III. JANUARY-MARCH 1996: CONTINUED SEXUAL ENCOUNTERS
President Clinton and Ms. Lewinsky had additional sexual encounters near the Oval Office in 1996. After their sixth sexual encounter, the President and Ms. Lewinsky had their first lengthy conversation. On President’s Day, February 19, the President terminated their sexual relationship, then revived it on March 31.
A. January 7 Sexual Encounter
According to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had another sexual encounter on Sunday, January 7, 1996. Although White House records do not indicate that Ms. Lewinsky was at the White House that day, her testimony and other evidence indicate that she was there.(202) The President, according to White House records, was in the Oval Office most of the afternoon, from 2:13 to 5:49 p.m.(203)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President telephoned her early that afternoon. It was the first time he had called her at home.(204) In her recollection: “I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to be going into the office soon. I said, oh, do you want some company? And he said, oh, that would be great.”(205) Ms. Lewinsky went to her office, and the President called to arrange their rendezvous:
(W)e made an arrangement that . . . he would have the door to his office open, and I would pass by the office with some papers and then . . . he would sort of stop me and invite me in. So, that was exactly what happened. I passed by and that was actually when I saw (Secret Service Uniformed Officer) Lew Fox who was on duty outside the Oval Office, and stopped and spoke with Lew for a few minutes, and then the President came out and said, oh, hey, Monica . . . come on in . . . And so we spoke for about 10 minutes in the (Oval) office. We sat on the sofas. Then we went into the back study and we were intimate in the bathroom.(206)
Ms. Lewinsky testified that during this bathroom encounter, she and the President kissed, and he touched her bare breasts with his hands and his mouth.(207) The President “was talking about performing oral sex on me,” according to Ms. Lewinsky.(208) But she stopped him because she was menstruating and he did not.(209) Ms. Lewinsky did perform oral sex on him.(210)
Afterward, she and the President moved to the Oval Office and talked. According to Ms. Lewinsky: “(H)e was chewing on a cigar. And then he had the cigar in his hand and he was kind of looking at the cigar in . . . sort of a naughty way. And so . . . I looked at the cigar and I looked at him and I said, we can do that, too, some time.”(211)
Corroborating aspects of Ms. Lewinsky’s recollection, records show that Officer Fox was posted outside the Oval Office the afternoon of January 7.(212) Officer Fox (who is now retired) testified that he recalled an incident with Ms. Lewinsky one weekend afternoon when he was on duty by the Oval Office:(213)
(T)he President of the United States came out, and he asked me, he says, “Have you seen any young congressional staff members here today?” I said, “No, sir.” He said, “Well, I’m expecting one.” He says, “Would you please let me know when they show up?” And I said, “Yes, sir.”(214)
Officer Fox construed the reference to “congressional staff members” to mean White House staff who worked with Congress–i.e., staff of the Legislative Affairs Office, where Ms. Lewinsky worked.(215)
Talking with a Secret Service agent posted in the hallway, Officer Fox speculated on whom the President was expecting: “I described Ms. Lewinsky, without mentioning the name, in detail, dark hair–you know, I gave a general description of what she looked like.”(216) Officer Fox had gotten to know Ms. Lewinsky during her tenure at the White House, and other agents had told him that she often spent time with the President.(217)
A short time later, Ms. Lewinsky approached, greeted Officer Fox, and said, “I have some papers for the President.” Officer Fox admitted her to the Oval Office. The President said: “You can close the door. She’ll be here for a while.”(218)
B. January 21 Sexual Encounter
On Sunday, January 21, 1996, according to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had another sexual encounter. Her time of White House entry is not reflected in records. She left at 3:56 p.m.(219) The President moved from the Residence to the Oval Office at 3:33 p.m. and remained there until 7:40 p.m.(220)
