Clinton Among Lewinsky Well-Wishers

President Clinton said Friday that he hopes Monica S. Lewinsky “will be permitted to go on with her life, and I hope it will be a good life.”

Two days after the former White House intern began marketing her tale of sexual encounters with the president, Clinton said he did not resent her efforts to make money from the scandal.

“I don’t wish anyone ill who was caught up in this, and she paid quite a high price for a long time, and I feel badly for that. So I just hope it works out all right,” Clinton said during a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema.

During an interview with Barbara Walters, aired Wednesday on ABC-TV, Lewinsky said that “sometimes I hate [Clinton’s] guts.”

But the president expressed compassion for “innocents” caught in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s yearlong investigation into charges that Clinton committed perjury and obstruction of justice while trying to cover up his affair with Lewinsky.

“I hope that all the people who have been hurt by this, including totally innocent people who have massive legal bills, will get the help they need, and I’m determined to do what I can to help them,” the president said.

As for himself, Clinton said he has learned “that all I can control in life is what I do and what I say. And if I do and say the right things, then that’s the thing that’s best for me and my family and for the American people.”