WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, October 3) -- Just after President Bill Clinton won re-election in 1996, Monica Lewinsky, exiled from the White House and trying to get back, was seeing a counselor because of depression and anxiety, according to investigators for Independent Counsel Ken Starr.

Licensed Certified Social Worker Kathleen Estep told investigators she met with Lewinsky three times in November 1996, after Lewinsky was referred to her by a doctor at a Virginia weight loss clinic, according to a document released Friday by the House Judiciary Committee.

The first of their meetings occurred very near the time of a now famous videotape of Lewinsky greeting Clinton as he worked a rope line during a White House lawn welcoming ceremony after he returned from Little Rock. In the videotape, the president hugs Lewinsky, who was smiling and wearing a beret.

Estep, in an interview with Associate Independent Counsel Mike Emmick and an FBI agent, said Lewinsky went into detail about her relationship with Clinton.

But she told of one incident even Estep found hard to believe.

Estep said Lewinsky told her Clinton once paid a 2 a.m. visit to her apartment, along with Secret Service agents.

"Estep recalls thinking Lewinsky may have made this up because the scenario of the President doing that seemed so incredible," the FBI report said. "Other than this one instance, Estep felt Lewinsky was credible and well-grounded."

There has been no other testimony or documentation found in any of the investigative data gathered by Starr's office to indicate that Clinton ever went to Lewinsky's apartment. There has been testimony of post-midnight telephone calls.

The report said Estep said she found Lewinsky to be "very anxious," which she attributed to "her failed relationships, her fear of relationships not lasting, especially her relationship with Clinton; and her relationship with her father."

She said the three sessions were not enough to make a sound diagnosis of Lewinsky, but that she "had a lot of indicators which might lead to a diagnosis of clinical depression," the report said.

Estep said she did not take complete notes of the sessions because Lewinsky was worried about too much being written down.

Saturday, October 3, 1998

• Clinton wants larger farm aid bill
• October 2 Starr documents at a glance
• Lewinsky confided in counselor about affair with Clinton

ARCHIVES

Search CNN/AllPolitics by           Enter keyword(s)       go    help