On that day, according to Ms. Lewinsky, she saw the President in a hallway by an elevator, and he invited her to the Oval Office.(221) According to Ms. Lewinsky:
We had . . . had phone sex for the first time the week prior, and I was feeling a little bit insecure about whether he had liked it or didn’t like it. . . . I didn’t know if this was sort of developing into some kind of a longer-term relationship than what I thought it initially might have been, that maybe he had some regular girlfriend who was furloughed. . . .(222)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, she questioned the President about his interest in her. “I asked him why he doesn’t ask me any questions about myself, and . . . is this just about sex . . . or do you have some interest in trying to get to know me as a person?”(223) The President laughed and said, according to Ms. Lewinsky, that “he cherishes the time that he had with me.”(224) She considered it “a little bit odd” for him to speak of cherishing their time together “when I felt like he didn’t really even know me yet.”(225)
They continued talking as they went to the hallway by the study. Then, with Ms. Lewinsky in mid-sentence, “he just started kissing me.”(226) He lifted her top and touched her breasts with his hands and mouth.(227) According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President “unzipped his pants and sort of exposed himself,” and she performed oral sex.(228)
At one point during the encounter, someone entered the Oval Office. In Ms. Lewinsky’s recollection, “(The President) zipped up real quickly and went out and came back in. . . . I just remember laughing because he had walked out there and he was visibly aroused, and I just thought it was funny.”(229)
A short time later, the President got word that his next appointment, a friend from Arkansas, had arrived.(230) He took Ms. Lewinsky out through the Oval Office into Ms. Hernreich’s office, where he kissed her goodbye.(231)
C. February 4 Sexual Encounter and Subsequent Phone Calls
On Sunday, February 4, according to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had their sixth sexual encounter and their first lengthy and personal conversation. The President was in the Oval Office from 3:36 to 7:05 p.m.(232) He had no telephone calls in the Oval Office before 4:45 p.m.(233)
Records do not show Ms. Lewinsky’s entry or exit.
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President telephoned her at her desk and they planned their rendezvous. At her suggestion, they bumped into each other in the hallway, “because when it happened accidentally, that seemed to work really well,” then walked together to the area of the private study.(234)
There, according to Ms. Lewinsky, they kissed. She was wearing a long dress that buttoned from the neck to the ankles. “And he unbuttoned my dress and he unhooked my bra, and sort of took the dress off my shoulders and . . . moved the bra. . . . (H)e was looking at me and touching me and telling me how beautiful I was.”(235) He touched her breasts with his hands and his mouth, and touched her genitals, first through underwear and then directly.(236) She performed oral sex on him.(237)
After their sexual encounter, the President and Ms. Lewinsky sat and talked in the Oval Office for about 45 minutes. Ms. Lewinsky thought the President might be responding to her suggestion during their previous meeting about “trying to get to know me.”(238) It was during that conversation on February 4, according to Ms. Lewinsky, that their friendship started to blossom.(239)
When she prepared to depart, according to Ms. Lewinsky, the President “kissed my arm and told me he’d call me, and then I said, yeah, well, what’s my phone number? And so he recited both my home number and my office number off the top of his head.”(240) The President called her at her desk later that afternoon and said he had enjoyed their time together.(241)
D. President’s Day (February 19) Break-up
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President terminated their relationship (only temporarily, as it happened), on Monday, February 19, 1996–President’s Day. The President was in the Oval Office from 11 a.m. to 2:01 p.m. that day.(242) He had no telephone calls between 12:19 and 12:42 p.m.(243) Records do not reflect Ms. Lewinsky’s presence at the White House.
In Ms. Lewinsky’s recollection, the President telephoned her at her Watergate apartment that day.
