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CLINTON COMBATIVE; PRESIDENT APPEARED 'LOST' DURING PROSECUTOR'S QUESTIONING
**Exclusive**
**Contains Graphic description**
Tue Aug 18 00:27:33 1998 -- During his grand jury testimony on Monday, President Clinton may
have slipped further into perjury.
The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that the president responded repeatedly with "weak and confusing"
answers during his historic testimony -- answers that are bound to haunt him in future months!
"His story was all over the place," one well-placed source disclosed late Monday night.
"He had major trouble with the time line [of his contacts with Monica Lewinsky]... he stumbled
all over the Vernon Jordan questions. And his Betty Currie story was full of inconsistencies."
Clinton contradicted documents and tapes, according to the well-placed source, and appeared
"lost" during one heated exchange.
The DRUDGE REPORT was first to publish the Monica Lewinsky story in a series of exclusive
reports last January.
The WASHINGTON POST in Tuesday editions confirms that President Clinton was combative during
his closed session with Starr's prosecutors and investigators were not able to ask all the
questions they wanted to because Clinton refused to extend beyond the predetermined amount of
time.
Clinton took several breaks from his testimony on Monday to confer with his lawyers in the
doctor's office next door to the Map Room, the NEW YORK TIMES reports on Tuesday. "At about
3:30, he took a break that lasted roughly an hour," one Clinton ally told the paper.
Prosecutors were completely frustrated by Clinton's performance, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned
from several sources.
"At times, [Clinton] refused to provide specific answers to even the most basic questions,"
revealed one insider close to the action. "His answers did very little to convince
investigators that the evidence they've collected in the past 7 months could be flawed."
FOX NEWS CHANNEL ace reporter David Shuster was reporting late Monday night that Clinton was
hit with an unexpected line of questioning during his grand jury testimony.
It is not known the nature of those questions.
Susan Schmidt and Ruth Marcus on 15th Street reported that Clinton's "defiant stance appeared
to be a gamble that Starr will be left without enough evidence to bring a criminal case against
him or be able to convince Congress to launch impeachment proceedings."
It was not clear if any questions posed to Clinton on Monday were sexually graphic. But if
questions posed to another star witness in the case are any indication -- things likely turned
explicit at the White House.
The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that Monica Lewinsky, when asked by prosecutors if the president
performed "cunnilingus" on her, responded by saying she did not know what the word
"cunnilingus" meant.
In his nationally televised address to the nation Monday night, President Clinton acknowledged
an improper relationship with Lewinsky but denied that he lied under oath in his deposition in
the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.
And it's a good thing.
Because Bill Clinton, if he admitted to a lie, would have to follow his own advice.
At the height of Watergate in the summer of 1974, during Bill Clinton's race to become a U.S.
Representative from Arkansas, Clinton once declared: "If a President of the United States ever
lied to the American people he should resign."
Pause.
X X X X X
THE TAPES COMETH...?
"I wish we could release the tapes on Tuesday, after whatever he does on Monday, so people
would realize the depravity that has gone on... [depravity] is the best word I can find for
it."
That's what Lucianne Goldberg told me on WABC-AM Saturday night.
The country may soon get its first listen to the tapes that started a political nightmare. But
first, according to Goldberg, there are legal issues surrounding public release.
"We want to get the tapes out!" Goldberg told New York City. "We have copyright problems. But
we are trying... Linda Tripp did not sacrifice her career and her livelihood and her sanity for
all of these months to spend years in the court with litigation. So we have to work our way
through. But I know we will find a way!"
The tapes contain shocking details, not yet publicly known, about the former White House
intern's alleged relationship with the president.
X X X X X
'HE THAT SOWETH...'
**FLASHBACK**
January 20, 1993
For his inaugural ceremony, Bill Clinton chose a King James Bible given to him by his
grandmother, opened to a passage: "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption."
Aides said Clinton selected the passage for use during the swearing in from the Epistle of Paul
The Apostle to the Galatians, Chapter 6, Verse 8.
"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." |
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