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LAST UPDATED ON SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2001
A Guide to the Monica Lewinsky Story
Beginning in January of 1998, The Coffee Shop Times provided the
Lewinsky Guide as an overview of developments in Kenneth Starr's
investigation of the relationship between President Clinton and
Monica Lewinsky. However, once Kenneth Starr's report was released
by Congress on September 11, 1998, much of the information below
became a matter of public record and was no longer based in news
articles, many of which often relied on anonymous sourcing.
For the most part, CST's Guide to the Monica Lewinsky Story is
now an Internet news resource. Occasionally, new link postings
will still appear on this page, but, for the most part, the story
has run its course.
To maintain the Lewinsky Story's original feel, we will leave
much of this page's content as it was in the days before the release
of the Starr Report.
Our "Guide to the Monica Lewinsky Story" is divided into three
parts:
-- Links to recent Lewinsky-related items on the Internet
-- An overview of the players involved
-- The legal ramifications of the investigation
If you have any questions or comments regarding CST's "Guide to
the Monica Lewinsky Story", please send them via e-mail to the staff of The Coffee Shop Times. |
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RELATED COVERAGE:
--Quotables
--Yahoo! Full Coverage: Clinton Intern Investigation
--Clinton Impeached (PBS.org)
RELATED STORIES:
--Clinton's Aug. 17 Address
--Judge Rejects Secret Service Privilege Claim
--Excerpt from Kathleen Willey's Interview with "60 Minutes"
--Various White House Responses to Willey's "60 Minutes" Interview
--Excerpt from Kathleen Willey's Deposition to Paula Jones' Lawyers
--Excerpt from Clinton's Deposition to Jones' Lawyers Regarding
Willey
--Excerpt from Clinton's Deposition to Jones' Lawyers Regarding
Lewinsky
--Vernon Jordan's Statement after his Second Day before the Grand
Jury
--White House Seeks Investigation of Leaks -- Blames Starr
--Kenneth Starr Outlines Conditions for Immunity
--Linda Tripp's Statement on Her Role in the Case
--Excerpt from Janet Reno's Request for an Expansion of Starr's
Investigation
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AN OVERVIEW OF MONICA LEWINSKY:
Role: Signed an affidavit for Paula Jones' lawyers in which she denied
ever having an affair with the president. However it has been
reported that audiotapes exist in which she tells her friend Linda
Tripp that she indeed had a lengthy affair with President Clinton.
Reports also allege these audiotapes include conversations which
hint that Ms. Lewinsky may have been instructed by the president
and people close to him to deny that a sexual relationship ever
existed between Lewinsky and Clinton.
According to a Jan. 29 Washington Post story, sources close to
Ms. Lewinsky say she has told them the president had a private
meeting with her on December 28 and suggested that she could avoid
testifying in the Paula Jones case by going to New York City.
He also allegedly told her that she could testify that her visits
to the White House were to see his secretary. At the time of this
meeting, Ms. Lewinsky had already been subpoenaed by Jones' lawyers,
but it is not clear whether the president knew this. She signed
the affidavit ten days later.
The Clinton Administration has rejected press requests for entry
logs which would contain documentation of any Lewinsky visits
to the White House after leaving her job there in April of 1997.
But many media organizations have reported that Ms. Lewinsky visited
the White House 37 times after moving to her job at the Pentagon.
The New York Times reported on Feb. 6 that Betty Currie, the president's
personal secretary, has told the grand jury in Kenneth Starr's
investigation that the president and Ms. Lewinsky were sometimes
alone during those visits.
Ms. Currie also turned over gifts to investigators which she had
retrieved from Ms. Lewinsky. These were gifts the president had
originally given to Ms. Lewinsky himself. Kenneth Starr is concerned
that Ms. Currie may have been instructed by President Clinton
to keep these gifts so that aspects of his relationship with Ms.
Lewinsky would remain hidden.
According to a March 5 report in the Washington Post, the president
told Paula Jones' lawyers in his deposition that he may have been
alone with Ms. Lewinsky a few times and that they exchanged modest
gifts. Reportedly he did not dispute having given her a book,
a hat pin, a broach and various souvenirs from Martha's Vineyard.
A former Secret Service officer, Lewis C. Fox, has told the Washington
Post that he was positioned outside the Oval Office door on a
weekend in 1995 when Ms. Lewinsky went inside with paperwork and
remained for at least 40 minutes alone with the president. With
this Feb. 11 Post report, Fox became the first person to state
publicly that he knows of a time when Lewinsky and Clinton were
alone.
On Jan. 23, ABC News reported that Lewinsky may have had in her
possession a blue dress--kept as a souvenir--which was stained
with the semen of the president. The report says she mentioned
the existence of the dress during her conversations with Ms. Tripp.
It has since been reported that Lewinsky turned over the dress
to Starr's team after cutting a transactional immunity deal for
herself and her mother. Starr then turned over the dress to the
FBI for DNA testing.
[DNA extracted from a vial of blood taken from the president turned
out to match the DNA "fingerprint" taken from the semen on Ms.