From the tone of his voice, she could tell something was wrong. She asked to come see him, but he said he did not know how long he would be there.(244) Ms. Lewinsky went to the White House, then walked to the Oval Office sometime between noon and 2 p.m. (the only time she ever went to the Oval Office uninvited).(245) Ms. Lewinsky recalled that she was admitted by a tall, slender, Hispanic plainclothes agent on duty near the door.(246)
The President told her that he no longer felt right about their intimate relationship, and he had to put a stop to it.(247) Ms. Lewinsky was welcome to continue coming to visit him, but only as a friend. He hugged her but would not kiss her.(248) At one point during their conversation, the President had a call from a sugar grower in Florida whose name, according to Ms. Lewinsky, was something like “Fanuli.” In Ms. Lewinsky’s recollection, the President may have taken or returned the call just as she was leaving.(249)
Ms. Lewinsky’s account is corroborated in two respects. First, Nelson U. Garabito, a plainclothes Secret Service agent, testified that, on a weekend or holiday while Ms. Lewinsky worked at the White House (most likely in the early spring of 1996), Ms. Lewinsky appeared in the area of the Oval Office carrying a folder and said, “I have these papers for the President.”(250) After knocking, Agent Garabito opened the Oval Office door, told the President he had a visitor, ushered Ms. Lewinsky in, and closed the door behind her.(251) When Agent Garabito’s shift ended a few minutes later, Ms. Lewinsky was still in the Oval Office.(252)
Second, concerning Ms. Lewinsky’s recollection of a call from a sugar grower named “Fanuli,” the President talked with Alfonso Fanjul of Palm Beach, Florida, from 12:42 to 1:04 p.m.(253) Mr. Fanjul had telephoned a few minutes earlier, at 12:24 p.m.(254) The Fanjuls are prominent sugar growers in Florida.(255)
E. Continuing Contacts
After the break-up on February 19, 1996, according to Ms. Lewinsky, “there continued to sort of be this flirtation . . . when we’d see each other.”(256) After passing Ms. Lewinsky in a hallway one night in late February or March, the President telephoned her at home and said he was disappointed that, because she had already left the White House for the evening, they could not get together. Ms. Lewinsky testified that the call “sort of implied to me that he was interested in starting up again.”(257) On March 10, 1996, Ms. Lewinsky took a visiting friend, Natalie Ungvari, to the White House. They bumped into the President, who said to Ms. Ungvari when Ms. Lewinsky introduced them: “You must be her friend from California.”(258) Ms. Ungvari was “shocked” that the President knew where she was from.(259)
Ms. Lewinsky testified that on Friday, March 29, 1996, she was walking down a hallway when she passed the President, who was wearing the first necktie she had given him. She asked where he had gotten the tie, and he replied: “Some girl with style gave it to me.”(260) Later, he telephoned her at her desk and asked if she would like to see a movie. His plan was that she would position herself in the hallway by the White House Theater at a certain time, and he would invite her to join him and a group of guests as they entered. Ms. Lewinsky responded that she did not want people to think she was lurking around the West Wing uninvited.(261) She asked if they could arrange a rendezvous over the weekend instead, and he said he would try.(262) Records confirm that the President spent the evening of March 29 in the White House Theater.(263) Mrs. Clinton was in Athens, Greece.(264)
F. March 31 Sexual Encounter
On Sunday, March 31, 1996, according to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President resumed their sexual contact.(265) Ms. Lewinsky was at the White House from 10:21 a.m. to 4:27 p.m. on that day.(266) The President was in the Oval Office from 3:00 to 5:46 p.m.(267) His only call while in the Oval Office was from 3:06 to 3:07 p.m.(268) Mrs. Clinton was in Ireland.(269)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President telephoned her at her desk and suggested that she come to the Oval Office on the pretext of delivering papers to him.(270) She went to the Oval Office and was admitted by a plainclothes Secret Service agent.(271) In her folder was a gift for the President, a Hugo Boss necktie.(272)
In the hallway by the study, the President and Ms. Lewinsky kissed. On this occasion, according to Ms. Lewinsky, “he focused on me pretty exclusively,” kissing her bare breasts and fondling her genitals.(273) At one point, the President inserted a cigar into Ms. Lewinsky’s vagina, then put the cigar in his mouth and said: “It tastes good.”(274) After they were finished, Ms. Lewinsky left the Oval Office and walked through the Rose Garden.(275)
IV. APRIL 1996: MS. LEWINSKY’S TRANSFER TO THE PENTAGON
With White House and Secret Service employees remarking on Ms. Lewinsky’s frequent presence in the West Wing, a deputy chief of staff ordered Ms. Lewinsky transferred from the White House to the Pentagon. On April 7–Easter Sunday–Ms. Lewinsky told the President of her dismissal. He promised to bring her back after the election, and they had a sexual encounter.
