The Six-Month Journey to a Starr-Lewinsky Alliance

August 2, 1998

The Six-Month Journey to a Starr-Lewinsky Alliance

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By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and JILL ABRAMSON

ASHINGTON -- Disguised by a blond wig and sunglasses, Monica S. Lewinsky boarded a flight last Sunday morning in Los Angeles, an anonymous beginning to a 48-hour odyssey that transformed the legal and political dynamics of the independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's four-year investigation of President Clinton.
The next day in New York, Ms. Lewinsky met secretly with the independent counsel's team at an East Side apartment belonging to Starr's mother-in-law. After a five-hour debriefing and a late-night drive to Washington, Ms. Lewinsky signed an immunity deal on Tuesday that freed her from legal peril. But it also confronted Bill Clinton and his Presidency with a new series of questions that he will face in grand jury testimony at the White House on Aug. 17.
Ms. Lewinsky, a former White House intern who turned 25 on July 23, has moved a step closer to a cherished goal. "For my birthday," Ms. Lewinsky had told her family, "I want my life back."
In fact, on that birthday morning, Ms. Lewinsky was told by her new lawyers, Jacob A. Stein and Plato Cacheris, that Starr had called, breaking weeks of silence and offering to reopen immunity discussions. That night, her family celebrated at Chez Mimi, a French restaurant in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.
The story of Ms. Lewinsky's journey from target to cooperating witness was culled from more than a dozen interviews this week with lawyers involved in the investigation, as well as with associates and friends of the former intern.
A Starr-Lewinsky alliance that seemed unlikely as recently as last month was put together by a cast of lawyers, some of whom have received no public attention. Ms. Lewinsky found a mentor in Sydney J. Hoffmann, a 46-year-old lawyer in Cacheris's firm. Ms. Hoffmann was able to establish a bond with Ms. Lewinsky and then lead a critical round of questioning that bolstered Ms. Lewinsky's credibility with Starr's team. Sam Dash, the former Senate Watergate counsel who has advised Starr on ethics issues, also played an important role.
But two of the most pivotal players in the legal drama were a pair of seasoned criminal defense lawyers, Stein, 73, and Cacheris, 69, who have represented Ms. Lewinsky only since June 2. The two Washington insiders, who work in different law firms in the same office building, broke a six-month deadlock of bad blood between Starr's prosecutors and Ms. Lewinsky's first lawyer, William H. Ginsburg.
The negotiations opened with an offer from Starr that Ms. Lewinsky would be "queen for a day," an ironic term of the legal arts that allowed Ms. Lewinsky to tell her complete story to prosecutors -- but with a promise that nothing she said could be used against her if, at the end of the interview, Starr remained unsatisfied with the level of her cooperation and declined to grant immunity.
Despite the resulting legal coup this week, Stein and Cacheris are somber, perhaps because like Dash they are veterans of the Watergate crisis.
"There was nothing to celebrate," Stein said in an interview in his book-lined law office here, facing an etching of Shakespeare. "None of this called for a party. This is a tragedy."
An Early Choice, Deepening Distrust
n a cold afternoon last January, Ms. Lewinsky was confronted by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and lawyers working for Starr who questioned her for hours. They threatened to prosecute her for perjury by using her taped confessions to a friend about an affair with the President -- a relationship that she had denied in sworn testimony in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit.
The lawyers and agents told Ms. Lewinsky that she could avoid prosecution if she agreed to secretly record her conversations with Betty Currie, the President's personal secretary, and with the President himself. Ms. Lewinsky declined.
Later, to defend his client, Ginsburg submitted a proffer -- a statement of expected testimony -- for Ms. Lewinsky that confirmed a sexual relationship with the President, said lawyers familiar with her account.
But the proffer did not say that the President or his allies had encouraged Ms. Lewinsky to lie under oath in the Jones case. That account did not satisfy Starr. Ginsburg argued in court that Starr had offered Ms. Lewinsky immunity, but he lost.
Starr then turned to other matters, spending months in protracted court battles with the White House. All the while, the distrust between Ginsburg and Starr's office grew so deep that all communication ceased.
Ms. Lewinsky herself was instrumental in the ultimate decision to dismiss Ginsburg, said lawyers familiar with the decision.
Friends recalled that when Ms. Lewinsky's father had first suggested him back in January, her reaction was immediate: "Dad, he's a malpractice lawyer."
She kept Nathaniel Speights, an experienced criminal defense lawyer and Ginsburg's Washington co-counsel. Ms. Lewinsky was also relying on advice from a savvy spokeswoman, Judy Smith, who began to change the landscape of Ms. Lewinsky's insulated world. Ms. Smith became a new confidante.
It was Marcia Lewis, Ms. Lewinsky's mother, who read about Stein in a New Yorker magazine profile and suggested approaching him. In late June, Ms. Smith asked Cacheris whether his firm had any female lawyers. It had: Sydney J. Hoffmann, a former assistant United States attorney.
With a New Team, a New Climate
