Jordan Testifies Again
Lewinsky's new lawyers outraged by Vanity Fair pictures
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 9) -- Vernon Jordan testified Tuesday for a fifth, and likely final, time before Independent Counsel Ken Starr's grand jury investigating the sex-and-perjury allegations against President Bill Clinton.
Jordan, a confidant and golfing partner of the president, spent half the day before the panel. Emerging from the courthouse shortly before 1 p.m. EDT, Jordan said he had been assured by Starr prosecutors that "barring unforseen circumstances," this would be his last appearance.
"When I came here in early March, I said that I helped Ms. Lewinsky get a lawyer. I helped her get a job. I had assurances that there was no sexual relationship, and I did not tell her to lie. That was the truth then, and that is the truth today," Jordan told reporters.
Jordan expressed some frustration with the repetitive questions he has been asked during the five sessions. "I have testified five times, over and over again, to those truths," he said.
Prosecutors want to know whether Clinton had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and asked her to lie about it, and whether Jordan played any role in trying to keep her from telling the truth. Clinton has denied the allegations.
Jordan previously has said he helped Lewinsky search for private employment in New York and introduced her to her first attorney. He also said he "kept the president of the United States informed about my activities."
But Jordan insisted he "did not in any way tell her, encourage her, to lie, and secondly, that my efforts to find her a job were not a quid pro quo for the affidavit that she signed" in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, denying an affair with the president.
Lewinsky's new lawyers outraged by Vanity Fair pictures
Lewinsky's new legal team is outraged over a glamorous photo spread of the former White House intern in next month's Vanity Fair magazine, the New York Daily News reported today.
Plato Cacheris and Jacob Stein, the two Washington lawyers Lewinsky hired last week, fear the photos could hurt her efforts to avoid criminal charges in the investigation, the newspaper said.
The photos, taken by celebrity photographer Herb Ritts, portray a vamped-up Monica.
One photo has her making eyes from behind a large fan of fuschia feathers. Another has Monica frolicking on the Malibu beach in a black cocktail dress, holding a large American flag. Another picture of the young woman -- in a grassy sand dune, dressed in blue jeans and a red-and-white checked shirt -- is reminiscent of a similar picture of Marilyn Monroe.
The Vanity Fair appearance was approved by her ex-lawyer, Bill Ginsburg. Ginsburg defended the shoot, saying her father and stepmother were present, and her mother had agreed as well.
But Ginsburg's explanation for the shoot, saying Starr had imprisoned "her libido," raised many eyebrows and did not help Lewinsky's cause.
Lewinsky received no payment for the photos and did not give the magazine an interview, Ginsburg said.
Vanity Fair West Coast editor Krista Smith, who attended the shoot, said Lewinsky appeared to enjoy posing for Ritts. "She was a real natural," Smith said. "She was easy to work with."
Smith said Ginsburg and lawyer Nathaniel Speights were at the shoot "and were perfectly happy with what was going on."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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