A. Earlier Observations of Ms. Lewinsky in the West Wing
Ms. Lewinsky’s visits to the Oval Office area had not gone unnoticed. Officer Fox testified that “it was pretty commonly known that she did frequent the West Wing on the weekends.”(276)
Another Secret Service uniformed officer, William Ludtke III, once saw her exit from the pantry near the Oval Office; she seemed startled and possibly embarrassed to be spotted.(277)
Officer John Muskett testified that “if the President was known to be coming into the Diplomatic Reception Room, a lot of times (Ms. Lewinsky) just happened to be walking down the corridor, you know, maybe just to see the President.”(278) Ms. Lewinsky acknowledged that she tried to position herself to see the President.(279)
Although they could not date them precisely, Secret Service officers and agents testified about several occasions when Ms. Lewinsky and the President were alone in the Oval Office. William C. Bordley, a former member of the Presidential Protective Detail, testified that in late 1995 or early 1996, he stopped Ms. Lewinsky outside the Oval Office because she did not have her pass.(280) The President opened the Oval Office door, indicated to Agent Bordley that Ms. Lewinsky’s presence was all right, and ushered Ms. Lewinsky into the Oval Office.(281) Agent Bordley saw Ms. Lewinsky leave about half an hour later.(282)
Another former member of the Presidential Protective Detail, Robert C. Ferguson, testified that one Saturday in winter, the President told him that he was expecting “some staffers.”(283) A short time later, Ms. Lewinsky arrived and said that “(t)he President needs me.”(284) Agent Ferguson announced Ms. Lewinsky and admitted her to the Oval Office.(285) About 10 or 15 minutes later, Agent Ferguson rotated to a post on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office.(286) He glanced through the window into the Oval Office and saw the President and Ms. Lewinsky go through the door leading toward the private study.(287)
Deeming her frequent visits to the Oval Office area a “nuisance,” one Secret Service Officer complained to Evelyn Lieberman, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.(288) Ms. Lieberman was already aware of Ms. Lewinsky. In December 1995, according to Ms. Lewinsky, Ms. Lieberman chided her for being in the West Wing and told her that interns are not permitted around the Oval Office. Ms. Lewinsky (who had begun her Office of Legislative Affairs job) told Ms. Lieberman that she was not an intern anymore. After expressing surprise that Ms. Lewinsky had been hired, Ms. Lieberman said she must have Ms. Lewinsky confused with someone else.(289) Ms. Lieberman confirmed that she reprimanded Ms. Lewinsky, whom she considered “what we used to call a `clutch’ . . . always someplace she shouldn’t be.”(290)
In Ms. Lewinsky’s view, some White House staff members seemed to think that she was to blame for the President’s evident interest in her: (P)eople were wary of his weaknesses, maybe, and . . . they didn’t want to look at him and think that he could be responsible for anything, so it had to all be my fault . . . I was stalking him or I was making advances towards him.(292)
B. Decision to Transfer Ms. Lewinsky
Ms. Lieberman testified that, because Ms. Lewinsky was so persistent in her efforts to be near the President, “I decided to get rid of her.(293) First she consulted Chief of Staff Panetta. According to Mr. Panetta, Ms. Lieberman told him about a woman on the staff who was “spending too much time around the West Wing.” Because of “the appearance that it was creating,” Ms. Lieberman proposed to move her out of the White House. Mr. Panetta–who testified that he valued Ms. Lieberman’s role as “a tough disciplinarian” and “trusted her judgment”–replied, “Fine.”(294)
Although Ms. Lieberman said she could not recall having heard any rumors linking the President and Ms. Lewinsky, she acknowledged that “the President was vulnerable to these kind of rumors . . . yes, yes, that was one of the reasons” for moving Ms. Lewinsky out of the White House.(295)
Later, in September 1997, Marcia Lewis (Ms. Lewinsky’s mother) complained about her daughter’s dismissal to Ms. Lieberman, whom she met at a Voice of America ceremony. Ms. Lieberman, according to Ms. Lewis, responded by “saying something about Monica being cursed because she’s beautiful.” Ms. Lewis gathered from the remark that Ms. Lieberman, as part of her effort to protect the President, “would want to have pretty women moved out.”(296)
