Clinton’s Gifts to Lewinsky Continue to Draw Scrutiny

As late as Dec. 28, President Clinton was still giving gifts to Monica S. Lewinsky--about the same time his personal secretary was retrieving his earlier presents to the former White House intern, a source familiar with his grand jury testimony said Friday.

Clinton gave Lewinsky several “going-away” presents that Sunday in the last known meeting between the two at the White House. Lewinsky was planning to move to New York for a job that presidential friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. was trying to arrange for her.

Lewinsky--with whom Clinton earlier this week acknowledged having an “inappropriate” relationship--already had been subpoenaed to testify in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against the president. Clinton’s deposition in that case--in which he said that he could not remember what gifts he might have given Lewinsky--came less than three weeks later.

The gifts, and their retrieval by the president’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, are key elements in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation of the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship and alleged efforts to cover it up. If Clinton instructed one or both of the women to ensure that the gifts were not available to Jones’ lawyers, that could constitute obstruction of justice.

Gifts Include Pin, Stone Carving

Clinton’s defenders contend that the late-December gifts, including an Alaskan stone carving, a throw rug or blanket and a decorative pin, support his testimony that he was not concerned about the gifts being obtained by Jones’ lawyers.

“Starr’s investigation into the gifts defies logic,” a presidential advisor said. “The president wouldn’t have given gifts so late if he was concerned about their disclosure.”

But the gifts also could be seen as an attempt by Clinton to assure that he and Lewinsky, then 24, parted on good terms. On Dec. 17, she had received a court order to testify in the Jones suit, and 10 days after she received Clinton’s “going-away” gifts, she submitted a sworn affidavit in the Jones suit denying that she had a sexual relationship with Clinton.

Clinton, in his Jones case deposition 10 days after that, made a similar denial.

After obtaining immunity from prosecution from Starr, Lewinsky admitted in grand jury testimony earlier this month that her denial was untrue. Clinton, after testifying by closed-circuit television to the grand jury Monday, maintained in a speech to the nation that his denial of a sexual relationship was “legally accurate,” while admitting that the relationship was “not appropriate.”

“The president did not advise Monica that she could avoid producing the gifts to the Paula Jones lawyers,” contended the source familiar with his testimony. “ In fact, he testified that he told her that she had to turn over any gifts she had if the Jones lawyers sought them.”

Why Currie retrieved the gifts from Lewinsky in December remains unclear.

“The president told the grand jury that he did not instruct Currie or anyone else to retrieve the gifts from Miss Lewinsky,” the source said. “ . . . He testified he did not learn that Lewinsky had turned over the gifts to Betty Currie until Starr’s inquiry became public.”

White House Asserts Clinton’s Legal Rights

Meanwhile, looking ahead to a possible impeachment battle, the White House asked the Supreme Court on Friday to rule that the Constitution’s separation-of-powers doctrine gives the president the right to have confidential talks with his government lawyers.

“We stand now upon the brink of the most serious confrontation between branches of government contemplated in our constitutional order,” said White House Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff. “The president’s need for, and entitlement to, confidential legal advice is at its zenith in preparation for potential impeachment proceedings.”

Yet Clinton must labor under the “unique disability” of being unable to consult in confidence with White House lawyers, Ruff said.

That is because the U.S. Court of Appeals here has ruled that government officials and government lawyers do not share the traditional attorney-client privilege of confidentiality.

Siding with Starr, the Appeals Court said last month that the president’s official lawyers must testify before the grand jury if ordered to do so.

The 2-1 ruling came in the case of Deputy White House Counsel Bruce R. Lindsey but it applies to all White House lawyers, including Ruff. Its logic also presumably applies to a possible impeachment inquiry in the House. If so, the House Judiciary Committee could order White House lawyers, such as Ruff, to testify about their private conversations with the president after news of the Lewinsky scandal broke.

The Supreme Court is recessed for the summer, and the justices are not likely to examine the appeal until late September. On their normal schedule, they would not act on it for several weeks after that--intervention that likely would come too late to shield the White House in its battles with Starr but could help if the House takes up the impeachment issue.

Donors Contribute $2.2 Million to Fund

Also Friday, the names of about 17,000 donors who contributed a total of more than $2.2 million to a legal defense fund for the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were disclosed.

The money will help pay the Clintons’ legal expenses from the now-dismissed Jones lawsuit and Starr’s ongoing investigations of Whitewater and the Lewinsky matter.

The Clinton Legal Expense Trust, which was established in February and made its first semiannual report Friday, is less restrictive than an earlier legal defense fund that was shut down last year.

The new venture actively seeks contributions and accepts up to $10,000 per individual, 10 times the previous limit.

The initial fund raised only $1.3 million in more than three years. The Clintons have accumulated almost $4 million in legal expenses since entering the White House, according to former Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.), chairman of the legal trust.

Sources with the fund suggested that the Clintons’ legal bills could reach $8 million to $10 million.

Among those who donated the $10,000 maximum were numerous Hollywood luminaries, including director Steven Spielberg; Spielberg’s wife, actress Kate Capshaw-Spielberg; David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Spielberg’s partners in DreamWorks SKG; actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson; entertainer Barbra Streisand; television producer Norman Lear; actor and film executive Michael Douglas; director Ron Howard and his wife, Cheryl; director Bud Yorkin and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax Films.

Other $10,000 donors from Southern California include billionaire financier Marvin A. Davis; and retirement-savings financier Eli Broad, chairman of SunAmerica Inc.; Ron Burkle, head of Food 4 Less; A. Jerrold Perenchio, chairman of Univision, a Spanish-language television network; economist Stanley K. Sheinbaum; and Beverly Hills attorney Edward Z. Tabash.

Chief Washington Correspondent Jack Nelson and researcher Tricia Ford contributed to this story.