C. December 22: First Meeting with Francis Carter Mr. Jordan drove Ms. Lewinsky to Mr. Carter's office.(855) There, he introduced Ms. Lewinsky to Mr. Carter, explaining that she needed not only a lawyer but a "counselor."(856) Mr. Carter testified that, after the initial referral, he expected to have no further contact with Mr. Jordan about Ms. Lewinsky or her case.(858) Mr. Carter and Ms. Lewinsky then met for approximately an hour.(859) She explained that she did not want to be drawn into the Jones case and would strongly prefer not to be deposed.(860) He said that he would try to persuade Paula Jones's attorneys not to depose her.(861) Ms. Lewinsky testified that she suggested filing an affidavit to avert a deposition.(862) According to Ms. Lewinsky, she asked Mr. Carter to get in touch with the President's personal attorney, Robert Bennett, just "to let him know that I had been subpoenaed in this case."(863) She wanted to make clear that she was "align[ing] [her]self with the President's side."(864) Mr. Carter testified that, while Ms. Lewinsky was in his office, he placed a call to Mr. Bennett to arrange a meeting.(865) On the morning of Tuesday, December 23, Mr. Carter met for an hour with two of the President's personal attorneys, Mr. Bennett and Katherine Sexton.(866) The President's attorneys told Mr. Carter that other witnesses had filed motions to quash their subpoenas, and they offered legal research to support such a motion.(867) D. December 23: Clinton Denials to Paula Jones Throughout the sexual harassment case, Ms. Jones's attorneys attempted to obtain information about President Clinton's sexual relationships with any woman other than his wife. On December 11, 1997, the judge overseeing the Jones case, Susan Webber Wright, ruled that the President had to answer a written interrogatory naming every state and federal employee since 1986 with whom he had sexual relations or with whom he had proposed to have sexual relations. On December 23, 1997, the President answered the interrogatory: "None."(868) E. December 28: Final Meeting with the President A day or two after Christmas, Ms. Lewinsky called Ms. Currie and told her that the President had mentioned that he had presents for her.(869) Ms. Currie called back and told her to come to the White House at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 28.(870) That morning, Ms. Lewinsky met with the President in the Oval Office. WAVES records reflect that the visit was requested by Ms. Currie and that Ms. Lewinsky entered the White House at 8:16 a.m.(871) After she arrived at the Oval Office, she, the President, and Ms. Currie played with Buddy, the President's dog, and chatted. Then, the President took her to the study and gave her several Christmas presents: a marble bear's head, a Rockettes blanket, a Black Dog stuffed animal, a small box of chocolates, a pair of joke sunglasses, and a pin with a New York skyline on it.(872) Ms. Lewinsky testified that, during this visit, she and the President had a "passionate" and "physically intimate" kiss.(873) Ms. Lewinsky and the President also talked about the Jones case.(874) In Ms. Lewinsky's account, she asked the President "how he thought [she] got put on the witness list."(875) He speculated that Linda Tripp or one of the uniformed Secret Service officers had told the Jones attorneys about her.(876) When Ms. Lewinsky mentioned her anxiety about the subpoena's reference to a hat pin, he said "that sort of bothered [him], too."(877) He asked whether she had told anyone about the hat pin, and she assured him that she had not.(878) At some point in the conversation, Ms. Lewinsky told the President, "[M]aybe I should put the gifts away outside my house somewhere or give them to someone, maybe Betty."(879) Ms. Lewinsky recalled that the President responded either "I don't know" or "Let me think about that."(880) When Ms. Lewinsky was asked whether she thought it odd for the President to give her gifts under the circumstances (with a subpoena requiring the production of all his gifts), she testified that she did not think of it at the time, but she did note some hesitancy on the President's part: [H]e had hesitated very briefly right before I left that day in kind of packaging . . . all my stuff back up . . . I don't think he said anything that indicated this to me, but I thought to myself, "I wonder if he's thinking he shouldn't give these to me to take out." But he did.(881) When asked in the Jones deposition about his last meeting with Ms. Lewinsky, the President remembered only that she stopped by "[p]robably sometime before Christmas" and he "stuck [his] head out [of the office], said hello to her."(882) The deposition occurred three weeks after this December 28 meeting with Ms. Lewinsky. In the grand jury, the President acknowledged "talking with Ms. Lewinsky about her testimony, or about the prospect that she might have to give testimony. And she, she talked to me about that."