Excerpts From Deposition Given by Clinton in January

WASHINGTON -- Following are excerpts from President Clinton's deposition, given on Jan. 17, 1998, in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, and released by the Jones legal team as part of its opposition to dismissal of the case. In the deposition, Mr. Clinton was questioned by Ms. Jones's lawyers about a former White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky, who had been subpoenaed by Ms. Jones's lawyers. In separate sworn testimony, Ms. Lewinsky and the President denied that they had had a sexual relationship. Since then, the Jones case has been dismissed and is under appeal. Under Kenneth W. Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, a Federal grand jury is investigating perjury, suborning of perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in the Jones case.

Q. Now do you know a woman named Monica Lewinsky?

MR. CLINTON I do.

Q. How do you know her?

A. She worked in the White House for a while, first as an intern, and then in, as the, in the legislative affairs office. . . .

Q. Is it true that when she worked at the White House she met with you several times?

A. I don't know about several times. There was a period when the Republican Congress shut the Government down that the whole White House was being run by interns, and she was assigned to work back in the chief of staff's office, and we were all working there, and so I saw her on two or three occasions then, and then when she worked at the White House, I think there was one or two other times when she brought some documents to me.

. . .

Q. At any time were you and Monica alone together in the Oval Office?

A. I don't recall, but as I said, when she worked at the legislative affairs office, they always had somebody there on the weekends. I typically worked some on the weekends. Sometimes they'd bring me things on the weekends. She -- it seems to me she brought things to me once or twice on the weekends. In that case, whatever time she would be in there, drop it off, exchange a few words and go, she was there. I don't have any specific recollections of what the issues were, what was going on, but when the Congress is there, we're working all the time, and typically I would do some work on one of the days of the weekends in the afternoon.

Q. So I understand, your testimony is that it was possible, then, that you were alone with her, but you have no specific recollections of that ever happening?

A. Yes, that's correct. It's possible that she, in, while she was working there, brought something to me and that at the time she brought it to me, she was the only person there. That's possible.

. . .

Q. Do you recall ever walking with Lewinsky down the hallway from the Oval Office to your private kitchen there in the White House?

A. Well, let me try to describe the facts first, because you keep talking about this private kitchen.

. . .

Now, to go back to your question, my recollection is that, that at some point during the government shutdown, when Ms. Lewinsky was still an intern but was working the chief of staff's office because all the employees had to go home, that she was back there with a pizza that she brought to me and to others. I do not believe she was there alone, however. I don't think she was. And my recollection is that on a couple of occasions after that she was there but my secretary, Betty Currie, was there with her. . . .

Q. Have you ever met with Monica Lewinsky in the White House between the hours of midnight and 6 A.M.?

A. I certainly don't think so.

. . . Now, let me just say, when she was working there, during, there may have been a time when we were all -- we were up working late. There are lots of, on any given night, when the Congress is in session, there are always several people around until late in the night, but I don't have any memory of that. I just can't say that there could have been a time when that occurred, I just -- but I don't remember it.

Q. Certainly if it happened, nothing remarkable would have occurred?

A. No, nothing remarkable. I don't remember it. . . .

Q. When was the last time you spoke with Monica Lewinsky?

A. I'm trying to remember. Probably some time before Christmas. She came by to see Betty sometime before Christmas. And she was there talking to her, and I stuck my head out, said hello to her.

. . .

Q. Did she tell you she had been served with a subpoena in this case?

A. No. I don't know if she had been.

Q. Did anyone other than your attorneys ever tell you that Monica Lewinsky had been served with a subpoena in this case?

A. I don't think so.

Q. Did you ever talk with Monica Lewinsky about the possibility that she might be asked to testify in this case?

A. Bruce Lindsey, I think Bruce Lindsey told me that she was, I think maybe that's the first person told me she was. I want to be as accurate as I can.

Q. Did you talk to Mr. Lindsey about what action, if any, should be taken as a result of her being served with a subpoena?

A. No.

Q. Have you ever talked to Monica Lewinsky about the possibility that she might be asked to testify in this lawsuit?

A. I'm not sure, and let me tell you why I'm not sure. It seems to me the, the, the ---- I want to be as accurate as I can here. Seems to me the last time she was there to see Betty before Christmas we were joking about how you-all, with the help of the Rutherford Institute, were going to call every woman I'd ever talked to, and I said, you know ----

And I said that you-all might call every woman I ever talked to and ask them that, and so I said you would qualify, or something like that. I don't, I don't think we ever had more of a conversation than that about it, but I might have mentioned something to her about it, because when I saw how long the witness list was, or I heard about it, before I saw, but actually by the time I saw it her name was in it, but I think that was after all this had happened. I might have said something like that, so I don't want to say for sure I didn't, because I might have said something like that.

. . .

Q. Well, have you ever given any gifts to Monica Lewinsky?

A. I don't recall. Do you know what they were?

Q. A hat pin?

A. I don't, I don't remember. But I certainly, I could have.

Q. A book about Walt Whitman?

A. I give ---- let me just say, I give people a lot of gifts, and when people are around I give a lot of things I have at the White House away, so I could have given her a gift, but I don't remember a specific gift. . . .

Q. Has Monica Lewinsky ever given you any gifts?

A. Once or twice. I think she's given me a book or two.

Q. Did she give you a silver cigar box?

A. No.

Q. Did she give you a tie?

A. Yes, she had given me a tie before. I believe that's right. . . .

Q. Did you have an extramarital sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky?

A. No.

Q. If she told someone that she had a sexual affair with you beginning in November of 1995, would that be a lie?

A. It's certainly not the truth. It would not be the truth.

Q. I think I used the term "sexual affair." And so the record is completely clear, have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1, as modified by the Court.

. . .

A. I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her.


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