Testimony by Secret Service Details Trysts

Charged with protecting the nation’s innermost sanctum and the president, the ranks of the Secret Service are filled with trained observers.

No wonder uniformed officers and plainclothes agents at the White House noticed the dark-haired young woman who carried a manila folder when she visited President Clinton, most often on weekends and holidays. And, they noted, within minutes of Monica S. Lewinsky’s arrival at the executive mansion, Clinton invariably headed for the Oval Office, returning to his living quarters within minutes of her departure.

“Like clockwork,” Secret Service Officer Brent Chinery testified to the grand jury investigating Clinton’s relationship with the former White House intern.

Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s report paints the clearest picture yet of the tense work environment in the Clinton White House and the uncomfortable role played by the security detail. Most of the testimony came from uniformed officers, who are posted at specific points in the White House, rather than from agents who accompany the president when he travels.

Ever present, always watchful, the Secret Service is expected to refrain from voicing opinions--a difficult line to walk in any administration. Under Clinton’s regime, where relations between the guards and the guarded were already strained and where there was quite a lot not to see, the officers faced a special challenge. When they could not repress their judgments, they got in trouble no matter which way they turned.

They were chastised for wanting to bar Lewinsky from the White House. But they also were reprimanded for inviting her into a guardhouse and letting slip that another woman was in the Oval Office.

Secret Service Members Given Gifts

Certainly, the officers were well aware of Lewinsky’s charms. The president was not the only White House recipient of her gifts. Lewinsky also presented neckties, boxes of chocolate and birthday cards to members of the Secret Service, according to Michael T. Leibig, a lawyer representing several of the witnesses.

Leibig said in an interview that he has asked his clients--33 members of the service appeared before the grand jury--to comb through the Starr report to see if it accurately reflects their testimony. In his own first readings of the voluminous document, he noted minor errors (such as a lieutenant identified as a sergeant), and he quarrels with the emphasis placed on the most dramatic versions of various incidents. He finds the omissions interesting. Star-struck interns, for instance, were not unique to the Clinton administration--”which is not to say that [other presidents] had affairs with them,” he added.

But in the end, “I don’t think a lot [of the story] is going to change,” Leibig said.

During Starr’s investigation, the Secret Service officers felt “divided loyalty,” said Dale Holt, chairman of the Uniformed Division Retirement Assn., which includes some of the witnesses. “We are a part of law enforcement and you’re not expected to withhold things. But the job is security with a capital S, not to make moral judgments or political judgments.”

The situation mirrors past dilemmas. In Seymour Hersh’s book, “The Dark Side of Camelot,” Secret Service veterans described their unease with President Kennedy’s sexual carousing in the White House swimming pool and on trips away from his wife. Agents for Johnson felt his temper’s lash. Nixon’s detail testified about installing taping equipment. Others said Reagan and Bush were easygoing, but that was not always true of their staffs.

Bill Clinton chafed from the beginning. The agents’ arrival during the 1992 presidential campaign was far from welcomed by the Arkansas governor, according to one of his former state bodyguards.

Clinton didn’t trust the Secret Service and fumed that the standoff was “cramping his style with women” whom he sometimes met during his jogs, state trooper Roger Patterson told The Times in 1993. But the agents refused to let candidate Clinton jog alone unless he signed a waiver sending them all away.

Early in the administration, a newspaper and a magazine reported that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton threw a lamp during an argument with her husband. The first family blamed the Secret Service for the leak and requested the removal of officers from inside the private living quarters.

About Lewinsky, Clinton tried to be discreet. He suggested that she pretend to deliver documents. But his eagerness ruined the charade.

About two months into the relationship, Clinton stepped from his office to ask now-retired Officer Lewis C. Fox: “Have you seen any young congressional staff members here today?”

Fox: “No, sir.”

Clinton: “Well, I’m expecting one. Would you please let me know when they show up?”

Fox: “Yes, sir.”

Fox predicted to a colleague in the hallway that “they” would be Lewinsky. Proved right, he admitted her. “You can shut the door,” Clinton said. “She’ll be here for a while.”

On another occasion, Officer William C. Bordley stopped Lewinsky because she had no pass. The president opened the Oval Office door and ushered her in.

It was a Secret Service officer who complained that Lewinsky’s constant presence was “a nuisance,” leading Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman to transfer Lewinsky to the Pentagon.

Even after being told of the transfer, Lewinsky was still able, she testified, to talk Officer John Muskett out of seeking Lieberman’s guidance on whether to allow her into the Oval Office.

Muskett knew her--they all did by then--and noticed that she seemed upset.

It was Easter Sunday. Clinton failed to pick up a phone call, prompting an agent to knock and twice call, “Mr. President!” before getting a groggy reply.

Later, senior aide Harold M. Ickes went into the office. Muskett heard the pantry door shut. Checking the noise, the guard saw Lewinsky hurry away.

Lewinsky Suggested for No-Admittance List

Concerned about the president’s reputation, an officer suggested putting Lewinsky on a no-admittance list. A commander, the Starr report says, sharply rebuked him: It was none of their business and “nobody would ever find out.”

Officer Douglas Dragotta testified that Clinton secretary Betty Currie occasionally tried to get Lewinsky admitted without a written record being made of her visit. Currie did not directly deny that, testifying: “I hope I didn’t.” Starr noted evidence that Lewinsky was at the White House on days for which neither her entry nor exit was logged.

Last Dec. 6, Lewinsky arrived unheralded at the Northwest Gate with gifts for the president. She did not mention that she had enclosed a farewell letter.

The Secret Service officers invited the familiar figure inside the guard booth after Currie notified them that the president “already had a guest in the Oval” and asked that Lewinsky wait 40 minutes. An officer mentioned that television personality Eleanor Mondale was at the White House.

Lewinsky guessed--correctly--that Mondale was the president’s guest. The former intern had been told by Currie that he was with his lawyers. She stormed off.

She was not the only livid one. Hands shaking, near tears, Currie told three officers that the president was “irate” about the loose lips. A supervisor, Keith Williams, testified that when he met with Currie about the incident, he noticed the Oval Office door crack open and heard a male voice say: “This person needs to be fired.”

Currie told agents before leaving for the day: Discipline wasn’t necessary. The president “just wanted it to go away,” Chinery testified.

Capt. Geoffrey Purdie told the grand jury that the president suggested: “I hope you use your discretion.” No paperwork was generated.

Times staff writer William C. Rempel contributed to this story.