Critics Rip Counsel's Probe into Clinton's Private Life - latimes Critics Rip Counsel's Probe into Clinton's Private Life June 26, 1997 |JONATHAN PETERSON | TIMES STAFF WRITER WASHINGTON — Responding to a report that Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr is investigating President Clinton's private life, Clinton's advocates, including two former White House attorneys, unleashed a furious assault on Starr for conducting "a salacious witch hunt," and demanded that he either renounce it or quit. "Looking into the president's private life is nothing more than prurient excess," Abner J. Mikva and Jack Quinn, former chief counsels in the Clinton White House, said Wednesday in a joint statement. Such an inquiry would be "completely irrelevant to the purpose of the Whitewater investigation . . . a gross abuse of Starr's authority and . . . prosecutorial misbehavior that should gravely concern all Americans," they said. The firestorm was sparked by a Washington Post report that said Whitewater investigators have sought intimate details of Clinton's past personal relationships in interviews with Arkansas state troopers.

In a statement released Wednesday, Starr defended his inquiry and said statements that he is investigating the president's personal life are "incorrect." He said his staff is interviewing witnesses "with whom the subjects of this investigation have been associated, and who therefore may possess relevant factual information. We have no control over who those persons might or might not be." According to the report, Starr sought to interview certain of Clinton's female acquaintances in a bid to check the accuracy of his sworn statements. "It's very legitimate to ask those questions," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "It's uncomfortable, but yes, they have the right to do that . . . because it might relate to perjury or obstruction." But Clinton's defenders Wednesday responded to the revelations in tones of moral outrage: "It is intolerable, and it is wrong," said Clinton's private Whitewater attorney, David Kendall. The reports sparked a sharp deterioration in the increasingly hostile relationship between the White House and the independent counsel. Starr's critics have accused him of mounting a partisan vendetta while failing to establish a case against the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton over the Whitewater land deal and related issues.

Earlier this week, however, Starr's probe seemed to gain a new lease on life when the Supreme Court let stand a lower court's ruling that the White House had to supply him with notes of conversations between Mrs. Clinton and White House attorneys. In a statement Wednesday, Kendall said that if the latest disclosures about the Whitewater inquiry are true, they are "indicative of an investigation that has lost its way." "It is out of control," he said. "No one's personal life should be subjected to a desperate dragnet by a prosecutor with unlimited resources." Clinton did not respond Wednesday when reporters tried to shout a question at him above the din of a helicopter about to take him to a conference on family values in Nashville, Tenn. But White House aides did not seem unhappy with the idea of Clinton's legal tormentor on the receiving end of controversy. "We're not taking any position--but it's easy to understand why people would find this curious," said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary. Robert Bennett, an attorney who represents Clinton in the separate matter of a sexual harassment suit being pressed by Paula Corbin Jones, said: "For the independent counsel to pry into Mr.

Clinton's sex life is a frightening abuse of the grand jury process and the law enforcement power." Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a statement saying, "This kind of crass invasion of individual privacy, if true, is indefensible, whether the target of these tactics is the president or any other citizen. It is outrageous, and it is sickening. It is character assassination, not a criminal investigation and it is wrong." Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story. MORE: Hillary’s financial history is a clear trap for Democrats | New York Post Hillary’s financial history is a clear trap for Democrats How does the jobless population in America survive? The fact that Hillary Clinton hasn’t been indicted at least once in her life is, in itself, an indictment of our legal system. She has certainly lived a charmed life on the edge of disaster. Rather than seeking to have Hillary defeated in the primaries, Republicans should be praying that she’s picked as the Democrats’ nominee. I’ll get to the reasons shortly. You probably already know more about the recent email flap from when Hillary was secretary of state than I do. She apparently received sensitive and secret emails that shouldn’t have been sent to her personal computer.

Others have done this before her, defenders say. Still, the FBI is looking into the matter and the gossip is that Hillary could be indicted for this. That’s not what I’m writing about today. This column is dedicated to Hillary and Bill Clinton’s alleged financial crimes that, in and of themselves, should anger enough of the hard-working electorate that her defeat in a presidential election would seem likely. The only question in my mind is whether the Democrats will allow themselves to walk into that trap. In the late 1990s, I spent a lot of time looking into Bill and Hill’s antics and I was convinced by sources working with the Whitewater investigation that the two were the Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow of Arkansas politics — minus the guns, of course. There wasn’t a financial scam they would not run in their home state or a coverup that was beneath them. They gravitated toward shady real estate deals, although too-good-to-be-true commodities transactions were also a specialty. Before I continue, let me offer up a bit of full disclosure: I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. And I voted for President Obama in his first presidential campaign, in 2008.

I must belong to the “I Hate the Incumbent’s Party” party. Neither got my vote the second time. So I’m about as politically independent and flexible — some might say random and capricious — as anyone can be. (Save the emails, folks — I don’t care what you think about my voting record.) As you know, there was a massive investigation into the Clintons in the ’90s by Whitewater Special Prosecutor Ken Starr. But that probe got sidetracked and veered in a totally different direction because of the salacious accusations regarding a young White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky may have saved Bill and Hillary by diverting attention from the financial scams. Indicting a sitting president would have been impossible — that’s what impeachment is for. But the wife of a sitting president has no protection and Hillary came very, very close to the business end of a grand jury’s true bill. Here’s what I wrote in a column in May 1998: “Meanwhile, sources say Starr is fighting his staff’s efforts to indict Hillary Clinton.

One source says the disagreement is heated, but another said it was merely a professional difference of opinion.” My column continued: “It’s a division of views among reasonable people,” said one source with intimate knowledge of the investigation. “The final decision is in Ken [Starr’s] hands. I think I know which way it’s coming out.” But you can bet on one thing: Nothing will be off limits if Hillary becomes the Democrats’ nominee. There were even rumors at the time that a document for Hillary’s indictment had been drafted. But she wasn’t charged because — as I said — Starr probably saw Lewinsky as a quicker way of dealing with Bill. But here’s the thing: All of the evidence gathered by Starr’s team is sitting somewhere, waiting to be revisited. And there are plenty of people who worked on that investigation — and/or know about the Arkansas crimes — who are still living and who probably aren’t bound by either conscience or the law from telling what they know. I’m already trying to get some of my old sources on the phone. But the conservative political group Judicial Watch is way ahead of me. In late January, the group released details from a memo written by Starr that laid out criminal charges against Hillary.

There were numerous real estate scandals — all of which I covered in the ’90s — and not just the one we know as Whitewater. Judicial Watch is also suing to get a copy of Hillary’s draft indictment, which it seems to think is at the National Archives. There were also plenty of rumors about Hillary’s private life that I didn’t write about back then and won’t now because they don’t belong in a column like this. But you can bet on one thing: Nothing will be off limits if Hillary becomes the Democrats’ nominee. And this is why I’ve said for at least the past year that I didn’t think she’ll end up being her party’s choice. Whether it’s Bernie Sanders, or Vice President Joe Biden riding to the rescue — or someone else (Michael Bloomberg comes to mind) coming off the bench — the Democrats’ nominating process could get very interesting. If Hillary does somehow become the choice, she’ll be fighting two strong opponents come Election Day on Nov. 8: the Republican nominee and all those skeletons locked up in some far-off closet that are just now starting to make some noise. Share this: Clinton's Skeleton Closet: Monica Lewinsky, The White House Intern Scandal Starr The Hug I just give up!

