WASHINGTON, January 22: As allegations of a new sex scandal crashed into the White House like a giant wrecking ball and shook the Clinton Presidency to its very foundations, investigators seeking evidence served notice Wednesday evening on the President's home and office, notwithstanding his guarded denial about an affair with 21-year old intern Monica Lewinsky.Legal experts said that if President Clinton had lied under oath about having sexual relations with a White House aide and urged her to deny it, it represented serious criminal violations that could lead to his impeachment, removal from office and prosecution.
Clinton deposed last week in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct case and reportedly denied an affair with Lewinsky, although for the first time he is said to have admitted to having an affair with Gennifer Flowers.
FBI investigators attached to special counsel Kenneth Starr's office are looking for logs showing when and how often Monica Lewinsky visited the White House. Starr's broad
subpoena demands employment records, correspondence, message slips and videotapes to track reports that the President received gifts from her and bought her gifts, including dresses and trinkets. Starr is also looking for any evidence that could show that the President suborned perjury and obstructed justice - in which case it could be curtains for Clinton.
The President, meanwhile, went on a denial spree in a series of pre-scheduled interviews that he did not cancel even after the story broke. But he was noticeably taciturn in the rejection of the charges, leaving himself plenty of wiggle room. The shifty tone and grammar of his denials sparked off a semantic debate, although he once said he was "furious" with the charges.
The exercise began with the very first statement he issued in the morning denying that he had any "improper affair" with the intern. This led to a great deal of questioning of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry by reporters wanting to know if the President had a sexual affair
with the girl and if there is any such thing as a "proper affair". The President compounded the suspicion in subsequent interviews to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) in which he said, "There is no affair... there is no improper relations..." This touched off further speculation about the tenses he chose to use and the semantics of the denial. Although, Clinton told Roll Call magazine in a third scheduled interview of the day that he had had no sexual affair with the intern, the earlier guarded denials - apparently at the behest of his legal advisers - had done the damage.
Meanwhile, Monica Lewinsky, the woman at the centre of the storm was incommunicado. Reporters staked the Watergate apartment complex (next to the infamous hotel), where she shared an apartment with her mother, without much success.
Her lawyer though, bunged a further spanner in the works, not standing by his client's denial of an affair with Clinton, which she made in her affidavit to Paula Jones'
attorneys.
"If the allegations are true, then he (Clinton) is a misogynist, and I question his ability to lead. If they are not true, then why is the independent prosecutor ravaging the life of a 23-year-old girl?" attorney William Ginsburg said.
Lewinsky is to be deposed by Paula Jones' lawyers on Friday in the sexual misconduct case. She has already field an affidavit saying she did not have an affair with Clinton. But that was before the tapes in which she talks about the affair surfaced. Reports say she now plans to take the Fifth Amendment, under which a person can refuse to testify on grounds of self-incrimination. Attention also focused on special prosecutor Ken Starr and what his locus standi was to investigate the sex scandal. Starr began by inquiring into the Whitewater affair but has gradually expanded his brief to look into the murder of Vince Foster, a White House aide, an affair called Filegate, and now has butted into an alleged sex scandal. "Ken Starr has finally found a way to make
Arkansas land deal sexy," a media specialist said sardonically.
The story dominated the media, completely overshadowing the Pope visit to Cuba and the Middle East talks.
"This is the worst act of self-destruction or the worst smear in the history of the Presidency, depending on which way it goes," veteran commentator David Gergen said. As usual, the late night shows had a field day. "Let me be the first to say welcome to President Gore," Jay Leno quipped, adding, "He's just one orgasm away from the Presidency." Polls showed Clinton may survive the alleged affair but not the charges of suborning perjury if it is proved.
He incidentally celebrated five years in office earlier in the week - a time in which he has survived charges ranging from draft dodging to pot smoking. But the one allegation that has dogged him consistently is those relating to womanising. As Leno quipped: "Only Clinton could deflect attention from a sex scandal...to another sex scandal."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