Most people understood that the principal reason for Ms. Lewinsky’s transfer was her habit of hanging around the Oval Office and the West Wing.(297) In a memo in October 1996, John Hilley, Assistant to the President and Director of Legislative Affairs, reported that Ms. Lewinsky had been “got(ten) rid of” in part “because of `extracurricular activities’ ” (a phrase, he maintained in the grand jury, that meant only that Ms. Lewinsky was often absent from her work station).(298)
White House officials arranged for Ms. Lewinsky to get another job in the Administration.(299)
“Our direction is to make sure she has a job in an Agency,” Patsy Thomasson wrote in an email message on April 9, 1996.(300) Ms. Thomasson’s office (Presidential Personnel) sent Ms. Lewinsky’s resume to Charles Duncan, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and White House Liaison, and asked him to find a Pentagon opening for her.(301) Mr. Duncan was told that, though Ms. Lewinsky had performed her duties capably, she was being dismissed for hanging around the Oval Office too much.(302) According to Mr. Duncan–who had received as many as 40 job referrals per day from the White House–the White House had never given such an explanation for a transfer.(303)
C. Ms. Lewinsky’s Notification of Her Transfer
On Friday, April 5, 1996, Timothy Keating, Staff Director for Legislative Affairs, informed Ms. Lewinsky that she would have to leave her White House job.(304) According to Mr. Keating, he
told her that she was not being fired, merely “being given a different opportunity.” In fact, she could tell people it was a promotion if she cared to do so.(305) Upon hearing of her dismissal, Ms. Lewinsky burst into tears and asked if there was any way for her to stay in the White House, even without pay.(306) No, Mr. Keating said. According to Ms. Lewinsky, “He told me I was too sexy to be working in the East Wing and that this job at the Pentagon where I’d be writing press releases was a sexier job.”(307)
Ms. Lewinsky was devastated. She felt that she was being transferred simply because of her relationship with the President.(308) And she feared that with the loss of her White House job, “I was never going to see the President again. I mean, my relationship with him would be over.”(309)
D. Conversations with the President about Her Transfer
1. Easter Telephone Conversations and Sexual Encounter
On Easter Sunday, April 7, 1996, Ms. Lewinsky told the President of her dismissal and they had a sexual encounter. Ms. Lewinsky entered the White House at 4:56 and left at 5:28 p.m.(310) The President was in the Oval Office all afternoon, from 2:21 to 7:48 p.m.(311)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President telephoned her at home that day. After they spoke of the death of the Commerce Secretary the previous week, she told him of her dismissal: I had asked him . . . if he was doing okay with Ron Brown’s death, and then after we talked about that for a little bit I told him that my last day was Monday. And . . . he seemed really upset and sort of asked me to tell him what had happened. So I did and I was crying and I asked him if I could come see him, and he said that that was fine.(312)
At the White House, according to Ms. Lewinsky, she told Secret Service Officer Muskett that she needed to deliver papers to the President.(313) Officer Muskett admitted her to the Oval Office, and she and the President proceeded to the private study.(314)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President seemed troubled about her upcoming departure from the White House:
He told me that he thought that my being transferred had something to do with him and that he was upset. He said, “Why do they have to take you away from me? I trust you.” And then he told me–he looked at me and he said, “I promise you if I win in November I’ll bring you back like that.”(315)
He also indicated that she could have any job she wanted after the election.(316) In addition, the President said he would find out why Ms. Lewinsky was transferred and report back to her.(317)
When asked if he had promised to get Ms. Lewinsky another White House job, the President told the grand jury:
