Her attorney was Francis D. Carter. Mr. Starr's agents did everything they could, short of physical force, to keep Ms. Lewinsky from calling Frank Carter. They gave her the number of another lawyer and suggested she call him. They told her she had signed a false affidavit and could go to prison for 27 years. On that Friday afternoon Mr. Carter had not yet filed Ms. Lewinsky's affidavit.
Federal law makes it a crime only to file a false affidavit in a civil case.
You can swear one, keep it, then change it or tear it up without violating the law. Mr. Starr knew about the affidavit from Linda Tripp's last taped conversation with Ms. Lewinsky, and knew from Paula Jones's lawyers that it might not yet have been filed. That is why his deputies worked so hard to keep Ms. Lewinsky from calling Frank Carter. If he knew what was happening, they realized, he would not file it. And they wanted a crime.