ASSOCIATED PRESSPORTLAND (OREGON), Jan 28: Monica Lewinsky's former high school drama instructor said he had a five-year affair with her and that she also claimed to have had a sexual relationship with a ``high-ranking White House official''.Andy Bleiler, a 32-year-old theatre technician at the Vancouver (Washington state) School of Arts and Academics, stood with his wife, Kathy, and his attorney at a news conference on Tuesday on the front lawn of his Portland home.His lawyer, Terry Giles of Rancho Santa Fe, California, who did most of the talking, said he and the Bleilers were inclined not to believe much of what Lewinsky told them because they consider her untruthful.``Kathy and Andy would both describe Monica as having a pattern of twisting facts, especially to enhance her version of her own self-image,'' Giles said.
Bleiler said his affair with Lewinsky began in 1992 after she transferred from Beverly Hills, California, High School, where he then worked in the drama department. He said it continuedduring the two years she attended Lewis and Clark College here and went on even after she graduated in 1995 and left for Washington.
Bleiler said the relationship ended last April after his wife found out about it, when word filtered back to her through Lewinsky's bragging to college acquaintances.
William Ginsburg, Lewinsky's attorney, confirmed his client had an affair with Bleiler but called it irrelevant to her current legal troubles.``This is a grown woman,'' Ginsburg said. ``She has had relationships with men.
That is neither shocking nor is it surprising.''Giles said Lewinsky told Bleiler that she was having oral sex with a ``high-ranking White House official'' and was ``frustrated and agitated'' that that was all he wanted to have.The attorney added that Lewinsky continued to confide in the couple long after she went to work at the White House. He noted that she never mentioned Clinton specifically, but referred to the White House official as ``the creep''.
Lewinsky reportedly referred to thePresident as ``the creep'' on secretly recorded tapes made by former White House colleague Linda Tripp.Giles also said Lewinsky told the Bleilers when she left for her Washington internship in June 1995: ``I'm going to the White House to get my Presidential kneepads.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.