There is no way to stay on top of this emerging scandal, so we're going to leave our (now outdated) material below, and provide links to to actual documents that spell it all out. Here are links to: The full Independent Prosecutor's Report for nasty-minded readers, you can go straight to the dirty parts which actually list each sexual encounter, building up to the especially nasty cigar incident . Ken Starr really seems to enjoy his work, huh? More significantly, here is a fascinating, detailed analysis of the different reported versions of the "Talking Points" how they were altered in various publications and who may have written them. Unfortunately, an actual picture of the Talking Points, which was on the MSNBC web site, has apparently been removed. Quotes "'Days of Our Lives' adds spice to life." -- Monica Lewinksy, quoted in the LA Times, 1991 "So if that happened to have happened, then, you know, we've got a big problem on our hands.

We have perhaps the first presidential canoodler in history." -- Orrin Hatch, Senator and gospel singer "I'm going to the White House to get my presidential kneepads." - Lewinsky in 1992, before she left for Washington, according to her friend and cuckoldress Kathy Bleiler ``I think the actions of (Clinton's) adversaries are really dirty. It's a real example of the things that occur in that country, of the lack of ethics.'' -- Fidel Castro "I was brought up with lies all the time... that's how you got along... I have lied my entire life..." -- Lewinsky, on one of Linda Tripp's tapes. Here are the latest ALLEGED facts, as reported by thousands of real reporters: What Happened --Monica Lewinsky got a White House internship in 1995. That�s an unpaid position working in the White House, which is a standard way to get started in Washington if you 1) are a member of the President�s party and 2) can afford to work without pay. She was 21, just graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland OR.

Her dad is a prominent doctor in LA; her mom just wrote a trashy expose on the sex lives of the 3 Tenors. In fact, according to Newsweek, Lewinsky's mom drafted a press release for her book that implied she slept with Placido Domingo, giving her "inside" knowledge. Domingo denies having an affair with her. --Lewinsky by all accounts had a major crush on Clinton. She got herself a paid job with the Office of Legislative Affairs, and was eventually transferred to work very close to him. -- Apparently, on taped phone calls secretly taped by her friend Linda Tripp, Lewinsky says she had oral sex with Clinton, and that he called her several times late at night for phone sex (meaning, mutual masturbation while talking on the phone.) (Only part of one tape has been made public.) On one of the excerpts of the tapes that Newsweek has released , Lewinsky states that she already had a government job when she got involved with Clinton. -- Lewinsky also reportedly said on one tape that Clinton does not consider oral sex to be adultery. He is said to have told an Arkansas trooper the same thing back in the 1980s.

Alert readers will remember that one woman who admitted an affair with Newt Gingrich said he preferred oral sex in his extramarital affairs because he could deny sleeping with the women. Staff members for Virginia Democratic Senator Robb also have made similar statements, explaining his denials. As it turns out, Clinton's definitional defense was a little different; the question asked of him basically said, "Did you do anything to her?" And he is saying, No, she did all the doing. That means he did not touch her breasts or genitals with intent to arouse at any time. -- Clinton gave her several gifts. Her lawyer says that these include a sleeve of golf balls, ash trays and a souvenir hat from Martha's Vineyard, where Clinton and his family vacation. Press reports also say that Clinton gave Lewinsky a blue dress (see "Evidence -- Gifts" below) and a book of poetry, Walt Whitman�s famous �Leaves of Grass.� One reporter claims that Canto 5 of �Song of Myself� is famous as a reference to oral sex. More generally, �Leaves of Grass� is the most famous book of American poetry and the kind of thing that earnest young romantics really dig.

Lewinsky's attorney denied that she got a blue dress, "unless you consider a long t-shirt a dress." -- Lewinsky told reporters last summer, before the scandal broke, that she gave Clinton a tie he wore during a televised speech. (A Clinton supporter claims he actually gave the tie.) Lewinsky also placed a Valentine's Day ad for Clinton in the Washington Post last year, according to the Post, which cited unreleased tapes of Lewinsky's phone call as a source. You'll have to scroll down quite aways in this long Washington Post story to find this item. -- Lewinsky's credibility is an issue, and not just because of the attacks you'd expect from Clinton allies. Several people Newsweek interviewed for their initial story, before the White House even knew about it, said that Lewinsky bragged a lot about her political connections and affairs, and it would not be unlike her to invent or embellish an affair like this. On one tape, Lewinsky herself says "I was brought up with lies all the time... that's how you got along...

I have lied my entire life..." Her own attorney contradicted many of the allegations made in the tapes, saying "There are people who talk a lot and as part of the scenario, peccadilloes, they may tell fibs, lies, exaggerations, oversell." He went on to say that she is "totally reliable," however. And a drama teacher she had an affair with says that she had "a pattern of twisting the facts," especially to bolster her ego, and that he doesn't believe her allegations about sex with Clinton. -- Clinton's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Evelyn Lieberman says that she forced Lewinsky to transfer to the Pentagon because she was behaving �inappropriately� around the President � wearing super short dresses, and being too flirtatious. Lieberman, a close friend of Hillary Clinton, has denied that she knew of any incident between Clinton and Lewinsky. -- Lewinsky visited the Oval Office 37 times after her transfer, logging in as coming to visit Clinton�s private secretary, Betty Currie, who is famously loyal and discreet. Her immediate supervisor at the Pentagon said it was not part of her job to visit the White House.

She visited as recently as December 28, 1997, according to the Washington Post. That was 20 months after she stopped working at the White House, and 11 days after she was subpoenaed by Paula Jones' lawyers, and 10 days before she filed her affidavit denying an affair with Clinton. It was also 2 days after she quit her Pentagon job and 2 days before she had Vernon Jordan-arranged interviews with Revlon and Burson-Marsteller in New York City. (Revlon offered her a job; Burson-Marsteller did not.) -- One of her new co-workers at the Pentagon was Linda Tripp, one of only two Bush Administration holdovers, and a woman who had testfied against the Clinton White House in the �filegate� incident. She had tried to sell an expose book on Clinton, including a chapter on Clinton�s women, for $500,000 to a conservative publisher (Regnery, which published Gary Aldrich's widely discredited book) but was turned down by publishers.

-- In the summer of 1997, after her book failure, Tripp�s acquaintance and literary agent Lucianne Goldberg recommended she start taping her conversations with Lewinsky. Tripp, in her late 40s, had befriended Lewinsky and had many stereotypical �girl talk� conversations with her, bemoaning what a dog Clinton was but how much Lewinsky cared for him, etc. -- Goldberg is herself a Republican activist. She went so far as to spy on the McGovern campaign in 1972 for Richard Nixon in 1972, while falsely claiming to be a reporter. In her recent comments, she is clearly spinning this to damage Democrats; she said "this is not about money, but about the lack of controlling moral authority at the White House." Note what she is doing here � paraphrasing Al Gore�s infamous comment about �controlling legal authority� to try to drag Gore into this, even though there is no connection to Gore at all.

