Clinton To Face Grand Jury Monday Afternoon
Report says he may admit sexual encounters
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, August 14) -- President Bill Clinton will begin giving testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky to attorneys for Independent Counsel Ken Starr and a federal grand jury about 1 p.m. Monday, his press secretary said Friday.
During his daily briefing, Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton's attorneys, David Kendall and Nicole Seligman, and White House Counsel Charles Ruff would be present during the questioning.
McCurry also said he presumed Clinton would be able to consult with his attorneys during the session, which will be broadcast on a "one-way live feed" to the federal courthouse where the grand jury will gather.
Asked if Starr would be present, McCurry said he did not know.
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Mike McCurry
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Clinton will testify in the Map Room, which is in the residence of the White House.
McCurry said he did not know how long the session would last nor could he say if there will be a way for the grand jurors to ask questions of Clinton. Earlier, authorities said there would be a way for jurors to pass questions to Starr's legal team.
When questioned on Hillary Rodham Clinton's plans for Monday, McCurry said he believed her schedule called for her to be at the White House during the day.
McCurry said if the president wanted to say anything or have his staff say anything to the media or the American people, they would inform reporters after Clinton's testimony.
McCurry again refused to offer any speculation on what the president would say except to repeat Clinton's statement that he will answer questions truthfully and completely.
"A lot of people are going to speculate going into this weekend about
events on Monday," McCurry said. "And you don't know what the questions are. We don't know what the questions are. You don't know what the answers are. We don't know what the answers are the president will give, what the president decides to say or decides not to say."
Strategy for testimony still undecided
Speculation on the president's strategy for Monday is running rampant outside the White House briefing room, however.
Eight close advisers to Clinton, contacted by CNN late Thursday and early Friday, all declined detailed comment on a New York Times report that claimed the president might acknowledge a specific type of sexual activity with Lewinsky. Three of these aides said they had asked the White House counsel's office how to respond to the article and were told to say they had no comment.
They said they were not instructed to dispute the story, just not to comment.
Both under oath and in public, Clinton has denied having sex with Lewinsky. The New York Times report says the strategy would center on the legal definition of sex in his deposition for the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, allowing Clinton to stand by his swore testimony and his public assertion that he did not "have sexual relations" with Lewinsky.
Clinton would say he based his previous denial under oath on a definition of sex approved by the judge in the Jones case. His advisers believe this definition does not cover certain activities, including oral sex.
The newspaper, quoting unnamed senior advisers, said Clinton has had extensive discussions with his inner circle about a possible strategy of acknowledging to a grand jury on Monday that he had intimate sexual encounters with the former White House intern.
Aides won't confirm or deny story
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Mickey Kantor
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The sources CNN contacted stressed that the president's thinking was known to only a few of his private attorneys, and that while he had received a flood of advice from friends and advisers, only his inner legal circle knew his latest thinking.
One said flatly: "Anyone who says they know what the president will do is speculating at best."
One of the Clinton's private lawyers, Mickey Kantor, declined comment when contacted by CNN Thursday night; another, David Kendall, refused to come to the telephone.
A top political adviser urged "flashing yellow lights of caution" when asked about the Times story. The source said the president's closest political advisers were still not involved in the strategy discussions about Monday's scheduled testimony.
The source, generally among the advisers most familiar with the president's thinking, said: "He is getting lots of advice and ideas and discussing lots of ideas but only a few people know what his thinking is and unless it is coming from them, it is speculation."
Nevertheless, the Times story is significant because it says the president, himself, has discussed a strategy of acknowledging a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. Top Clinton advisers have been talking along these lines for some time and most of them believe the president had some form of an intimate relationship with her.
Other strategies being considered
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Monica Lewinsky
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Three sources said another possibility under discussion includes the president acknowledging an intimate relationship with Lewinsky but declining to answer specific questions on grounds it is personal material and not the business of the independent counsel.
"Some of us believe he can make the case that much of this is out of bounds and that the American people will support him and Congress won't be interested in taking on that fight. But I can't say for sure he agrees with that," says one top outside adviser who spoke to the president recently.
But these sources again said they did not believe the president had settled on a course of action and said that only his personal lawyers were aware of his latest thinking.
Lewinsky, according to several sources, told the grand jury she had more than a dozen sexual encounters with the president over an 18-month period beginning in late 1995.
Independent Counsel fighting to bring Steele back
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Julie Hiatt Steele
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Independent Counsel Ken Starr's grand jury is investigating whether Clinton committed perjury in the Jones case in January when he denied the sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and conspired with the intern or others to obstruct the Jones lawsuit.
On Friday, Starr's team was in Alexandria, Va., for a hearing on a possible return grand jury visit by Julie Hiatt Steele.
Steele and her attorney, Nancy Luque left the court without any apparent action or explanation why they had been called.
"It's unbelievable the lengths this man will go to -- and I'm talking about Ken Starr -- to harass people in this mess," Luque said.
"I have no idea why we are in Virginia, since Julie Hyatt Steele testified in the District of Columbia for an entire day, and was excused. I don't know what he [Starr] is doing," Luque continued. "But we're going to fight him every step of the way."
In an affidavit released in February, Steele says she lied to a Newsweek reporter at Kathleen Willey's request to bolster Willey's allegations that in 1993 Clinton fondled her in a room off the Oval Office.
Steele first appeared before Starr's Washington grand jury on June 11.
CNN's John King and Bob Franken contributed to this report.
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