Clinton Defense Team Condemns Starr’s Tactics

The White House defense team, launching its first full-scale counterattack after five days of being rocked back on its heels, issued broad new public denials Sunday of sexual misconduct by President Clinton and accused independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr of using “created evidence” and conducting a “scuzzy investigation” to pursue a political vendetta.

“Let’s everyone take a deep breath, let’s conduct this investigation not based on leaks and lies and manufactured evidence,” said presidential aide Paul Begala as Clinton aides took to the airwaves in a coordinated attack.

But within hours, the White House was shaken by reports that prosecutors are investigating the possibility that an uninvolved witness may have observed Clinton in a compromising situation with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

The president has denied having a sexual relationship with the 24-year old Lewinsky, both in a sworn statement and in verbal responses to questions. And the White House issued a statement Sunday night saying that two onetime senior aides, former Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta and former Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman, said they were never told of such an incident.

But people familiar with the investigation said Starr is pursuing what investigators consider “credible” indications that a Secret Service agent or other member of the White House staff saw Clinton and Lewinsky together under embarrassing circumstances.

Moreover, sources said, Lewinsky told her erstwhile confidant, co-worker Linda Tripp, that she believed she was exiled from her White House job to the Pentagon because she and Clinton had somehow been caught.

In a day of hopes raised and dashed that may have taxed Clinton aides’ resilience more than any other so far, there were these other developments:

* Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), while sidestepping comment on the sexual misconduct allegations, said he had contacted White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles for reassurance that the beleaguered Clinton could still make timely decisions on Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina and other pressing overseas crises.

“I hope the administration can keep calm and . . . do what needs to be done,” Lott said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” program, “but you know it’s a distraction.” Lott’s fears were echoed by others, though White House aides insisted that the policy staff continues to function smoothly.

* Clinton, in addition to consulting with aides and hosting a Super Bowl party, worked the White House telephones, calling old friends and allies across the country in search of ideas and indications of the public mood. He found a residue of support, sources said, though some resentment over recent reports that Clinton has now acknowledged having an affair with singer Gennifer Flowers after long denying it.

“It appears that he just lied to the country for six years and had many of us lying to the country for six years,” one close associate said.

* Members of Congress began returning to Washington for the new legislative session, wondering how the chaos would affect the busy agenda. One senior member described the environment as “surreal.”

* New public opinion polls showed that Clinton’s personal rating is sinking fast, though the public still grants him high marks on job performance.

* William Ginsburg, the Los Angeles lawyer representing Lewinsky, promised that she would tell investigators everything she knows in exchange for a grant of immunity, a prospect that could nose dive if Starr finds an independent witness to corroborate her previously unsupported allegations. She is scheduled to be brought before a federal grand jury Tuesday.

Lewinsky has signed a sworn statement denying sexual involvement with Clinton, but she discussed such a relationship repeatedly in secretly recorded conversations. The tapes, and a sheet of “talking points” she allegedly gave to Tripp, also suggest she sought Tripp’s help in lying about her involvement with Clinton.

The news of a possible independent witness, with its potentially devastating impact on Clinton’s already mired presidency, struck his defenders just as they had managed to go on the attack for the first time since the controversy broke five days ago.

Momentarily, the damp, gray skies of Washington winter had given way to bright, cold sunshine and senior aides had fanned out with new confidence to defend the president on Sunday’s television news programs.

They delivered sweeping new denials of any sexual contact between Clinton and Lewinsky. Then they heaped scorn on Starr for the new turn in his investigation.

“This is a scuzzy investigation, and I guarantee you one thing, that when the facts come out, people are going to be repulsed by this,” said veteran Clinton strategist James Carville on “Meet the Press.”

Begala suggested that Starr’s investigative techniques smack of a political campaign to discredit Clinton.

“When you wire someone and you send them in, this was not discovered evidence, this was created evidence,” presidential aide Begala declared on ABC-TV’s “This Week.”

Begala had not finished his appearance, however, when he was blindsided by questions about the reported new witness, and White House fortunes sagged once more.

As Starr’s investigators searched for a possible corroborating witness, a source close to the matter provided details about Lewinsky’s conclusion that she and Clinton had somehow been discovered in the spring of 1996 and that she was transferred out of the White House as a result.

Lewinsky, who at the time had concluded her internship and become a White House staffer, told Tripp that Lieberman, then a deputy White House chief of staff, informed the former intern that she was being moved out, according to the source.

Lewinsky also told Tripp that although she never knew exactly who caught her, or how, she became convinced that her alleged secret relationship with Clinton had been uncovered.

At one point in the scores of conversations between Lewinsky and Tripp, “Monica told Linda that somebody stumbled across them and then discreetly left,” the source said.

On one of the tapes Tripp secretly recorded of Lewinsky, however, Lewinsky suggested that perhaps no one had seen them after all because she was never presented with any evidence.

“Nobody saw anything happen between us,” Lewinsky said on one of the tapes, according to Newsweek magazine.

“Are you positive that nobody saw you in the study?” Tripp asked.

“I’m absolutely positive.”

Tripp then asked “How about Betty?”--a reference to Clinton’s personal secretary, Betty Currie.

Lewinsky did not answer.

Investigators are trying to find out whether a Secret Service agent or White House employee alerted a higher official after perhaps seeing a compromising situation involving Clinton and Lewinsky.

However, Mary Ellen Glynn, a spokeswoman for Lieberman, said: “It is not true that any such incident was reported to her. No one came to her and said this happened.”

Glynn said Lieberman transferred Lewinsky because she believed her behavior was “inappropriate” for the White House staff. She refused to be more specific. But officials speaking anonymously have said Lieberman believed that Lewinsky’s skirts were too short and her manner too flirtatious, and that she was trying to get too close to the president.

Lewinsky’s lawyer said that if Starr has obtained evidence of a witness, it could help to ease the pressure against Lewinsky to become the government’s chief accuser against the president.

But, citing the lawyer-client privilege, Ginsburg refused to confirm or deny whether Clinton and Lewinsky were seen together while engaged in sexual activity inside the White House.

He was quizzed about the matter on “This Week,” which reported that it too had learned that Clinton and Lewinsky were caught in an “intimate encounter.”

“If that is true,” Ginsburg said of Clinton and Lewinsky being caught, “I am on the one hand upset for the presidency and the country, and on the other hand I am pleased for my client.”

As Congress returned, Republicans expressed concern about Clinton’s ability to ignore the continuing furor and focus on the nation’s business.

In addition to Lott, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, on “Meet the Press,” said: “We’re looking at how we’re going to govern the country, and we cannot be held up for a long period of time when there are so many important issues facing the country.”

But White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton is staying on schedule.

If they thought he was suggesting postponing the speech, Lockhart said, “they were hearing something he wasn’t saying.”

For his part, Clinton began the day by attending church with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, putting his arm around her and smiling as they emerged. During the afternoon, he continued to work on his speech in the White House Map Room, revising passages before an audience of advisors. It was his second rehearsal in two days.

*

Times staff writers Janet Hook, Alan C. Miller, Jack Nelson, Doyle McManus, Ronald J. Ostrow, Jonathan Peterson, Paul Richter and Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story.

INSIDE

LEGAL GAME: The key to this high-stakes game is information. A16

MEDIA FOCUS: The story spread through the news media with lightning speed. A17

CONGRESS BACK: Turmoil will mark opening of new legislative session. A17

OUTSIDE LOOP: Members of president’s inner circle find they’re out of the loop. A17