Duncan:
FROM THE "DRUDGE REPORT" www.drudgereport.com
Prosecutors subpoena Stephanopoulos in Lewinsky case
By Glen Johnson, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - To date, former White House aide George
Stephanopoulos has offered his insight into the Monica Lewinsky
case as a political commentator. Now he can offer it from a
different perspective: grand jury witness.
Stephanopoulos was called to U.S. District Court today to appear
before the grand jury reviewing allegations that President Clinton
had sex with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and then
engaged in a cover-up.
In his previous role as one of Clinton's most trusted lieutenants,
Stephanopoulos worked in the West Wing just outside the Oval
Office.
"I met her, sure,'' he said of Lewinsky during an appearance
Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live'' program. "I would see her in
the hallway; she would hang out at the Starbucks by my house.''
In his current capacity as political commentator for ABC News,
Stephanopoulos has been blunt in his assessment of the charges
facing his former boss.
"If they're true, they're not only politically damaging but it could
lead to impeachment proceedings,'' he said after the story broke on
Jan. 21.
ABC News reported Monday that another witness called to testify
today was a White House intern who signed for packages Ms.
Lewinsky allegedly sent from the Pentagon to the White House
from last October through December. Ms. Lewinsky worked in the
Pentagon public affairs office after she left the White House in April
1996.
Among others who have received subpoenas but not yet testified
are Vernon Jordan, the prominent Washington attorney and Clinton
confidant who helped Ms. Lewinsky get a job after leaving the
Pentagon, and Bruce Lindsey, the president's longtime friend and a
White House lawyer.
Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who is spearheading the
investigation, said Monday that "we've been focused hard on some
of the questions and issues,'' but he declined to elaborate.
A Clinton adviser said Lindsey's appearance has been delayed while
administration officials tried to determine how to protect the
confidentiality of conversations between him and Clinton.
The White House may argue that his conversations with the
president on the Lewinsky matter were protected by executive
privilege, the Clinton adviser said.
Meanwhile, the Secret Service was raising concerns about the kinds
of questions that Starr might want to ask agents. A senior Clinton
adviser said that, although no final decision had been made,
administration lawyers were prepared to fight any effort by Starr to
subpoena Secret Service agents.
The officials spoke only on condition they not be named.
Ms. Lewinsky's lawyer, William Ginsburg, went to the Watergate
apartment building Monday night, apparently to meet with his
client. He said over the weekend that the 24-year-old would be
going back to California this week to visit her father.
In California, the UCLA Daily Bruin reported that a college student
who worked as a Pentagon intern had said Ms. Lewinsky told him
last summer she had a sexual relationship with Clinton.
Dennis Lytton, a political science major at the University of
California, Los Angeles, said he briefly dated Ms. Lewinsky after
they met at the Pentagon last July. |