After Tripp had taped about 20 hours of phone conversations on Radio Shack 120 minute tapes, she went to her attorney (Kirby Behre, at that time) and asked him to arrange for her to wear a wire to a lunch meeting with Lewinsky, to confirm the tapes. Behre refused. Tripp fired him and found a new lawyer, conservative activist James Moody, who contacted Special Prosecutor Starr. Starr's office arranged for FBI agents to set up the wire. -- This all came to a head, so to speak, because of the Paula Jones case depositions. Lewinsky and Clinton were both questioned under oath and denied they had a sexual relationship. (No one knows how Jones� lawyers knew to ask, but most people presume that Tripp had contacted them.) Only parts of the tapes have been made public, and reports vary, but Lewinsky apparently said or implied to Tripp that Clinton or his friend Vernon Jordan had encouraged her to deny any sex between them. -- Jordan has said that he tried to help find her a job. Revlon, of which Jordan is on the board of directors, offered her a job.

The timing of the job offer was amazingly coincidental with Lewinsky's affidavit in the Paula Jones case, where she denied an affair with the president. Jordan also arranged interviews for her at American Express and Burson-Marsteller, which did not offer her jobs. Bill Richardson, Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations, had offered her a job earlier, which she turned down. [White House interns expect to get these kinds of job offers through connections, that�s why they work for free, but it�s unusual for someone of Jordan�s stature to work so hard on behalf of one intern. Richardson's offer was par for the course � interns are preferred because they already have security clearances.] -- Jordan also found her a respected defense lawyer, Frank Carter, and drove her to a meeting with him. We aren't sure what was said during that trip, but apparently Lewinsky says on tape that Jordan encouraged her to remain silent and said that witnesses in civil suits are almost never prosecuted for perjury, which is in fact true. In the tapes the FBI made at Lewinsky's lunch with Tripp, Lewinsky quoted Jordan as saying "As long as you say it didn't happen, then it didn't happen. You're not going to jail.

You're not going to jail." Of course, Jordan -- being a very savvy, inside lawyer -- would normally be expected to have chosen his words more carefully to not actually encourage lying, while still getting his message across. That is every bit as sleazy, of course, but not illegal. He has denied encouraging her to lie. -- Lewinsky also met with Clinton on December 28 at the White House, again after she had been subpoenaed. Again, we don't know exactly what they discussed, but investigators are suspicious that Clinton told her to deny an affair at that time. On the tape excerpt printed in Newsweek, Tripp clearly tries to get Lewinsky to say that Clinton "knows you're going to lie," and Lewinsky balks. Tripp: He [Clinton] knows you're going to lie. You've told him, haven't you? Lewinsky: No. Tripp: I thought that night when he called you established that much. Lewinsky: Well, I mean, [I] don't know. Tripp: Jesus. Well, does he think you're going to tell the truth? Lewinsky: No... Oh, Jesus.

-- Lewinsky apparently asked Tripp to say she knew nothing of any relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky. She also provided her with �talking points� for her to include in an affidavit that related to Katherine Willey's alleged makeout session with Clinton (see Evidence, below.) There are not even any rumors floating around about who provided those 'talking points.' But the most damning part is that the "Talking Points" recommend that Tripp show her affidavit to Clinton's attorney, Bob Bennet, before she turned it in. In any case, Tripp told Lewinsky she wouldn�t lie about it. -- About this time, Tripp went to Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr�s office with her evidence, notably the tapes and talking points. Starr had her set up a meeting with Lewinsky, where Tripp wore a recording device and tried to get Lewinsky to repeat her allegations. Apparently she was a bit more vague, especially about any pressure to lie, but confirmed the sex parts. [Again, the tapes are not public yet; this is all based on unconfirmed leaks.] -- Starr�s office put very heavy pressure on Lewinsky to turn state�s evidence.

They had Tripp arrange another meeting, at which several FBI agents and Starr assistants took Lewinsky off to a motel room and pressured her to cooperate in return for immunity. They threatened to prosecute her and even her mother for felony obstruction of justice and her for perjury (though that is very rare in civil cases like the Paula Jones suit.) They wanted her to help them gather evidence against Clinton and Jordan, undercover. Starr says that this 24 year old was free to leave, but they told her that the moment she left the hotel, their offer was off and they would go after her. She consulted with her mother (who came over) and their attorney, who was in California, and decided to turn them down. The Evidence -- The Tapes The tapes themselves are questionable as evidence. It�s illegal to tape a conversation or phone call without both parties� permission in many states, including Maryland where these phone calls were taped. Funny, we don�t hear Ken Starr talking about prosecuting Tripp for illegal wiretapping. But it may ruin the value of the tapes as evidence. There are apparently some other tapes, answering machine cassettes that Monica Lewinsky may have kept.

Linda Tripp says that Lewinsky played such tapes to prove to her that the President called. An unnamed source quoted in the LA Times says that there were such tapes, but that the messages on them were innocuous (or at least ambiguous), such as 'I wish you were there at home so I could talk to you.' " Any tapes proving that Clinton called Lewinsky at home would be striking, of course. When asked whether Lewinsky played any answering machine tapes for Tripp, her lawyer Ginsburg said "I don't know of any tapes, and I don't know that she ever did that." The unnamed source however said it was like Lewinksy to keep the tapes. -- 'Talking Points' Given to Linda Tripp Lewinsky gave Tripp a set of "Talking Points", that is, things to say, for her affidavit in the Paula Jones case. These "talking points" were described as "too sophisticated for a 24 year old to write, and too amateur for a lawyer" by Linda Tripp's attorney. [That's pure speculation and demeaning to 24 year-olds.

Most good high school debaters could write a decent set of "talking points" from a legal point of view.] Here is a fascinating, detailed analysis of the different reported versions of the "Talking Points" how they were altered in various publications and who may have written them. Unfortunately, an actual picture of the Talking Points, which was on the MSNBC web site, has apparently been removed. Amazingly enough, no one in the press is speculating as to who might have written these talking points. The FBI is checking them for latent fingerprints. Another interesting point is that they appear to have been taken from a longer document. -- Gifts. Starr�s office searched Lewinsky�s apartment � which, ironically, is in the Watergate building � and seized the book of poetry, blue dress and other gifts Monica refers to in phone calls. In one call she apparently said there was a semen stain by Clinton on the blue dress, and Starr�s people are hoping they can get a DNA test match.

You�d think Lewinsky would�ve washed the dress, but maybe she had her own weird variation on �I�ll never wash that hand again." The first leaks about DNA tests on clothes that were taken from Lewinsky's apartment say that no evidence of Clinton's DNA was found, and that the seized clothes had all been dry cleaned. In fact, Lewinsky's attorney Ginsburg denies now that Clinton gave her a dress, "unless you consider a long T-shirt a dress," and implied that she exaggerated these facts in her phone calls to Tripp. Ginsburg says that the gifts from Clinton were "small and inconsequential", all things you could buy in the White House Gift Shop. He did confirm a gift of a souvenir hat purchased in Martha's Vineyard while Clinton was on vacation with his family. Newsweek's cover story reports that between Oct. 7 and Dec. 8, Lewinsky sent eight packages by courier from the Pentagon, where she worked, to Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, at the White House, and one to Vernon Jordan's office, according to courier company employees. On some of Tripp's tapes, Lewinsky apparently says that these were gifts for Clinton. -- White House logs.

