Lewinsky Addresses Stained Garment Issue

Monica S. Lewinsky denies that she kept a navy dress with a stain of the president’s semen as a souvenir. But it was never laundered, she says, because she has her clothes cleaned just before she wears them--and she never wore that garment again.

Lewinsky’s description of her navy work dress--”it’s not a cocktail dress”--was among grand jury materials released Monday by the House Judiciary Committee.

Lewinsky testified that the telltale stain occurred during an encounter on Feb. 28, 1997, but she did not notice it until she intended to wear the dress again late last year. However, recalling that she had gone to dinner later that February evening, she thought the stain might be “spinach dip or something.”

Linda Tripp, her former friend and Pentagon worker who secretly taped many of the former White House intern’s phone conversations about Clinton, discouraged her from wearing the dress again and offered her a jacket from her own closet. This was after she speculated to Tripp that the stain might be semen.

“She told me I looked fat in the dress, I shouldn’t wear it,” Lewinsky testified. “She told me that I should put it in a safe deposit box because it could be evidence one day.

“And I said that was ludicrous because I would never--I would never--disclose that I had a relationship with the president.”

FBI laboratory tests last month showed the presence of semen and blood drawn from the president’s right arm on Aug. 3 demonstrated a DNA match “to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,” according to an FBI lab report that the committee made public.