What I told Ms. Lewinsky was that . . . I would do what I could to see, if she had a good record at the Pentagon, and she assured me she was doing a good job and working hard, that I would do my best to see that the fact that she had been sent away from the Legislative Affairs section did not keep her from getting a job in the White House, and that is, in fact, what I tried to do. . . . But I did not tell her I would order someone to hire her, and I never did, and I wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right.(318)
Ms. Lewinsky, when asked if the President had said that he would bring her back to the White House only if she did a good job at the Pentagon, responded: “No.”(319)
After this Easter Sunday conversation, the President and Ms. Lewinsky had a sexual encounter in the hallway, according to Ms. Lewinsky.(320) She testified that the President touched her breasts with his mouth and hands.(321) According to Ms. Lewinsky: “I think he unzipped (his pants) . . . because it was sort of this running joke that I could never unbutton his pants, that I just had trouble with it.”(322) Ms. Lewinsky performed oral sex. The President did not ejaculate in her presence.(323)
During this encounter, someone called out from the Oval Office that the President had a phone call.(324) He went back to the Oval Office for a moment, then took the call in the study. The President indicated that Ms. Lewinsky should perform oral sex while he talked on the phone, and she obliged.(325) The telephone conversation was about politics, and Ms. Lewinsky thought the caller might be Dick Morris.(326) White House records confirm that the President had one telephone call during Ms. Lewinsky’s visit: from “Mr. Richard Morris,” to whom he talked from 5:11 to 5:20 p.m.(327)
A second interruption occurred a few minutes later, according to Ms. Lewinsky. She and the President were in the study.(328) Ms. Lewinsky testified:
Harold Ickes has a very distinct voice and . . . I heard him holler “Mr. President,” and the President looked at me and I looked at him and he jetted out into the Oval Office and I panicked and . . . thought that maybe because Harold was so close with the President that they might just wander back there and the President would assume that I knew to leave.(329)
Ms. Lewinsky testified that she exited hurriedly through the dining room door.(330) That evening, the President called and asked Ms. Lewinsky why she had run off. “I told him that I didn’t know if he was going to be coming back . . . (H)e was a little upset with me that I left.”(331)
In addition to the record of the Dick Morris phone call, the testimony of Secret Service Officer Muskett corroborates Ms. Lewinsky’s account. Officer Muskett was posted near the door to the Oval Office on Easter Sunday.(332) He testified that Ms. Lewinsky (whom he knew) arrived at about 4:45 p.m. carrying a manila folder and seeming “a little upset.”(333) She told Officer Muskett that she needed to deliver documents to the President.(334) Officer Muskett or the plainclothes agent on duty with him opened the door, and Ms. Lewinsky entered.(335)
About 20 to 25 minutes later, according to Officer Muskett, the telephone outside the Oval Office rang. The White House operator said that the President had an important call but he was not picking up.(336) The agent working alongside Officer Muskett knocked on the door to the Oval Office. When the President did not respond, the agent entered. The Oval Office was empty, and the door leading to the study was slightly ajar.(337) (Ms. Lewinsky testified that the President left the door ajar during their sexual encounters.(338)) The agent called out, “Mr. President?”
There was no response. The agent stepped into the Oval Office and called out more loudly, “Mr. President?” This time there was a response from the study area, according to Officer Muskett: “Huh?” The agent called out that the President had a phone call, and the President said he would take it.(339)
A few minutes later, according to Officer Muskett, Mr. Ickes approached and said he needed to see President Clinton. Officer Muskett admitted him through Ms. Currie’s office.(340) Less than a minute after Mr. Ickes entered Ms. Currie’s reception area, according to Officer Muskett, the pantry or dining room door closed audibly. Officer Muskett stepped down the hall to check and saw Ms. Lewinsky walking away briskly.(341)
At 5:30 p.m., two minutes after Ms. Lewinsky left the White House, the President called the office of the person who had decided to transfer Ms. Lewinsky, Evelyn Lieberman.(342)