Lewinsky's dress providing, for the purposes of the Starr Report,
physical evidence of a sexual relationship between the president
and Monica Lewinsky.]
On July 28, Monica Lewinsky's lawyers announced that a transactional
immunity deal had been struck for their client. Many news organizations
reported that Ms. Lewinsky admitted to having a sexual relationship
with the president during a meeting with prosecutors on July 27
in New York. It can be assumed that this admission by Ms. Lewinsky
paved the way for what amounts to the broadest type of immunity
a prosecutor can possibly grant.
In addition, Marcia Lewis, Ms. Lewinsky's mother, was also granted
the same level of immunity. Her grand jury testimony had been
interrupted last February -- probably because she wished to work
out an immunity deal as well.
Background: Monica Lewinsky graduated with a degree in psychology from Lewis
and Clark College in the spring of 1995. Shortly thereafter, she
accepted an unpaid internship at the White House. As an intern,
she worked under former chief of staff Leon Panetta. After that,
she took a full-time job in the Clinton administration's legislative
affairs office. By the spring of 1996, according to the Washington
Post, she obtained a job -- with the help of White House officials
-- as the "confidential assistant, with top-secret clearance,
to the Pentagon's top spokesman." The Post reports that this job
paid $32,700. At the Pentagon she met and became friends with
Linda Tripp who worked on a different floor but in the same department. |
IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES AND THEIR POTENTIAL RAMIFICATIONS:
On Wednesday, September 9, 1998, Kenneth Starr's Office of Independent
Counsel delivered its report on the Lewinsky investigation to
the House of Representatives for consideration. Within the report
were 11 counts of possible impeachable offenses allegedly commited
by the president. Among those counts were charges of perjury,
obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
On Saturday, December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives passed
two articles of impeachment against President Clinton -- one regarding
grand jury perjury, the other, obstruction of justice.
Grand Jury Perjury -- Intentionally lying under oath about a fact material to the
case under consideration.
During President Clinton's grand jury testimony, he denied ever
having had "sexual relations" -- as defined in the Paula Jones
sexual harassment case -- with Monica Lewinsky, a White House
intern and later, a White House employee. However, according to
Monica Lewinsky's grand jury testimony, the president's activities
during their meetings would have fallen within the parameters
of the Jones case definition for sexual relations.
During a Senate trial, managers from the House of Representatives
attempted to prove other instances of grand jury perjury as well.
By passing the article of impeachment regarding grand jury perjury,
the House of Representatives determined that a President of the
United States should be removed from office if he/she commits
felonies (perjury) in an effort to win a civil court case.
Obstruction of Justice -- Article alleged obstruction of justice, charging Clinton with encouraging Lewinsky to submit a false affidavit and give false testimony in court, plotting to hide his gifts to her, and attempting to find Lewinsky a job to prevent her truthful testimony. It also accused Clinton of making false and misleading statements to key White House staff and of allowing his attorney, Bob Bennett to make false statements about the Lewinsky affidavit.
| Lewinsky Story Commentary from. . . THE Coffee Shop Times... |
Sausage, Anyone?
BY MARK WATKINS
March 12, 1999
The Politics of Apathy
BY ZACK NGUYEN
January 29, 1999
Bring on the Witnesses
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
January 14, 1999
The Framers' Intent
(or lack thereof)
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
December 14, 1998
Truth in Clinton's
America
BY ZACK NGUYEN
December 12, 1998
A Senate Trial:
What If?
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
December 10, 1998
He Ain't Heavy, He's
My Brother
BY NHARS BENDIR
December 9, 1998
The Electorate Speaks
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
November 5, 1998
No Deal, Bubba
BY MARK WATKINS
October 20, 1998 |
What's the Frequency, Sidney?
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
October 7, 1998
Hang 'Em High
BY NHARS BENDIR
October 2, 1998
What's That Smell?
BY NHARS BENDIR
September 24, 1998
Political Agendas vs.
Broken Oaths
BY ZACK NGUYEN
September 23, 1998
Clinton Defenders,
Listen Up!
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
September 18, 1998
The Average American's Case
for Impeachment
BY MARK WATKINS
September 16, 1998
The Spotlight of Truth
BY MARK WATKINS
September 10, 1998
Guaranteeing an
Apologist in Every Pot
BY ZACK NGUYEN
September 3, 1998
Starting with the
Man in the Mirror
BY MARK WATKINS
August 19, 1998 |
Clinton's Mea Sorta
BY ZACK NGUYEN
August 19, 1998
At the Crossroads of
a Presidency
BY ZACK NGUYEN
August 10, 1998
Nixonian Aspects of
the Lewinsky Story
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
July 20, 1998
How Clinton Makes
Wright Decisions
BY ZACK NGUYEN
April 9, 1998
Our Forefathers Fought
for This?
BY ZACK NGUYEN
March 23, 1998
Congressional Hearings
and Kathleen Willey
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
March 17, 1998
Wag the Starr
BY ZACK NGUYEN
March 10, 1998
Hillary's Conspiracy
BY DOUGLAS BARRICKLOW
January 28, 1998 |
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