Long-time Clinton confidant and power broker Vernon Jordan said he helped Monica Lewinsky seek a job and then set her up with an attorney, and that she had told him "in no uncertain terms" that she had not had a sexual relationship with the president.
Jordan's dramatic statement came as Clinton, firmly denying all accusations, sought to calm the firestorm over allegations that he had an affair with Lewinsky and then urged her to lie about it.
As Clinton promised a more full accounting and his advisers waited anxiously to see what Lewinsky would say when deposed in the Paula Jones lawsuit against Clinton, a judge intervened.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright in Little Rock, Ark., granted an indefinite delay for Lewinsky's deposition, which had been scheduled for today. Whitewater prosecutors are trying to secure Lewinsky's cooperation and speculation abounded that she would take the Fifth Amendment. Lewinsky remained out of sight yesterday but told CBS News she had no comment.
With Yasser Arafat at his side in a surreal moment of White House diplomacy, Clinton made his firmest denial yet to Lewinksy's claims in taped conversations with a friend that she had an affair with Clinton and that he and Jordan asked her to deny it to Jones' attorneys.
"The allegations are false, and I would never ask anybody to do anything other than tell the truth," Clinton said. Lewinsky herself has denied the claims she made in tape-recorded conversations with her friend Linda Tripp. Jordan added to the denials at a press conference yesterday afternoon in remarks the White House hoped would dampen political speculation in Washington.
"I want to say to you absolutely and unequivocally that Ms. Lewinsky told me in no uncertain terms that she did not have a sexual relationship with the president," Jordan told reporters. He would not answer any questions.
Jones' attorneys had a wide-ranging subpoena served on the White House yesterday seeking all documents and evidence concerning Lewinsky's employment there, her contacts with the president and others and other information sought in a similar subpoena issued by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr a day earlier, officials said.
The fresh denials from Clinton and Jordan came as details emerged about Lewinsky's entries to the White House and gifts she received from the president. FBI agents working for Starr were contacting other interns, including some who apparently still work at the White House, according to officials.
Starr promised to move swiftly to sort through explosive allegations that were the talk of the nation. Starr, a Republican, rejected suggestions he might be out to "get" Clinton. "Our job is to gather facts and to evaluate those facts and to get at the truth," he said.
He said the investigation would be pursued "consistent with the presumption of innocence."
Clinton sought to avoid any defensiveness as he faced questions about the Lewinsky matter during a photo session with Palestinian leader Arafat.
"You and the American people have a right to get answers," he told reporters. "We will give you as many answers as we can, as soon as we can, at the appropriate time ... and that's not a dodge."
Clinton met earlier yesterday with his legal advisers about how to comply with subpoenas demanding documents related to the matter.
Investigators refused to comment publicly on what they know, but details trickled out from unidentified sources.
01-23-98
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