(883) He maintained, however, that they did not discuss Ms. Lewinsky's subpoena: "[S]he was upset. She -- well, she -- we -- she didn't -- we didn't talk about a subpoena. But she was upset."(884) In the President's recollection, Ms. Lewinsky said she knew nothing about sexual harassment; why did she have to testify? According to the President, "I explained to her that it was a political lawsuit. They wanted to get whatever they could under oath that was damaging to me."(885) Ms. Lewinsky's friend, Catherine Allday Davis, testified about a conversation with Ms. Lewinsky on January 3, 1998. Ms. Lewinsky told Ms. Davis that she had met with the President and discussed the Jones case a few days earlier. Ms. Davis testified that Ms. Lewinsky and the President had "noted [that] there was no evidence" of their relationship.(887) E. December 28: Concealment of Gifts In the afternoon of December 28, a few hours after Ms. Lewinsky's White House visit, Ms. Currie drove to Ms. Lewinsky's Watergate apartment and collected a box containing the President's gifts. Ms. Currie then took the box home and hid it under her bed. Ms. Lewinsky, Ms. Currie, and the President were all questioned as to why Ms. Currie retrieved the box of gifts from Ms. Lewinsky. According to Ms. Lewinsky, the transfer originated in a phone call from Ms. Currie that afternoon. Ms. Lewinsky testified that Ms. Currie said, "I understand you have something to give me," or, "The President said you have something to give me."(888) Ms. Lewinsky understood that Ms. Currie was alluding to the gifts.(889) Ms. Currie said that she would stop by Ms. Lewinsky's apartment and pick up the items.(890) Ms. Lewinsky testified that she put many, but not all, of her gifts from the President into a box. Ms. Currie drove by her apartment and picked it up.(891) Ms. Lewinsky was concerned because the gifts were under subpoena; she did not throw them away, however, because "they meant a lot to [her]."(892) The reason she gave the gifts to Ms. Currie, and not to one of her friends or her mother, was "a little bit of an assurance to the President . . . that everything was okay."(893) She felt that, because the gifts were with Ms. Currie, they were within the President's control: "Not that [the gifts] were going to be in his possession, but that he would understand whatever it was I gave to Betty and that that might make him feel a little bit better."(894) Ms. Lewinsky's account of the events of December 28 in her sworn statement of February 1, 1998, corroborates her later grand jury testimony: "Ms. L . . . asked if she should put away (outside her home) the gifts he had given her or, maybe, give them to someone else. Ms. Currie called Ms. L later that afternoon as said that the Pres. had told her Ms. L. wanted her to hold onto something for her. Ms. L boxed up most of the gifts she had received and gave them to Ms. Currie. It is unknown if Ms. Currie knew the contents of the box."(895) Ms. Currie's testimony was somewhat at odds with Ms. Lewinsky's. Though her overall recollection was hazy, Ms. Currie believed that Ms. Lewinsky had called her and raised the idea of the gifts transfer.(896) Ms. Currie was asked about the President's involvement in the transfer: Q: And did the President know you were holding these things for Monica? BC: I don't know. I don't know. Q: Didn't he say to you that Monica had something for you to hold? BC: I don't remember that. I don't. Q: Did you ever talk to the President and tell him you had this box from Monica? BC: I don't remember that either. Q: Do you think it happened, though? BC: I don't know. I don't know.(897) When asked whether a statement by Ms. Lewinsky indicating that Ms. Currie had in fact spoken to the President about the gift transfer would be false, Ms. Currie replied: "Then she may remember better than I. I don't remember."(898) According to Ms. Currie, Ms. Lewinsky said that she was uncomfortable retaining the gifts herself because "people were asking questions" about them.(899) Ms. Currie said she drove to Ms. Lewinsky's residence after work, collected the box, brought it home, and put it under her bed.(900) Written on the top of the box were the words "Please do not throw away!!!"(901) Ms. Currie testified that she knew that the box contained gifts from the President.(902) For his part, the President testified that he never asked Ms. Currie to collect a box of gifts from Ms. Lewinsky.(903) He said that he had no knowledge that Ms. Currie had held those items "until that was made public."(904) The President testified that he has no distinct recollection of discussing the gifts with Ms. Lewinsky on December 28: "[M]y memory is that on some day in December, and I'm sorry I don't remember when it was, she said, well, what if they ask me about the gifts you have given me. And I said, well, if you get a request to produce those, you have to give them whatever you have."(905) Continue
