Clinton Strongly Denies Having Sex With Intern

With First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton tight-lipped at his side and his voice hoarse with emotion, President Clinton on Monday denied in unambiguous terms the allegations of sexual misconduct and possible perjury that have all but paralyzed the White House for nearly a week.

“I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me,” Clinton said, his eyes glinting and his right index finger thrusting forward on each syllable as he spoke. “I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time. Never. These allegations are false.”

Clinton’s words, seemingly less guarded than his previous statements and coming on the eve of tonight’s State of the Union address, represented his strongest effort yet to arrest the furor that began last week with allegations that he had a sexual relationship with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky and then asked her to cover it up.

Clinton’s fortunes took another turn later Monday when Lewinsky’s attorney, William Ginsburg, announced that she had given Starr an account, or “proffer,” of what she would testify to about the president in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution.

In a previous sworn statement, Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship with Clinton. If she now recants and accuses him of intimacy or suggesting she lie, Clinton’s problems could worsen precipitously.

Ginsburg, who still hopes to win immunity from prosecution for his client, refused to disclose what she is prepared to say. “We are now in a position where the ball is totally in Judge Starr’s court,” he said, alluding to the fact that Starr served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington from 1983 to 1989.

Despite news of Ginsburg’s proffer, Clinton’s forceful denial buoyed his supporters and dominated a day that included these other developments:

* Vice President Al Gore journeyed to Capitol Hill to rally dispirited Democrats. Members responded with calls for fairness and patience. Privately, though, they remained anxious about what the furor would mean for themselves and their party.

“I want to wait until we get all the information” before passing judgment, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) said. “This is a very taxing situation on everyone.”

* In Little Rock, Ark., the president’s lawyers asked a federal judge to have the trial of Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual-harassment lawsuit begin sooner than its scheduled start date in late May. The ongoing furor is hindering Clinton in the performance of his duties and should not be allowed to drag on, the motion by his attorney, Robert S. Bennett, said.

Clinton delivered his new denial in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, a few steps from the Oval Office, as he and the first lady and other officials welcomed supporters of his proposals for expanding child care.

The president framed his rebuttal in terms of interference with his efforts to serve the public good.

“Now I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech,” he said. “ . . . I need to go back to work for the American people.”

Clinton’s advisors said that they believed his counterattack was effective.

“The president pretty well rallied the troops with his strong statement today denying he had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky,” Bob Squires, a top Clinton political advisor, said. “That should get him back on track for the State of the Union address, and we have to make certain he stays on track.”

Rahm Emanuel, a senior White House aide, agreed. “If people see it as determined and forceful and unambiguous, it’s helpful,” he said, adding, “We didn’t have any parsing of words here” over whether it was a flat or a partial denial.

Moreover, Emanuel said, it would be risky for the president or anyone else to detail the facts in the context of Starr’s fierce offensive. “When you’ve got an independent counsel running around with a loaded subpoena gun, you don’t talk,” Emanuel said. “It would be stupid.”

Awaiting Word on Immunity

Emanuel’s comments seemed to reflect an atmospheric change at the White House. Instead of taking their beatings without much fight, White House officials seemed to have found what they considered viable avenues for counterattacking.

In a brief interview after announcing he had presented Lewinsky’s statement to Starr, Ginsburg said he was awaiting word as to whether prosecutors would accept it and grant her immunity.

As to what Lewinsky is now willing to say under oath, Ginsburg would offer only this cryptic comment: “This is a one-witness case, and they’ve got to make a decision whether they want the one witness.”

Starr was not available to comment Monday regarding Lewinsky’s offer, and it was not immediately known how long prosecutors would take to evaluate it.

Regardless of the precise specifics that Lewinsky is prepared to provide, experts say it is difficult to see how her offer can be anything but troubling for Clinton.

“It can’t be cause for comfort at the White House,” said Milton C. Regan Jr., a law professor at Georgetown University. “If Starr believes that she has information that will help make a case against the president, obviously it has to be of concern.”

Proffer Given by Telephone

The proffer was communicated by telephone from Lewinsky’s lawyers to Starr’s staff during the course of a series of conversations on Sunday and Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Starr was represented in the negotiations by associate independent counsel Michael W. Emmick and deputy independent counsel Robert Bittman.