tein and Cacheris decided to change the tenor of Ms. Lewinsky's representation. It was time for some diplomacy. In early June, they paid a courtesy visit to Starr.
Once inside the office, Stein talked in tough but measured terms with Starr. "I have one good trial left in me," Stein recalled telling Starr, "and I'm going to put it at Monica's disposal."
Those words sent a clear message to Starr's prosecutors: Ms. Lewinsky was prepared to fight an indictment. And Starr was well aware that Stein had won the only acquittal in a major Watergate criminal trial, representing Kenneth Parkinson, a Nixon lawyer.
For Starr, Stein's remark also increased the pressure to work out a deal with Lewinsky. Starr knew that if Ms. Lewinsky was indicted, a trial would most likely delay his final report for a year or longer.
On Tuesday, July 21, Starr telephoned Stein and suggested a meeting. The next day, Stein and Cacheris met at the independent counsel's office with Starr and Dash. Afterward, Stein and Cacheris sent a proffer letter that outlined what Ms. Lewinsky was prepared to say under oath.
It is not known what other evidence Starr has assembled, but Ms. Lewinsky could provide testimony that helps prove that the President lied under oath and tried to obstruct justice. Time was of the essence, and it was to Starr's advantage to have Ms. Lewinsky's account first, before he questioned the President.
Clinton's personal lawyer, David E. Kendall, clarified Saturday how the President would be questioned by the independent counsel's office at the White House. Kendall said the testimony would be carried on a one-way live feed to the grand jury, and recorded on videotape for any jurors who were absent.
As it turned out, the new proffer was not that different from the one Ginsburg prepared, but the climate had changed.
"We trusted each other," Cacheris said, "and trust had been a problem in this case."
Starr responded with his "queen for a day" offer.
"They wanted it sooner rather than later," Cacheris said of Ms. Lewinsky's account. Stein and Cacheris told Ms. Lewinsky that meeting with Starr, given his time pressures, was "a favorable development."
The two sides agreed to meet last Monday in New York. Both camps worried that reporters in Washington would find out about the secret meeting if held there.
"She had nothing to lose," Cacheris said. "She could say what she wanted to say, as long as it was the truth."
There was only one thing left to negotiate before the meeting: the lunch menu. Starr and Stein decided it would be tuna fish sandwiches.
Proving Credible Brings a Deal
riends of Ms. Lewinsky said she was anguished over the prospect of testifying against the President, but an even greater worry weighed on her. She knew that her mother was also vulnerable to prosecution by Starr because she had kept
her daughter's cocktail dress with a stain. Lawyers said that Ms. Lewinsky told prosecutors that the stain could provide evidence of a a sexual encounter with the President.
The dress is being tested at the F.B.I. crime laboratory.
"I think she has come to understand that she was going to assume responsibility for the portion of this that was her fault, and just tell the truth," a friend said. If the Presidency is damaged, the friend said, "the President has to take responsibility for that."
Still, while in Los Angeles last weekend, Ms. Lewinsky asked friends, "Am I doing the right thing?" They encouraged her to do whatever she believed it would take to put an end to her six-month ordeal.
Ms. Lewinsky told
Stein and Cacheris that she was ready to talk to Starr.
Although the five-hour meeting last Monday was held in the midtown Manhattan apartment of Starr's mother-in-law, Starr was not present. But Cacheris and Stein were pleased to see Dash take a leading role in organizing that meeting, as he had in setting up negotiations with Starr.
While Dash raised the comfort levels of Ms. Lewinsky's lawyers, Ms. Hoffmann, the lawyer in Cacheris's office, had grown close to Ms. Lewinsky, and she was able to make Ms. Lewinsky feel more at ease. Ms. Hoffmann started the session by asking Ms. Lewinsky a series of questions.
After about 30 minutes, Starr's team -- Dash, William Bittman and Sol Wisenberg -- asked questions of Ms. Lewinsky. "There was no rancor," Stein said afterward. "It was congenial, dignified and, under the circumstances, it was elevated." An F.B.I. agent took notes.
At 3:30 P.M., Cacheris ended the meeting. Ms. Lewinsky returned to a friend's apartment. That night, Starr left a message on Stein's answering machine. Ms. Lewinsky had been deemed credible by his deputies. There was the basis for a transactional immunity agreement, which is full and blanket protection from prosecution unless prosecutors find that Ms. Lewinsky has lied to the grand jury.
On Tuesday, Cacheris and Stein went to Starr's office to pick up the immunity agreement, which Starr had signed. They brought it back to their offices, where Ms. Lewinsky signed it just before 2 P.M., when Stein and Cacheris announced it.
An agreement to grant transactional immunity to Ms. Lewinsky's mother was negotiated by her lawyer, Billy Martin, with Starr.
Ms. Lewinsky faces the difficult task of attending daily debriefings with Starr's prosecutors. She is preparing for her grand jury testimony. After that, Ms. Lewinsky could be called upon to testify in public at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee if it chooses to hold impeachment hearings.
"She has been apprehensive about all of this," Stein said. "She is a bright person and is bright enough to know this is very serious business."

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