Newsweek: Aide Told Co-Worker Of Clinton Advances

Clinton's attorney denies any impropriety; woman reportedly 'flustered, happy and joyful' after encounter with president

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Aug. 4) -- A former White House staffer who has been subpoenaed in the Paula Jones case told a co-worker that President Bill Clinton made sexual advances toward her, according to Newsweek magazine.

Newsweek reported that Linda Tripp, a former executive assistant in the counsel's office, described how she ran into Kathleen E. Willey in the White House shortly after Willey left an Oval Office appointment with Clinton in November 1993.

According to the magazine, Tripp said Willey told her that she had stepped from the Oval Office and into a private office with Clinton, where he kissed and fondled her. Tripp described Willey as "disheveled. Her face was red and her lipstick was off. She was flustered, happy and joyful," said Newsweek.

Tripp told the magazine that she came forward with the story because Willey did not seem appalled about the encounter and "to make it clear that this was not a case of sexual harassment."

Jones' lawyers last week subpoenaed Willey, in an effort, they said, to establish a pattern of improper sexual overtures by Clinton.

The president's private attorney, Robert Bennett, denied Sunday "that anything improper was ever said or done in connection with Ms. Willey."

Willey, who once worked in the White House social secretary's office and the counsel's office, said last week through her lawyers that she has no information relevant to Jones' lawsuit and would resist the order to give testimony.

Willey's lawyer, Daniel Gecker, declined to comment to Newsweek about Tripp's story.

"I really smell a rat here," Bennett told The Associated Press. "I'm sure this is a Jones team effort to humiliate the president. We're not going to be intimidated by it."

Jones has filed a $700,000 lawsuit against Clinton, charging that he propositioned her in 1991. Clinton has denied the incident occurred.