Lewinsky Allegedly Told Others

In the two weeks since a co-worker’s secret taping of Monica S. Lewinsky triggered a presidential crisis, other acquaintances of the young woman have come forward to describe her accounts of having sex with President Clinton.

One man says Lewinsky told him while they were on a date last summer. Others have described what they said were Lewinsky’s accounts of sex in the White House, individuals familiar with the accounts told The Times.

The new accounts may help to resolve questions about whether the original descriptions of an affair, obtained by Lewinsky’s co-worker, Linda Tripp, were in some way coaxed or manipulated.

But they do not address the larger questions at the heart of the controversy surrounding Clinton and Lewinsky:

* Whether Lewinsky told the truth when she described a sexual relationship with the president to her acquaintances;

* Whether Clinton told the truth when he denied that he had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and when he said he never told anyone to lie about it;

* And whether Clinton friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. tried to get Lewinsky to cover up the alleged relationship.

While the sensation of the tapes has overshadowed these questions, investigators have focused on evidence that may determine the outcome of the imbroglio.

Without fanfare, prosecutors on Monday for the first time began to examine Clinton’s sworn statements regarding Lewinsky, which the president provided privately last month in connection with the Paula Corbin Jones sexual-harassment lawsuit.

Lawyers are seeking to compare Clinton’s sworn statements with his public comments and with other evidence.

In his public comments, Clinton has emphatically denied having “sexual relations” with Lewinsky, now 24. Lewinsky also signed a sworn statement last month denying any sexual relationship. But Lewinsky’s family lawyer suggested subsequently that her account might change if she received immunity from prosecution from independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

Those familiar with the investigation said prosecutors also have subpoenaed Clinton’s close friend and Deputy White House Counsel Bruce R. Lindsey to appear before a grand jury in Washington that is hearing evidence in the matter.

Advisors to the president said Monday that they expect Lindsey to be asked whether he helped fashion a list of “talking points” that Lewinsky gave her friend and co-worker, Tripp, before the controversy erupted. The document seemed designed to coach Tripp to testify falsely regarding Clinton’s alleged relationship with another woman at the White House.

Former top White House aide George Stephanopoulos said that he, too, has been subpoenaed and will appear today before the grand jury.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Monday night that he would not address specifics of Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky.

“The president has made very clear his own strong denial,” McCurry said. “And there is nothing we have to add to that.”

The most sensational element of the matter to emerge publicly has been accounts of the tapes that Tripp secretly recorded. In them, Lewinsky claims she had a sexual relationship with Clinton that began when she was a White House intern in 1995 and continued after her transfer to the Pentagon in April 1996.

A new account came Monday from a UCLA student. Dennis Lytton, a 24-year-old political science major who worked last year at the Pentagon with Lewinsky, said she told him that she was intimate with the president.

In an interview with the Daily Bruin, Lytton said that, while on a date with Lewinsky last July, she told him she had a “special relationship” with Clinton.

“I asked her, ‘What do you mean by a special relationship?’ ” Lytton told the newspaper. She then described a sexual relationship, Lytton said.

Lytton declined to elaborate Monday when reached by The Times, other than to say that his account as presented in the college newspaper was accurate. He said he wanted to hire a lawyer before discussing the matter further.

Records and interviews show that Lytton worked at the Defense Department as an unpaid intern in the office of the deputy assistant secretary for strategy and threat reduction from June 23, 1997, to Aug. 29, 1997. This was within the period that Lewinsky was a public affairs assistant at the Pentagon. Lytton also was an intern for two months in 1996, at the Los Angeles office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a spokeswoman for Feinstein confirmed.

The attorney for Lewinsky, William H. Ginsburg, said Monday that he would not discuss Lytton’s recollections.

“What a guy,” Ginsburg said.

Ginsburg told The Times that he is prohibited by the attorney-client privilege from revealing what his client told him about the nature of her relationship with Clinton.

The other individuals who have come forward with claims that Lewinsky told them about a relationship with the president have not been identified publicly.

When asked if he knew about such individuals, Ginsburg said:

“We know they’re [prosecutors and FBI agents working under Starr] looking for collateral evidence. Maybe they have it; maybe they don’t.”

Indeed, it is through the powers of a grand jury--to compel sworn testimony and to elicit a variety of documents--that Starr’s investigation is ostensibly seeking to gain a more informed look at who is or is not telling the truth.

“We’re continuing to move forward,” Starr told reporters on Monday.

For his part, Ginsburg appeared to be preserving his client’s options.

Although he confirmed that sporadic talks continue with Starr’s staff regarding a possible immunity deal, Ginsburg also said that he is conferring with one of Clinton’s private-sector lawyers, David E. Kendall, regarding a possible court challenge to Starr’s authority.

Ginsburg said that he has been “just touching fingers” with Kendall. He declined to describe their discussions further.

Times staff writers Matea Gold in Los Angeles and Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this story.