Visitors to the Oval Office need to log in and out. This only shows that the person was in the Oval Ofice, of course, but it is extremely unusual for anyone to visit the White House as much as Lewinksy did. Lewinsky signed in 37 times between April 1996 and December 1997, according to White House "wave" records, listing herself as visiting Betty Currie (Clinton's personal secretary). In one of the Linda Tripp tapes, Lewinsky reportedly says that Clinton told her to say she was visiting Currie when she visited him. Currie's desk is just outside the Oval Office door. Kenneth Bacon, who is the chief Pentagon spokesman and was also Lewinksy's immediate supervisor when she worked there, said "It was not part of her official duties to go to the White House." -- Possible Witnesses The President of course can�t just disappear in the White House without any staffers or Secret Service agents seeing him. Lewinsky apparently said in one phone call that she thought she and Clinton had been busted in the act, and that�s why she was transferred to the Pentagon.

But she wasn't sure, and it doesn�t sound like her behavior in general was super-discreet, so that�s just a hunch. Special Prosecutor Ken Starr is beating the bushes to find any witnesses, perhaps among Secret Service agents who are generally reluctant to break their discretion with the President. The Dallas Morning News reported that one agent was prepared to testify they witnessed sex. Then they retracted the story, saying they had some facts wrong. Now they say that an agent witnessed "an ambiguous situation", presumably something like Lewinsky or the president straightening their clothes or zipping up or something. -- Videotape CNN found a videotape of White House staffers congratulating Clinton after his reelection. Lewinsky appears with the President, looking flirty and wearing a black beret (1992 Donna Karan, if you must know. About $38.) She gives the President a warm hug and whispers something to him. Again, it doesn�t prove anything but it sure doesn�t look that innocent, either.

-- Documents "Talking Points for Tripp Affidavit" , New York Times Web Site Version, January 26, 1998 -- Indirect Witnesses By indirect witnesses, we mean people that the principals -- Lewinsky and Clinton -- spoke to before this incident became public. Linda Tripp is of course the main such source, but her audiotapes overshadow what she remembers. She now says that she was present at Lewinsky's apartment (as an overnight guest) when Monica got a 2:00am phone call from the president. She says that she heard Lewinsky's side of the phone call, and that the two discussed the call immediately afterwards. In response, Lewinsky's attorney Ginsburg denied that Tripp overheard any such phone call. He said on ABC's "20/20" that "`sometimes people don't always tell the truth, sometimes there are exaggerations" and that Tripp's charge "looks more like the pre-publicity for a book than it does like the truth.'' Dennis Lytton, a former Pentagon intern during the time Lewinksy worked there, now says he dated her briefly and she told him she had sex with the President.

He says they went out twice and often had lunch together, and that she told him "you could say that I earned my presidential kneepads." (see next item.) He says he didn't want to hear more and cut off the conversation. Lytton was at the Pentagon from June 23, 1997 to August 29, 1997, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Andy Bleiler is a former drama teacher at Beverly Hills High, which Lewinsky attended through her junior year. He says he had a 5-year affair with Lewinksy, starting after she graduated, and her attorney confirmed that claim. Bleiler says that he tried to end the affair, but that Lewinsky threatened to tell his wife Kathy. In fact, Lewinsky befriended Kathy and confided in her. But she also bragged to several of her friends, and word got back to Kathy. The Bleilers are in counseling now.

Before she left for Washington, Kathy says that Lewinsky told her "I'm going to the White House to get my presidential kneepads." Later, she called both Kathy and Andy and told them of an affair with a "high-ranking person in the White House." She didn't name this person but called him "the creep" on one occasion. Lewinsky also told them, the couple says, that she only had oral sex with this person and was frustrated that she didn't have regular sex. She also told Kathy that she had gotten pregnant and had an abortion, presumably from a different relationship. Also, Lewinsky sent them a series of documents and photographs (none of Lewinsky and the President) that they have turned over the the Special Prosecutor's office. While their recollections support some aspects of her story indirectly, the Bleilers '' would both describe Monica during the time they knew her as having a pattern of twisting facts, especially to enhance her own version of her own self-image,'' their attorney said in a statement. They also described her as "obsessed with sex" and say that they did not believe her sexual boasts, then or now, and believe that she was recounting fantasies.

It's not clear that the "high White House official" would necessarily mean Clinton. Unnamed co-workers of Lewinsky at the Pentagon told Newsweek that she "bragged about romantic flings with a midlevel civilian official at Defense and a colonel working on the Joint Staff (both men told friends the stories were untrue)." Little Known Details -- Lewinsky was not a White House Intern at the time of her alleged affair with Clinton, according to what she says on one of Linda Tripp's tapes. She had finished the internship and already had a government job. -- The "talking points" that tell Linda Tripp to lie in her affidavit don't concern Lewinsky at all; they about another woman, Katherine Willey, who Clinton is alleged to have made out with at almost the exact time her husband committed suicide over financial wrongdoing. -- Vernon Jordan actually arranged 3 job interviews for Lewinsky. She was rejected by American Express and Burson-Marsteller; only Revlon (of which Jordan is a Director) hired her. They later took it back after this news story broke. -- Linda Tripp asked her own attorney (Kirby Behre, at the time) to arrange for her to wear a wire to her lunch with Monica Lewinsky.

When he turned her down, she fired him, and contacted Special Prosecutor Starr, whose office arranged the taping. -- Clinton admitted to having sex with Gennifer Flowers "once, in 1977" according to the most specific leak from his deposition in the Paula Jones case. No one is saying who leaked the deposition, though Jones' attorneys are the obvious suspects. Another source said that he admitted sex "as defined broadly by Paula Jones' attorneys." -- Bob Dole is Monica Lewinsky's next door neighbor in the Watergate Apartments. (Lewinsky lives with her mother there.) He says he occasionally greeted them but doesn't know them. -- And Bob Bennett, the President's lawyer in the Paula Jones case, is the older brother of William Bennett, the conservative moralist, writer and Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan (who once dated Janis Joplin.) Other Women You might think that Paula Jones' lawyers have found lots of women claiming sex or harassment from Clinton; conservative sources have alleged "over 100" women were on Jones' lawyers' list. However, according to a story in the New York Times, they have found only three women who confirmed sexual encounters of any type with Clinton.

(A fourth, former Miss America Elizabeth Gracen, later admitted sleeping with Clinton in 1983.) The first of course is Gennifer Flowers; Clinton confirmed having sex with her "once, in 1977" using the broad definition of sex used by Paula Jones' attorneys in their question. Flowers also claims that Clinton assigned a staffer to get her a government job. No word on whether he was asked about that. Another is Katherine Willey, who confirmed reports of being kissed and fondled by Clinton when she went to talk to ask him for a job. (A friend of hers, Julie Steele, first confirmed her story to Newseek reporter Michael Isikoff, then later said that Willey called her and told her what to say.) Linda Tripp is in fact the first person who saw Willey after the incident; she said her clothes were mussed and lipstick smeared but that she seemed happy. Tripp claims she started taping Lewinsky because CLinton's lawyer attacked her statement to Newsweek in the Willey case. The third woman is Dolly Kyle Browning, who grew up with Clinton and said in an affidavit that she had an affair with him which ended before he became President.