It was Emmick who conferred for hours with Lewinsky in an Arlington, Va., hotel room on Jan. 16. Prosecutors at that time hoped to win Lewinsky’s cooperation--including her assent to tape-record one or more conversations with unspecified figures in the investigation.

Ginsburg, offering a report on his client’s condition, said: “She is getting stronger. She does not like being isolated, and we’ve kept her under wraps at the Watergate. . . . We intend to continue to keep her under wraps, because it would be inappropriate to put her into further jeopardy by allowing her to talk to the press.”

Ginsburg, who has been a friend of Lewinsky’s father since the mid-1960s, also acknowledged that he has called upon Barbara Walters, the veteran ABC News interviewer, for advice in handling the media. The two had lunch on Saturday, Ginsburg said.

Partial Copy of ‘Talking Points’

Meantime, on the investigative front, a partial copy of the written “talking points” Lewinsky allegedly gave to Tripp--two pages of the three-page document--spells out exactly what Tripp should say and not say to lawyers in the Paula Jones case.

According to sources, Lewinsky gave Tripp the paper after picking her up at her office at the Pentagon not long before Tripp was scheduled to give a sworn deposition to lawyers representing Jones in her lawsuit; the lawyers were trying to establish a pattern of sexual indiscretions on Clinton’s part to bolster Jones’ credibility.

The document is not signed but prosecutors believe Lewinsky did not write it, at least not unaided. And the question of who did write it is a central question of the investigation because the author could be accused of suborning perjury and attempting to obstruct justice.

The document begins with the heading, “Points to make in affidavit.”

“Your first few paragraphs should be about yourself,” the document states. “What you do now, what you did at the White House and for how many years you were there as a career person and as a political appointee.”

It discusses Tripp’s relationship with Kathleen E. Willey, a former White House staff member, and alludes to Tripp’s being quoted in Newsweek magazine last August claiming she saw Willey after an apparent sexual rendezvous with Clinton in the Oval Office.

In the magazine, Tripp said Willey appeared disheveled. In the document, Tripp is coached on what to say now under oath:

“You and Kathleen were friends,” the document advises. “At around the time of her husband’s death [the president has claimed it was after her husband died. Do you really want to contradict him?], she came to you after she allegedly came out of the Oval [Office] and looked [however she looked], you don’t recall her exact words, but she claimed at the time [whatever she claimed] and was very happy.”

The document offers lines Tripp can give the Jones lawyers that contradict her Newsweek statement.

“You did not see her go in or see her come out.”

“Talk about when you became out of touch with her and maybe why.”

The document continues to discuss the Willey episode.

“The next you heard of her was when a Newsweek reporter [I wouldn’t name him specifically] showed up in your office saying she was naming you as someone who would corroborate that she was sexually harassed.

“You spoke with her that evening, etc., and she relayed to you a sequence of events that was very dissimilar from what you remembered happening.

“As a result of your conversation with her and subsequent reports that showed she had tried to enlist the help of someone else in her lie that the president sexually harassed her, you now do not believe that what she claimed happened really happened. You now find it completely plausible that she herself smeared her lipstick, untucked her blouse, etc.”

And: “You have never observed the president behaving inappropriately with anybody.”

Suggests Showing Affidavit to Bennett

The document also suggests that Tripp should show her affidavit to the president’s lawyer, Bennett, before giving it to Jones’ lawyers.

The document then discusses how Tripp could change her story about whether Lewinsky had been involved sexually with Clinton.

It suggests, in first-person language, how that could be accomplished:

“By the way, remember how I said there was someone else that I knew about, well, she turned out to be this huge liar. I found out she left the White House because she was stalking the P. or something like that. Well at least that gets me out of another scandal that I know about.”

The document adds: “It’s important to you that they think you’re a team player, after all, you are a political appointee. You believe that they think you’re on the other side because you wouldn’t meet with them.”

*

Times staff writers Edwin Chen, Robert L. Jackson, Jack Nelson, Richard A. Serrano and Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.

Inside

CLASS ACT: Hillary Rodham Clinton, above, ventures into the public arena for first time since allegations. A15

THE PARTY LINE: Democrats will be watched for signs of support, or retreat. A14

A FINE LINE: Al Gore backs Clinton but protects his own future. A14

FEMINISTS TORN: Supporters separate Clinton’s policies from private life. A15