Ray to Re-Interview Lewinsky in Inquiry

Signaling what may be further legal trouble for President Clinton, independent counsel Robert W. Ray is planning to interview former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky in connection with a federal grand jury he impaneled last summer.

Some lawyers familiar with the independent counsel’s office said that the action suggests Ray may be seeking to indict Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice after he leaves office next month.

Plato Cacheris, Lewinsky’s attorney, said that Ray “has asked for an interview sometime this month” with the 26-year-old woman, who now lives in New York. Cacheris said that he will make his client available but added that “she is very reluctant to get back into this.”

Lewinsky is legally bound to comply with Ray’s request, however, because her 1998 immunity agreement requires her to cooperate with the independent counsel, Cacheris noted.

Legal Community Interprets Move

Because Lewinsky testified fully under her immunity grant before a previous grand jury impaneled by Ray’s predecessor, Kenneth W. Starr, the move for a new interview raised eyebrows in the legal community here.

“There’s really no reason for Ray to re-interview Lewinsky unless he’s figuring to do something with that new grand jury in the way of an indictment,” said Joseph E. DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

“If he’s only preparing to close out the case for a final report--dotting the I’s and crossing the Ts, so to speak--the last person he would need to interview is Lewinsky,” DiGenova said. “He already has so much information that Starr gathered from her and others and sent to Congress.

“But certainly as a prosecutor you would never bring a case against the president without interviewing such a key witness.”

DiGenova and others said that Ray may be aiming to indict Clinton on one or two charges--perjury for his alleged false statements in a sworn deposition in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit about his contacts with Lewinsky, or obstruction for alleged efforts to influence Lewinsky’s grand jury testimony or that of presidential aides.

The House impeached the president two years ago on these charges, but senators voted against removing him from office. A president is immune from criminal charges in federal court but Clinton’s departure from the presidency will remove that immunity.

Ray, who succeeded Starr as Whitewater prosecutor in October 1999, refused comment. “We are seeking to resolve this matter shortly after the president leaves office,” said Lynda Flippin, a spokesperson for Ray.

It could not be learned immediately if any other key witnesses have been interviewed by Ray or summoned for interviews. Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a golfing friend of Clinton who found work for Lewinsky, has had no contact with Ray’s office, according to his lawyer, William G. Hundley.

Mark Geragos, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who successfully defended former Clinton associate Susan McDougal against criminal charges growing out of the Whitewater investigation, agreed with DiGenova that summoning Lewinsky seems to presage an eventual Clinton indictment.

“Ray would not call back a witness who they’ve already put through countless days of debriefings if they weren’t planning to do something,” Geragos said.

“That would seem to substantiate that Clinton is still in harm’s way before this independent counsel--and either has been indicted already [in secret] or they plan to do it soon after he leaves office,” he added.

Lewinsky’s Testimony Would Be the Focus

Ray’s staff likely would want to go over key details in Lewinsky’s testimony to test her recollection on significant dates and meetings, he added.

Ray previously has acknowledged that he is examining the Clinton impeachment charges from a prosecutor’s viewpoint. In an interview with The Times last June, he said that any decision on indicting Clinton “is not an exact science” because other factors come into play.

“The determination of whether a crime has been committed is only the first step,” he said. “You must also consider whether or not there is a substantial federal interest in bringing a case.

“There is a great amount of respect--appropriate respect--that should be placed in the office of the president.”

After impaneling his grand jury last July, Ray said that his decision on whether to seek an indictment “is a serious one of judgment [and] I must be faithful to my oath to carry out this task responsibly and fairly.”

Separate Reports Filed as Part of Inquiry

He added that “there is . . . an important principle at stake: that none of us, not even the president, is above the law.”

In concluding the more than six-year Whitewater investigation, Ray has been filing separate reports on different aspects of the inquiry. These have included reports on the Clintons’ Arkansas real estate transactions dating back to the early 1980s, an investigation into the 1993 dismissal of White House travel office employees and a report on allegedly improper White House acquisition of FBI security files on hundreds of former appointees of Republican administrations.

No criminal charges have been brought against the president, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton or any other administration official. Ray’s last action will be to wrap up the Lewinsky case.

A White House official said of Ray’s summoning of Lewinsky: “It’s all fairly predictable that he would be going over this ground yet again.”