She wrote a thinly veiled book about Clinton and women recently. The fourth woman is former Miss America (and Highlander actress) Elizabeth Ward Gracen. She initially denied having sex with Clinton. However, the Paula Jones attorneys actually claimed that Clinton had raped her, based on a statement by Gracen's friend Judy Stokes that Gracen told her this. Gracen held a press conference admitting that she slept with Clinton in 1983 (when she was 22 and both were married), but says that it was a consensual one night stand. One other woman, Texas college professor Joyce Miller, says that one of Clinton's troopers gave her his card and said that Clinton found her attractive. She replied that she wasn't interested and it ended there, though she kept the card and passed it on to Paula Jones' attorneys. Two other women said that state troopers escorted them to Clinton's office, or Clinton to their homes, but that nothing sexual ocurred. Other women whose names have been reported in the press as possible liaisons, but have denied any assignation. Examples include Sheila Lawrence (widow of the Ambassador Larry Lawrence, formerly of Arlington National Cemetery) and the daughter of Walter Mondale.

Sources This story was uncovered by Newsweek Magazine, which is the only place to find long excerpts of the actual tape recordings of Lewinsky and Tripp talking. Here is Newsweek's cover story. The story was actually broken on the Internet by Matt Drudge after Newsweek chose not to run the story in it's January 19th issue. Hillary Clinton in Arkansas Hillary Clinton in Arkansas and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Second in a three-part series. In 1990, the National Law Journal ran profiles of “the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States”. Hillary Clinton was on the list, and for years she would publicly boast that the Journal had named her one of “the nation’s 100 top lawyers”. Finally, the editor of the National Law Journal, Patrick Oster, wrote to Arkansas’ first lady–as she still was in 1991–testily pointing out that the word “influential” is not synonymous with “top” or “best”–the latter two words used by Mrs. Clinton interchangeably.

By “influential” the Journal’s profile writer, Peggy Fisk, had meant a lawyer plentifully endowed with corporate and political connections, which Mrs. Clinton certainly enjoyed in Arkansas where she had become a partner of the Rose Law Firm in 1977, amid the dawn of her husband’s political career as he began his terms as governor of the state. By the late 1980s, Hillary Clinton was sitting on the board of Wal-Mart, with the rest of Arkansas’ business elite crowding her Rolodex. Hillary ignored Oster’s letter of correction, instructing her staff to continue to use the word “best” in invoking the Journal’s profile. She continued to do so for years. Oster was still writing her a decade later about her misuse–including an editorial column in the Journal in 2000, when she was running for the U.S. Senate. In fact, Mrs. Clinton was not a particularly good lawyer and would have had trouble making any honest list of the 100 best lawyers in Little Rock. In their political biography, Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.

tell the story about the National Law Journal and also probe her lawyerly skills when she was at Rose Law. She only tried five cases and confided to Vince Foster–another Rose Law partner–that she was terrified of juries. So Foster had to accompany her to court. Because of her lack of prowess in the courtroom, she had to make her way at Rose Law by working her connections as the State’s first lady to bring in clients, and even then her annual partner’s share was mostly below $100,000–the lowest in the firm and very small potatoes for one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America. The Clintons’ joint income–at least the visible portion–was not substantial: the state paid Bill $20,000 a year, no doubt under the assumption he’d even up the score with kickbacks. So money was on Mrs. Clinton’s mind. Her search for extra income led her into associations that were later to cause endless trouble.

First came the ties with Jim McDougall that were to flower into the Whitewater property speculation and later a huge federal investigation into that deal, unprofitable to the Clintons who had hoped–like many Americans–to make a big score in real estate and solve their money problems at a single stroke. When things were looking bleak for the Clintons after the Arkansas voters threw Bill out in 1980 after his first term as governor (Arkansas had two-year gubernatorial terms until 1986), she fanned her friendship with James Blair, general counsel of Tyson Foods. Bill Clinton’s Little Rock chief of staff, Betsey Wright, recalled that Hillary “loved Jim Blair. Blair was her money man”. It was Blair who set up an account for Hillary Clinton with Refco, a small brokerage firm run by Robert “Red” Bone, Don Tyson’s former bodyguard and a professional poker player. “Red” Bone got her into cattle future trades. She put up $1,000 and left the trading to Mr. Bone who’s often assumed to have arranged the trades with Blair, to Mrs. Clinton’s advantage. Nine months later, the $1,000 had swollen with miraculous speed into a profit for Mrs.

Clinton of $99,000. When Bill Clinton ran for the presidency in 1992, reporters noted a mysterious spike in the couple’s net worth in the early 1980s and quizzed Mrs. Clinton about it. Her first untruthful explanation was that there had been a windfall in the form of an unexpected gift of cash from her parents. But, aware that the questions wouldn’t stop, she issued ferocious order to her staff about any leakage of her tax records. She told them that if they released the tax records showing the commodity trades, they’d “never work in Democratic politics again”. The records were stored in the Clinton Campaign headquarters in Little Rock, in a locked room for which only Hillary, Bill and Betsey Wright had keys. Also in “the Box Room” under lock and key were details of Bill’s sexual capers and Hillary’s dealings at Rose Law. An internal ’92 campaign memo, quoted by Gerth and Van Natta, cited 75 “problem files” in the materials in the Box Room, two-thirds of which related to them as a couple or to Hillary alone.

When David Ifshin, the campaign’s legal counsel, asked for the key to the room to assess the likely problems, Bill Clinton told him: “We can’t open our closet, we’ll get crushed by the skeletons”. But two reporters in particular kept pressing: Gerth of the New York Times and James Stewart of the Wall Street Journal. Gerth finally got evidence of the $99,000 profit on a $1,000 trade and confronted Mrs. Clinton. Shorn of the family gift story, Mrs. Clinton avowed that she’d spent her days poring over cattle prices in the Wall Street Journal, that the $99,000 was the fruit of these studies and that she’d quit commodity trading in 1980, after she’d got pregnant with Chelsea, because the trading “was too nerve-wracking”. Unfortunately for this story, details later surfaced amid prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s investigation during the Clinton presidency, showing that in 1981 Hillary had made a trade netting her $6,500 and she hadn’t reported the profit to the IRS.

Amid the Starr probe, the Clintons encouraged the Wall Street Journal’s Stewart to do a book on what they saw as their unfair persecution on the Whitewater deal. As he researched this work, published as Blood Sport, Stewart took a hard look at the commodity trades and pressed Mrs. Clinton for an explanation for all the contradictory stories. Hillary blamed everything on her staff and told Stewart that her own statements should simply be “accepted at face value”. In the mid-1990s, federal special prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s investigative team in Little Rock was headed by a veteran of the courtroom, Hickman Ewing Jr. Grilled by Ewing before a grand jury on July 22, l995, Mrs. Clinton used the words “I can’t recall” in answer to 50 questions. Later, Ewing told Starr that he rated Mrs. Clinton’s testimony as deserving an F Minus, and he wanted to indict the nation’s first lady. He was contemplating a number of counts, headed by two major lines of enquiry. First came her handling of the commodity trades and her failure to report her profits to the IRS. Second came her conduct amid the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, owned by Jim McDougal.

Relevant to this affair were Hillary Clinton’s billings as a legal counsel to Madison Guaranty. These were germane to the question of whether Hillary was being truthful in denying she’d done any legal work for the bank. After many adventures, the records finally came into the hands of Starr’s team and showed that Hillary Clinton had billed Madison Guaranty at the rate of $150 an hour, with a total of 60 hours of supposed work on the Castle Grande deal. The prosecutors had the billings but were never able to look at Hillary’s time sheets. Her secretary removed them from the Rose Law Firm in 1992, and it’s generally assumed the first lady destroyed them. Webb Hubbell, a partner at Rose Law and one of Hillary’s closest friends, fell from his eminence as deputy attorney general in Clinton’s first term and was convicted and imprisoned on charges of padding by $394,000 his legal billings at Rose Law. Ewing was convinced that Hillary had been doing the same thing. He prepared an indictment. It was the most serious brush with disaster that Hillary ever faced. Paradoxically, she was saved by the indiscretions of her faithless mate.

