Monica Lewinsky Won't Testify Before Next Week
Ex-intern's mother completes another day of testimony
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 11) -- Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky will not appear Thursday before Independent Counsel Ken Starr's grand jury in Washington as previously scheduled, CNN has learned.
Sources close to the investigation say Lewinsky is not expected back in Washington until later in the week, as the probe into sex-and-perjury allegations against President Bill Clinton continues.
Though she will not appear before the grand jury Thursday, Lewinsky
remains under subpoena and is expected to be called soon. Sources say Starr's staff has accepted this latest delay.
Two weeks ago, Lewinsky was scheduled to appear but Starr agreed to a delay at that time, reportedly citing her emotional distress and the continuing negotiations with her lawyers over immunity.
Those attorneys, Bill Ginsburg and Nathaniel Speights, are still expected to file a motion with the court to quash Lewinsky's subpoena, once a new date is scheduled.
On Wednesday, Lewinsky's attorneys filed a motion asking the court overseeing Starr's grand jury investigation to enforce what the lawyers insist is a legally binding immunity agreement with Starr. Starr denies any such deal exists. The motion was filed under seal, meaning it is not being made public.
Meanwhile, Marcia Lewis, Lewinsky's mother, answered more questions Wednesday before the grand jury, and is expected to appear again Thursday.
Lewis did not talk with reporters and appeared distraught and pale as she left for the day. A nurse with a wheelchair was seen going to the third floor of the courthouse where the grand jury has been hearing her testimony.
Lewis' attorney, Billy Martin, denied Lewis was ill or had fainted, but said, "It's an ordeal no one should have to go through."
CNN has confirmed that Lewinsky's mother was granted
what is called limited "use immunity" after threatening to exercise her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Lewis, who tried to quash a subpoena for her to testify, initially appeared before the grand jury on Tuesday, as it continues its investigation into allegations that Clinton had a sexual affair with Lewinsky and then urged her to lie about it.
Prosecutors are said to want to know what Lewinsky told her mother about her relationship with the president.
Starr has subpoenaed Lewinsky to testify before the same grand jury, but her attorney said she would not be traveling to Washington Wednesday for Thursday's scheduled appearance.
After spending seven hours at Lewinsky's home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, Bill Ginsburg told reporters Tuesday night that Lewinsky would not return to Washington on Wednesday.
"It will either be Thursday or Friday; it will not be tomorrow, I promise you that," Ginsburg said Tuesday night, adding, "I've had no contact with Mr. Starr today."
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she thought the allegations "will slowly dissipate over time under the weight of its own insubstantiality."
She said her husband was bearing up well under the barrage of allegations, but said she was concerned about White House staff members who were "amassing legal bills for no good reason at all" because of the investigation.
In a related development, Lewis C. Fox, a retired uniformed guard of the Secret Service, has said he saw Lewinsky bringing documents to the president.
"She was quite frequently there on the weekends. One time I mentioned to her about why she was here and she says, 'Lot of work in my office I've got to get done,'" Fox said in an interview with CNN affiliate WPXI.
"Actually I don't think she even finished her internship. I think she came there, there was a position open, and a lot of times interns work into a permanent position," said Fox. Asked if he thought she moved into a White House job more quickly than most, he said, "From what I could tell, I thought she got a job pretty quick."
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said it would be against standard practice for a lone, uniformed Secret Service officer to let anyone into the Oval Office without approval by another White House staff member or a plainclothes personal Secret Service agent.
In Howard County, Md., State's Attorney Marna McLendon said Wednesday she would turn over the matter of whether onetime Lewinsky friend Linda Tripp might have violated Maryland's wiretap law to the Maryland State Prosecutor's Office. Tripp secretly taped conversations with Lewinsky.
McLendon said that she had initially deferred an investigation into whether or not Tripp had violated the wiretap law because of the ongoing federal investigation. However, she said she had come under intense pressure from both Democrats and Republicans and because of that was passing the case up to the state level.
McLendon said Maryland's wiretap law says that all parties must be aware of the law's restrictions in order to tape a conversation. However, she said there were two state appeals court rulings that said parties must be aware of Maryland's law in order to violate it. McLendon said violating the law is a felony and there is no statute of limitations and can be prosecuted at any time.
|