Disputing Lewinsky's Taped
Claims, Lawyer Calls Her
'Reliable'
By Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 31, 1998; Page A01
Monica S. Lewinsky's lawyer last night contradicted
several key details that have been widely attributed
to her taped story of a torrid White House affair
with President Clinton, suggesting she sometimes
exaggerates or oversells even as he described her as
"totally reliable."
In a television interview, attorney William H.
Ginsburg denied widespread reports that Clinton
once gave Lewinsky a dress, "unless you consider a
long T-shirt a dress," and brushed off other gifts
from the president as "small and inconsequential."
While Lewinsky bragged in secretly recorded conversations with a friend of
long, steamy "phone sex" with Clinton, her attorney said their talks contained
no sexual banter.
And he flatly disputed a statement released earlier in the day by Lewinsky's
onetime friend, Linda R. Tripp, who said she was present on one occasion
when Clinton made a late-night call to the former White House intern at her
Watergate apartment. Tripp, who made the secret tapes that triggered the
crisis engulfing the White House, also said yesterday that she heard several
tapes of Clinton calling on other occasions and saw gifts they exchanged.
Ginsburg's comments, released in a transcript by ABC News and edited for
last night's "20/20 Friday," left the facts of the Lewinsky scandal seemingly
more confused at the end of the day than they already were at the start and
may help explain why prosecutors have been unable to reach an agreement
with Ginsburg that would secure her testimony in their investigation of
Clinton.
While Ginsburg pointedly did not address whether there was a sexual
relationship between Lewinsky and Clinton, he offered a far more innocent
interpretation of some of their interactions.
The telephone calls between the two were of the "Hi, hello, how are you,
fine" variety between "colleagues," he said. "They were few and far between
and as far as I know, they were in no way fraught with sexual innuendo,"
Ginsburg said.
Likewise, he said, the presents she received from Clinton were merely hats,
T-shirts, hat pins, a sleeve of golf balls and ashtrays. "There has never been a
gift that frankly you couldn't buy in the White House souvenir shop," he said.
She gave Clinton a tie that he has worn, he added.
Yet even as he seemed to minimize the intimacy of the contacts, the Ginsburg
interview suggested an unusually close connection between Clinton and
Lewinsky. Few White House interns or low-level staff assistants are showered
with repeated gifts or receive "how are you" telephone calls from the
president.
Ginsburg's sometimes ambiguous statements may reflect the complications
that have dragged out negotiations with independent counsel Kenneth W.
Starr over a cooperation agreement. Starr is investigating Lewinsky's
tape-recorded claims that Clinton had sex with her and urged her to lie about
it under oath in the Paula Jones case. Although Ginsburg has made a verbal
offer for her to testify in exchange for immunity, Starr's office has insisted
on a detailed, written version of her story.
To the extent that she contradicts her statements on tape, she could pose
problems for prosecutors and they want to know everything before signing
her up as a witness against the president.
Ginsburg said his client is "totally reliable," despite her own remark to Tripp
that she would be capable of lying under oath about having an affair with
Clinton because "I have lied all my life." Said Ginsburg, "There are people
who talk a lot and as part of the scenario, peccadilloes, they may tell fibs, lies,
exaggerations, oversell."
Tripp, meanwhile, broke her public silence yesterday and essentially backed
up the version of events captured on the tapes she turned over to Starr earlier
this month.
In the statement her lawyer released to the news media, Tripp complained
that she has been the object of "vicious personal attacks" by the Clinton
administration and that Lewinsky is being subjected to "a smear campaign"
intended to discredit her.
She sought to answer administration critics, led by first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton, who have claimed the Lewinsky scandal was trumped up by a
network of right-wing zealots out to get Clinton for political reasons. "The
very same administration which is now trying to portray me as a disgruntled
White House staffer, with a penchant for involving myself in scandals, has
promoted me twice . . . consistently given me the highest possible annual
evaluations and awarded me numerous certificates and merit pay increases,"
she said.
Tripp said Lewinsky "is a bright, caring generous soul -- one who has made
poor choices. She was not a stalker, she was invited; she did not embellish, the
truth is sensational enough." Tripp said she felt "horror" over the president's
"abuse of power" and Lewinsky's emotional anguish over the relationship.
Tripp said she went to Starr earlier this month to report possible crimes after
she was "being solicited to participate in a plan to conceal and cover up the
true nature of the relationship between Monica Lewinsky and President
Clinton." On the tapes, Lewinsky reportedly tried to convince Tripp to back
up her denial.
"Monica described every detail of the relationship during hundreds of hours
of conversations over the past 15 months," Tripp said. "In addition, I was
present when she received a late-night phone call from the president. I have
also seen numerous gifts they exchanged and heard several of her tapes of
him. I was also present when Monica made and received numerous phone
calls, which were of a volatile and contentious nature directly relating to her
relationship with the president."
As events continued to move on multiple fronts, Clinton won a minor victory
yesterday when a federal court barred Jones's attorneys from questioning
Secret Service agents about whether they have witnessed any illicit sexual
activity by the president.
The Secret Service had sought to block four subpoenas from Jones's lawyers,
who are attempting to prove a pattern of conduct by Clinton that would
bolster their client's claim of sexual harassment when he was governor of
Arkansas and she was a state clerk. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright,
who is presiding over the Jones case in Little Rock, declined to recognize a
special right of confidentiality, as the service asked, but ruled that such
testimony was not needed because it was not "essential to the core issues in
this case."
Just the day before Wright prohibited Jones's lawyers from using evidence
related to Lewinsky in their case because it might interfere with Starr's
inquiry and she cited the same rationale yesterday.
Wright also said that given the "numerous 'leaks' of sealed information in this
case," she feared that Secret Service testimony would be divulged publicly
"and provide those with hostile intent toward the president with important
information to use in piercing the Secret Service's protection." In a footnote
underscoring her ire at news leaks, Wright warned she could punish
violations of her "gag" order with contempt citations or by barring the use of
leaked information at trial.
The ruling, however, does not end the matter. Starr also wants information
from the president's security detail and officials are still negotiating over
whether some accommodation can be made.
A Secret Service employees group wrote Starr yesterday asking him to back
off. "Secret Service officers are duty bound to a confidence of the highest
order which must be protected forever from every intrusion," wrote Michael
T. Leibig, an attorney representing the Uniformed Division of the Secret
Service Officers Association.
Also yesterday, Evelyn S. Lieberman, a former White House deputy chief of
staff, testified before the grand jury for about three hours. She gave a brief
statement to reporters in front of the federal courthouse in Washington, but
refused to take any questions.
She said: "As you know, I've just spent the last few hours testifying before the
grand jury. Many of the question they asked were the same questions the
press has been asking me in the last week. Most of the pieces I've read about
my role in the matter have been, for the most part, portrayed accurately.
"But I want to make one thing particularly clear: I know of no improper
relationship between the president and Monica Lewinsky, or anyone else for
that matter."
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