Even as Ewing was urging Hillary’s indictment, Starr was delightedly fingering what he conceived to be the object that would doom Bill Clinton, the semen-stained dress retrieved from Monica Lewinsky’s closet by Starr’s team. The only thing the prurient Starr cared about was nailing Clinton for sexual misconduct, and so he told the disappointed Ewing that there would be no indictment of Hillary. Even as Hillary Clinton was making trouble for herself and Bill in her legal and business dealings, she was reinventing Bill as a politician. Defeat in 1980 after his first two-year gubernatorial term was a cataclysmic event. Bill called it a “near death experience”. According to Gerth and Van Natta, it was “the only time anyone has seen Hillary Clinton cry in public”. Bill was inclined to throw in the political towel and go back to being a law professor in Fayetteville, where he would doubtless be roosting in tenured bliss to this day, plump and pony-tailed, fragrant with marijuana and still working his way through an endless roster of coeds.

But in 1980, over a funereal breakfast of instant grits, Vernon Jordan brokered a deal: Bill Clinton would give up being a southern populist in the mold of Orval Faubus, six-term governor of Arkansas. Southern populism involved offending powerful corporations. Bill lost in 1980 because not only had he taken the un-populist course of hiking the rate on car registration, he’d angered Weyerhaeuser and Tyson Foods. So, for his comeback he would remake himself as a neoliberal. Hillary Rodham would give up insisting on keeping her maiden name and become Hillary Clinton. The man charged with supervising the Clintons’ makeover was selected by Hillary: Dick Morris, a political consultant known for his work for Southern racists like Jesse Helms. Morris ultimately guided President Bill Clinton into the politics of triangulation, outflanking the Republicans from the right on race, crime, morals posturing and deference to corporations. As Hillary said in 1980, “If you want to be in this business, this is the type of person you have to deal with”. Bill Clinton duly pushed aside the Playboy centerfolds and pored over Dick Morris’ polling data, trimming his positions to suit.

He recaptured the governorship in 1982 and as a reward appointed his wife to head a special task force charged with reforming Arkansas’ education system, at that time widely regarded as the worst in the country. The plan Mrs. Clinton came up with showcased teacher testing and funding the schools through a sales tax increase, an astoundingly regressive proposal since it imposed new costs on the poor in a very poor state while sparing any levies on big corporations. The plan went through. Arkansas’ educational ranking remained abysmal, but Hillary won national attention as a “realistic Democrat” who could make “hard” choices, like taxing welfare mothers. While enjoying this limelight, Mrs. Clinton was invited onto the board of Wal-Mart as the first woman director, the only Rose Law partner at that time to have accepted an outside position. She was also asked by Robert Mac Crate, the president of the American Bar Association, to head up a commission on how to implement a resolution by the ABA to increase the profile of women and minorities in the legal profession. Mac Crate told Gerth and Van Natta that Mrs. Clinton declined, saying that she didn’t want gender equity to be linked with race. She prevailed.

Two years later, she agreed to head an ABA commission examining the status in the legal profession. Issues of race were not to be scrutinized. By 1987, Hillary was wearying of life as first lady of Arkansas and began to press her husband on the 20-year plan they had made long before, whose consummation would be a successful run by Bill for the U.S. presidency. Dick Morris was assigned the task of running polls on Bill’s chances. Betsey Wright was charged with sizing up the “problems”. Morris’ news was grim. The Democratic Party was not sold on the prospect of the governor of Arkansas as their nominee in l988. Betsey Wright sat down with Bill and Hillary and read out to both of them a list of dozens of women Wright believed Bill had had some kind of fling with during his gubernatorial years. Bill’s head sank into his hands, and he mumbled, “I’m not going to run for president and I don’t want to run for re-election as governor either”. As Wright recalled later, Hillary stood up and cried, “If you’re not gonna run for re-election, I’m gonna run”. “Okay”, said Bill, he’d run again.

It was Hillary’s call. The next four years were spent gearing up for the White House run and trying to bury Bill’s past. Amid these efforts Hillary made two huge mistakes, which haunted the Clintons throughout the 1992 campaign and their White House years. Clinton’s opponent in the 1990 governor’s race was Sheffield Nelson, a Little Rock lawyer. Nelson had accumulated a dirt file on Bill, detailing his sexual escapades and the couple’s Whitewater real estate transactions. But he never used this material in the campaign. Nonetheless, in 1990 Hillary Clinton publicly excoriated Nelson, calling him “a vindictive and very bitter man”. The reason for Hillary’s assault was that Nelson, in the climactic weeks of the race, had saturated the airwaves with a series of campaign ads charging Clinton with being a tax-and-spend Democrat. The ads had some effect, and the Clintons had to borrow $100,000 from the Jackson Stephens-controlled Worthen Bank to mount a counteroffensive ad campaign of their own.

Nelson, seething at Hillary’s onslaught, duly became bitter and vindictive and, as Clinton’s presidential campaign got under way, he began to leak ripe details from the file he had kept closed in l990. Her second mistake also came in 1990, when Jim McDougal was facing trial over the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. In his hour of need, he asked Bill to testify as a character witness in his trial. Though Bill was willing to do so, Hillary was adamant that he should avoid any association with McDougal. She successfully persuaded Bill to decline. McDougal was acquitted, but he never forgave the Clintons for their disloyalty. He too began to leak damaging stories about Whitewater to Gerth and other reporters from his rusting trailer in Arkadelphia. Thus, even as she kindled her husband’s presidential bid, Hillary helped spark the fires of financial and sexual scandal that almost destroyed his presidency.

CyberAlert -- 07/16/1998 -- Clinton Shouldn't Talk | Media Research Center CyberAlert -- 07/16/1998 -- Clinton Shouldn't Talk Clinton Shouldn't Talk; More Nina: Kneepads for All Women *** Item #3 today has been rated TV-MA by the CyberAlert Content Review Board. It contains slang terminology for oral sex. *** 3) More from Nina Burleigh. She fills in the [oral sex] bracket, urges all women to break out their kneepads for Clinton and boasts that she "will frame and cherish forever," the MRC's press release on her. >>> Internet Training School. This Saturday, July 18 from 8:30am to 5:30pm the Leadership Institute is holding an Internet training school in Arlington, Virginia. Cost is $25. Paul Culligan will teach the use of the Internet for a variety of public policy areas, including fundraising, issue and opposition research, and building grassroots support and membership. Tuition includes breakfast and lunch, training and a source-book binder with hundreds of pages more of information related to the Internet and policy. Or so Radley Balko tells me.

