Papers bare White House lies

The flood of additional evidence came as Republican sources said that on Monday, the top Republican lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee staff, David Schippers, would recommend adding to Starr’s list of potentially impeachable offenses and dropping one of the 11 grounds that Starr cited.Schippers, the sources said, is expected to suggest dropping a count in which Starr claimed Clinton abused his office byunlawfully invoking executive privilege to conceal evidence of his misconduct before the Grand Jury.

With the Lewinsky sexual affair about to explode in the news media last January, Jordan was on the telephone two dozen times with Clinton or presidential aides in a span of less than 12 hours.

Jordan said he didn’t recall what he and the President talked about.The seriousness of the brewing scandal was evident to a few of Clinton’s inner circle, including Jordan and presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey.Alerted to the Lewinsky problem, Jordan told Lindsey the President should settle Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit, even offering at one point to raise the money himself.

Jordan indicated that “… If it was a matter of trying to raise, you know whatever the money was that would be required to settle it, that he thought he could raise” it, Lindsey recounted of the effort in mid-January.The proposal went nowhere with the President. In a statement yesterday, White House legal adviser Gregory Craigdecried Starr’s failure to “include or discuss evidence favourable to the President” in his summary report to Congress and accused the prosecutor of “evidentiary manipulation and misdirection.” Starr fired back, calling Craig’s statement “disingenuous” and pointing out instances where exculpatory information was included in his report.

He added that he found it significant the White House had not challenged the credibility, or the factual underpinnings of nine of the 11 grounds for impeachment, including the President’s perjury in his deposition and before the grand jury.”

The day after Tripp began to work with Starr’s office, revealing that she had been urged to lie in the Jones case, she was wired by the FBI to record a lunch-time conversation with Lewinsky. Tripp repeatedly tried to get the former White House intern make incriminating statements about Clinton and Jordan.

With Lewinsky planning to deny having had sexual relations with the President, Tripp asked her friend whether Jordanaddressed “the perjury issue … Because this is perjury.”

“Yeah,” Lewinsky replied. “He said that he said, you’re not gonna go to jail. You’re not gonna go to jail.”

“Jordan has showed me … There’s no way to get caught in perjury in a situation like this,” said Lewinsky.

“Did you express concern at all?” Tripp asked.

“Yes, I did. Of course, I did … I was crying,” Lewinsky replied.In questioning secret service officers, Starr’s office delved into White House gossip.

Officer Brent Chinery testified that Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky was a topic of conversation among his colleagues. But he testified he had never seen nor heard of anyone directly witnessing any sexual incidents.

Prosecutors repeatedly asked secret service personnel to repeat gossip they may have heard.