasional telephone conversations with Ms Lewinsky that included inappropriate sexual banter.I regret that what began as a friendship came to include this conduct, and I take full responsibility for my actions. While I will provide the grand jury whatever other information I can, because of privacy considerations affecting my family, myself and others, and in an effort to preserve the dignity of the office I hold, this is all I will say about the specifics of these particular matters.I will try to answer to the best of my ability other questions, including questions about my relationship with Ms Lewinsky, questions about my understanding of the term of sexual relations, as I understood it to be defined at my January 17th, 1998, deposition, and questions concerning alleged subordination of perjury,obstruction of justice and intimidation of witnesses.Q: Was this contact with Ms Lewinsky - Mr President, did it involve any sexual contact in any way, shape or form?Clinton: Mr Bittman, I said in this statement I would like to stay to the terms of the statement. I think it's clear what inappropriately intimate is. I have said that I did not believe that it included conduct which falls within the definition I was given in the Jones deposition. And I would like to say with that characterisation.Q: Did you understand the word in the first portion of the exhibit, Mr President? That is for the purposes of this deposition, the person who engages in - quote, unquote- ``sexual relations'' that a person knowingly engages in or causes - did you understand - do you understand the words there in that phrase?Clinton: My understanding of this definition is that it covers contact by the person being deposed with the enumerated areas, if the contact is done with an intent to arouse or gratify.That's my understanding of the definition.Q: What did you believe the definition to include and exclude?Clinton: I thought the definition included any activity by the person being deposed where the person was the actor and came in contact with those parts of the body with the purpose or intent of gratification, and excluded any other activity, for example, kissing's not covered by that, I don't think.Yes, I understood the definition to be limited to physical contact with those areas of the body with the specific intent to arouse or gratify. That's what I understood it to be.The person being deposed. If the person being deposed contacted those parts of another person's body with an intent to arouse or gratify, that was covered.If you said Jane and Harry had a sexual relationship - and they're not talking about people being drawn into a lawsuit and being given a definition and then a great effort to trick them in some way - but you're just talking about people in an ordinaryconversation. I bet the grand jurors, if they were talking about two people they know and said they had a sexual relationship, they meant they were sleeping together. They meant they were having intercourse together.So I'm not at all sure that this affidavit is not true and was not true in Ms Lewinsky's mind at the time she swore it out.Q: Did you talk with Ms Lewinsky about what she meant to write in her affidavit?Clinton: I didn't talk to her about her definition. I did not know what was in this affidavit before it was filled out, specifically. I did not know what words was used - were used specifically before it was filled out or what meaning she gave to them.