If interested, call him at (703) 247-2000, ext. 151. Correction: The name of the Secret Service agent subpoenaed was misspelled in the July 15 CyberAlert as Larry Cockrell. It is Cockell. 1 HMO "horror stories" from a Senate hearing topped the ABC and CBS evening shows on Wednesday night, July 15. Will part or all of reform plans pass? Bob Schieffer told CBS Evening News viewers: "It is a long shot to be sure, but this is an election year and the politicians are discovering people hate HMOs even more than they hate the IRS." The Secret Service showdown led on CNN and NBC while FNC uniquely considered opening statements in the cadet murder trial in Texas to be the day's lead story. ABC and CNN relayed angry White House reaction to the charge conveyed by Tim Russert on Wednesday's Today show that sources close to Starr suggest Secret Service officers may have 'facilitated' Clinton's sexual liaisons. Russert appeared on the NBC Nightly News to clarify his report.

ABC and FNC showed a quick clip of Senator Hatch and Attorney General Reno at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing while CNN delivered a full story, but CBS and NBC skipped her appearance to explain her resistance to an independent counsel to investigate foreign money and why she insists upon appealing the Secret Service rulings. Dan Rather, for the third night in a row, insisted Starr is probing Clinton's "personal life." Here's how the Wednesday night, July 15 evening shows handled the Secret Service story and Reno's appearance: -- ABC's World News Tonight. Sam Donaldson explained how Justice was still hoping to get a federal judge to halt the Thursday testimony by Secret Service officers. Agent Larry Cockell, Donaldson noted, was in the limo when Clinton went to the deposition for Paula Jones and afterward he rode back with Clinton and attorney Bob Bennett. Donaldson played a clip of McCurry claiming Starr is making a backdoor attempt to circumvent attorney-client privilege by demanding that Cockell tell what Clinton and Bennett said.

Donaldson picked up: "Press Secretary McCurry also expressed his outrage about a report which said people close to Starr believed Secret Service agents perhaps 'facilitated' presidential hanky-panky." McCurry: "Sneering at the President of the United States is common sport here in Washington now and that's life but the Secret Service agents should not be slimed by Ken Starr and his operatives." Donaldson: "Later the report was amended to say the sources were on Capitol Hill, but it gave McCurry a chance once again to beat the independent counsel over the head for alleged improper leaking." On Capitol Hill, Donaldson observed before soundbite from Hatch and Reno, Republicans complained that the appeals are a stalling tactic. Donaldson concluded: "The administration says what's at stake in this fight over the Secret Service is the physical safety of Presidents. The independent counsel says what's at stake is vital testimony in a criminal case. But in the end, Peter, what's at stake for Bill Clinton could well be a demonstration of his innocence or guilt over Monica Lewinsky." -- CBS Evening News.

For the third night in a row Dan Rather followed the White House script, claiming Starr is digging into Clinton's "personal life." Rather announced: "More fast breaking developments on special prosecutor Ken Starr's new push to get the top Secret Service man closest to the President to tell him what he knows about the President's personal life." Scott Pelley explained efforts to get an emergency ruling to prevent Thursday testimony, though a judge earlier Wednesday had refused to quash the subpoenas.

Six uniformed officers have already been interviewed by Starr's staff, Pelley noted before asserting that "sealed court records reviewed by CBS News show that the officers refused to answer some questions including whether anyone, quote 'witnessed the President in a romantic situation...with someone other than Hillary Rodham Clinton.' Before the grand jury the officers would be compelled to answer." -- CNN's The World Today led with the latest on the Secret Service showdown from Bob Franken followed by a piece from John King with White House reaction and complaints the calling of Cockell is proof Starr is "out of control" and that the subpoena of records showing Clinton's whereabouts is just a "fishing expedition." Finally, Pierre Thomas provided a full rundown of Reno's Senate appearance with soundbites from both Republicans questioning her as well as from Democrats attacking Starr. -- FNC's 7pm ET Fox Report. David Shuster began by looking at the scramble to get the Secret Service out of testifying.

After showing a clip of Reno denying she is trying to delay Starr, Shuster uniquely told viewers about what some top law enforcement officials believe: "But patience is clearly running out at the courthouse and four former attorneys general, including Ed Meese, say they support the new request for testimony from a Clinton bodyguard." Meese: "The fact that a person is assigned to protection of the President or anyone else does not make them any less a law enforcement officer who has a dual responsibility, in addition to whatever else assignments, to uphold the law." -- NBC Nightly News began with Claire Shipman on how a judge ruled Wednesday against delaying the Thursday appearance before the grand jury by the Secret Service officers. Getting to White House outrage over Russert's report, Shipman observed: "And at the White House, the press secretary who normally avoids comment on the investigation, unleashes a bitter attack on Starr and his efforts to force Secret Service testimony." McCurry: "Secret Service agents who protect the President of the United States with their lives are dedicated, serious professionals and they should not be slimed by Ken Starr and his operatives." Shipman: "McCurry was specifically referring to a report on NBC that came from congressional sources close to the investigation.

That report said Starr is investigating whether Secret Service agents may have actually quote, 'facilitated' the President's alleged relationship with Lewinsky. Starr's office adamantly denied leaking any information about the Secret Service to anyone." Next, from the White House lawn, Tim Russert told Brokaw Starr is calling in the officers because "he wants to drive a stake at the heart of the relationship between the Secret Service and the President..." Asked to clarify his Today item, Russert explained: "Members of Congress have been talking to investigators, lawyers associated with the grand jury, people who are free to talk and they are coming to some conclusions that perhaps Secret Service agents may have been quote, 'facilitating,' we don't know whether that's Republican spin, partisan spin, ideological spin or there's a germ of evidence. Ken Starr is determined to find out and it has caused deep concerns at the White House and within the Secret Service, men and women who put their lives on the line everyday for the President." "Perhaps" agents "may have" been doing something but it may just be "spin" from any one of three angles. If Matt Drudge promoted such an item the journalistic establishment would be all over him.

2 Just like Dan Rather, U.S. News & World Report economics reporter Matthew Miller believes Ken Starr's inquiry into perjury and obstruction of justice can be dismissed as a probe of his "personal life" which Clinton should not have to answer for. As for Lucianne Goldberg, Millers considers her a less than reliable source. Here's the relevant exchanges between Miller on Chris Matthews as caught by MRC news analyst Geoffrey Dickens on the July 14 Hardball on CNBC. Chris Matthews: "Do you think it is surprising that anything else would have happened if the President after six months has refused to tell us what happened. After having promised us he would. He promised he would. He didn't have to promise but he said, 'I'm going to give you more rather than less, sooner rather than later,' and henceforth from that there wasn't a peep out of him." Miller: "I know that you sincerely hang a lot on that presidential statement. I guess I don't think it's the President's obligation to tell us about his personal life like this." Miller: "Look I'm not saying that Ken Starr is a zealot or somehow a you know, a weird guy who is hellbent just on getting the President.

I think Starr is an honorable man who has lost his perspective. Which can happen, it's an occupational hazard for independent counsels when they are set after a person instead of after a crime. And I think as Starr gets closer to the prospect of having to indict a young woman, Monica Lewinsky, for the purpose of trying to get to a President, again all over concealing an affair, he himself will realize that there are better courses to..." [interrupted] Matthews: "It's not all over concealing....No, that's a misstatement Matt because the evidence now, and every evidence we have, we don't have complete evidence, the evidence is that these tapes show Monica Lewinsky describing an effort to suborn her perjury in the matter of Kathleen Willey, a sexual harassment case mattered not a matter involving her and the President. You guys keep saying it the same way. This is the lingo but it's not true." Miller: "You're relying on Lucianne Goldberg as your authority. That's nuts!" 3 Breakout the kneepads, Nina's on the way! [If discussion or oral sex offends you, read no further.

