More sex & lies at the White House

She confided about her travails to her colleague Linda Tripp, who surreptitiously taped 10 such conversations. Tripp handed over those audiotapes to independent counsel Kenneth Starr who is investigating the President on various charges starting with the Whitewater case.

In the tapes, Lewinsky is said to have given a graphic account of a year-and-a-half long affair she said she had with Clinton. The President, she says, asked her not to worry about the Jones case because Jones’ lawyers would never find out about the relationship. But Jones’ lawyers did find out about the relationship and she was notified to give her testimony. She then called the President and he advised her to deny the affair. He told her that his close aide Vernon Jordan would help her figure out what to say.

Lewinsky has since given an affidavit in the Jones case on January 7 in which she has denied having an affair with Clinton. Clinton too was asked about Lewinsky during his deposition last weekend and has denied having sexual relations with the intern. The White House today issued an angry statement saying the President was outraged by the latest allegations and has never had any improper relationship with this woman. Clintons lawyer Robert Bennett said: “The President adamantly denies having a relationship with Ms Lewinsky and she has confirmed the truth of that…This story seems ridiculous and I frankly smell a rat”.

The Lewinsky story comes close on the heels of another alleged infraction involving Kathleen Willey, another White House aide. Tripp, the woman who taped Lewinsky, had disclosed last year that she once saw Willey emerge from the Oval office with her make-up smeared and clothes askew. Willey apparently told her she had had an encounter with Clinton. But Willey rejected the efforts of Jones’ lawyers to depose against him.

She was finally subpoenaed and forced to testify. She is reported to have said she went to Clinton to seek a better job and he grabbed her, started kissing and groping her, saying “I’ve always wanted to do that”. Every year, hundreds of young men and women straight out of college come to Washington for internship and often find placement in places like the White House, Pentagon or the Democratic National Party for internship.

Often star-struck with political Washington, they stay on to become staffers at the bottom of the rung and work their way up. By zeroing in on cases like Willey and Lewinsky, Jones’ lawyers are hoping to establish a pattern of behaviour by the President that will help them in their case.

Lewinsky has since left Washington for New York and even the hungry American media has not been able to track her or Tripp down. But a lawyer for Lewinsky said she was an innocent young victim of the political system.

It is not known yet why Tripp went to Independent Kenneth Starr and what implication it will have on the Paula Jones case. Starr was appointed to look into the Whitewater case and has steadily expanded his investigation to cover other matters. He has now sought to examine the new allegations of suborning perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice in the case involving Monica Lewinsky.