SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL

White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, say those who have talked with him recently, will not be surprised if the Justice Department now investigates him.

At issue is whether he lied when he told House prosecutors and a federal grand jury that he was not the source for stories that Monica S. Lewinsky was “a stalker” whose advances President Clinton had rebuffed.

Journalist Christopher Hitchens has filed an affidavit alleging that Blumenthal told him the story. The 50-year-old Blumenthal has denied that he was spreading adverse material about Lewinsky to the press. House investigators have suggested that Blumenthal acted on presidential orders in an effort to damage her credibility and impede efforts by lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment, to use her as a witness.

Blumenthal said in a statement that “the notion that I was trying to plant a story with this rabid anti-Clinton friend [Hitchens] is absurd.”

Although the presidential advisor does not seem too worried about the outcome, he does believe the process will “cost a hell of a lot” in legal fees, a source close to Blumenthal said.

A Washington journalist for 30 years, Blumenthal earned a reputation for both brilliance and arrogance when he wrote liberal-leaning pieces for the New Yorker and the New Republic. He’s been working in the White House since August 1997. He is close to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and plans to keep working on her millennium project and other presidential initiatives at the White House.