This is the last CyberAlert item today.] Remember Nina Burleigh, the Time contributor and former Time reporter who recounted in Mirabella magazine her encounter with Clinton on Air Force One and how much she wished to be "ravished" by him? Called about the article by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, he quoted her as proclaiming of Clinton: "I'd be happy to give him [oral sex] just to thank him for keeping abortion legal." See the July 7 CyberAlert for details. Well, now she's filled in what word she really used in the spot the Post bracketed and revealed her next sentence to Kurtz, that he did not share with readers, in which she praised Clinton for "keeping the theocracy off our backs." Sounds like a hit at the Christian Right. But at least she admits that she's not unbiased. It's all in the just-released July 20 edition of the New York Observer, the orange-tinted weekly broadsheet. The MRC's Tim Graham alerted me her opinion piece, "My Spin Through the Cycle," relating her experience at becoming a mini-celebrity over her comments. She's even quite proud to have been denounced by MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell.

While the paper has a Web site ( ), the text of articles is available only through AOL. Key word: NYO. Here's an excerpt of the most illuminating portion of her 1,300 word piece. We pick up with her reciting the call from Kurtz a few days after Mirabella hit newsstands: Mr. Kurtz rang. "I hear you wrote an article about your legs," he opened, with a small snicker. "Have you read the piece?" I asked. He admitted he had not, but planned to do so and would call me back. I started feeling queasy. I pointed out to Howard that American jets had bombed an Iraqi radar station in southern Iraq that morning. He was undeterred. When he called back, I decided my only defense would be to give him a quote that would knock his socks off. I also wanted to test the Post's new "sizzle" -- the paper's post-We Broke the Lewinsky Story advertising hook. So when Howard asked whether I could still objectively cover the President, having found him so attractive, I replied, "I would be happy to give him a blowjob just to thank him for keeping abortion legal.

I think American women should be lining up with their presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs." I recognized Howard's visceral response to my words by his sudden intake of breath and the spurt of pounding fingers of keyboard. I'd never been on that side of a good quote before. It was better than sex! For days afterward, I wondered whether he would have the guts to run the quote. After all, sizzle does not equal pornography. Lo and behold, on Monday, he printed it, to the enormous hilarity of my girlfriends in Washington and the horror of my former colleagues at Time. He sanitized "blowjob" only slightly by putting "oral sex" in brackets, and noted that it is "unusual for a journalist" to express such an opinion. Many are the dinner discussions I've had with pious Washington Post reporters that ended in screaming matches about reportorial objectivity. More than any other journalists I've met, Post reporters like Mr. Kurtz hold fast to the notion that they are personally capable of what I consider to be only a Platonic ideal. I refuse to believe that any human being is capable of the kind of androidlike unbiased observational qualities that Post reporters say they possess.

I think they are secretly a little envious of those of us who do say what we think. I mean, who wouldn't covet becoming the subject of a Brent Bozell press release in Washington? Brent Bozell is the director of Media Research Center, a right-wing media watchdog group always looking for left-wing leanings among the scrupulously middle-of-the-road Washington press corps. He wrote me up on Tuesday in a mass fax I will frame and cherish forever. "Nina Burleigh's comment that she would give [oral sex] to the President to thank him for keeping abortion legal is an apt metaphor for the way the liberal media has treated Clinton." Come on, Brent, it's our patriotic duty! END EXCERPT Definitely a novel definition of patriotism. -- Brent Baker >>> Support the MRC, an educational foundation dependent upon contributions which make CyberAlert possible, by providing a tax-deductible donation.

Use the secure donations page set up for CyberAlert readers and subscribers: Bill Clinton’s nemesis, Ken Starr, booted as Baylor University President amid shocking sexual assault scandal - Salon.com Thursday, May 26, 2016 8:25 PM UTC Bill Clinton’s nemesis, Ken Starr, booted as Baylor University President amid shocking sexual assault scandal The infamous Monica Lewinsky prosecutor failed to properly investigate allegations of campus sexual assault Topics: a culture of violence against women , Baylor football , baylor university , campus sexual assault , Football , Ken Starr , Rape , Rape Culture , News , Politics News Baylor Bears president Ken Starr and Texas Governor Rick Perry prior to the start of the inaugural game between Baylor University and Southern Methodist University at McLane Stadium in Waco on Sunday, August 31, 2014.

(Credit: Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News) Just as the never-quite-dead Whitewater scandal is being forced into national political discourse again by Donald Trump, the former special prosecutor who spent three years chasing the right-wing ghost before become infamous for his dogged investigation into former president Bill Clinton’s sexual improprieties in the White House is now caught up in a sex scandal of his own — accused of all things, failing to vigorously investigate allegations of sexual impropriety. After an independent investigation of widespread allegations of campus sexual assault , Baylor University president Ken Starr has been demoted by the University’s board of regents on Thursday. Along with the head coach of the school’s famed football team, Art Briles, Starr was specifically faulted for essentially ignoring complaints of sexual assault from female students, specifically charges stemming from the school’s storied football team. A report released on Thursday found that under Starr’s leadership, Baylor failed “to identify and train responsible employees under Title IX” — a federal law meant to protect female students.

The damming 13-page report cited a “lack of strong institutional management and control on a number of levels.” The law firm Pepper Hamilton interviewed more than 65 current and former employees and students over a nine month investigation that included a review of school records and emails and found that Starr’s leadership was a “fundamental failure.” While Baylor’s football has seen success on the field during his nine season tenure, the report found that coach Briles allegedly operated “an internal system of discipline,” completely separate from the university’s own protocols for dealing with campus sexual assault: Football staff conducted their own untrained internal inquiries, outside of policy, which improperly discredited complainants and denied them the right to a fair, impartial and informed investigation, interim measures or processes promised under University policy […] Actions by a University administrator within [Baylor University Police Department] and an administrator within an academic program contributed to, and in some instances, accommodated or created a hostile environment, rather than taking action to eliminate a hostile environment While the report made no mention of specific past or present Baylor football players, it did allege that in several instances, “football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct.” SBNation

 has further details on Baylor’s systemic cover-up of campus sexual assault: Baylor’s positive momentum came to an abrupt and sudden halt with the scandal associated with Sam Ukwuachu .

The former Boise State defensive end transferred to Baylor and was charged with sexual assault of a soccer player at the university before ever playing a game for the team. The football program didn’t quickly come forward about the story. Ukwuachu was eventually found guilty of the charges, but Briles insisted that he never would have accepted the transfer from Boise State if he were aware of the circumstances that led the Broncos to dismiss the defensive end. Chris Petersen and Briles had a back-and-forth shortly thereafter in which Petersen said he “thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances,” while Briles insisted he was only told that Ukwuachu was depressed and had some team-related issues. However, Ukwuachu’s legal problems were only the tip of the iceberg in Waco. A January 2016 Outside the Lines report detailed several instances where the school failed to appropriately investigate alleged sexual assaults involving members of the football team. Later, Shawn Oakman, who transferred to the program from Penn State after being dismissed for grabbing a woman’s wrist while attempting to steal a sandwich in 2012, was the subject of a sexual assault investigation .

Question: What special prosecutor released prurient details about Bill Clinton's personal life?
Answer: Ken Starr