Report: Retired Secret Service Guard Saw Clinton, Lewinsky Alone
Earlier newspaper interview raises questions about his story, though
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Former Secret Service agent Lewis Fox, in an interview with CNN affiliate WPXI:
"She was quite frequently there on the weekends. . ."
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"I thought she...got a job pretty quick."
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WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 11) -- A retired uniformed guard of the Secret Service told The Washington Post that Monica Lewinsky spent at least 40 minutes alone with President Bill Clinton.
Lewis C. Fox, who retired in January 1997, said he saw the pair in the Oval Office on a weekend afternoon in late 1995. He couldn't recall the date but said he believes it was on a Saturday in October, November or December of 1995.
Fox, who now lives in Waynesburg, Pa., said Lewinsky, then a White House intern, arrived at the Oval Office while he was posted there for about 15 to 20 minutes during a one-hour shift.
Fox said she had papers for the president to review, the Post reported.
He said he opened the Oval Office door and told the president there were papers for him. Fox said the president was able to see Lewinsky in the doorway and told the officer to send her in.
The 27-year veteran of the Secret Service told the Post the president's secretary, Betty Currie, was not on duty that day. The retired agent said he was at his post for about 40 minutes before he was relieved by another officer.
Fox said he did not know what transpired between the president and Lewinsky, but he said Lewinsky was in the Oval Office during the rest of his shift.
Clinton testified during a deposition last month that he couldn't recall ever being alone with Lewinsky.
According to the Post, the White House said it could not confirm or deny Fox's story, but a White House official said it is "at odds with common standard procedure." The White House said that only the president's assistants, not security officers, would permit people in to see the president.
WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh last week interviewed Fox, who said he saw Lewinsky in the White House. According to the Post report, since that broadcast, Fox has been discouraged by the association representing Secret Service officers from disclosing anything more than what he saw.
Independent Counsel Ken Starr has subpoenaed the videotape of the interview, which was turned over investigators, officials at the TV station told the Post.
The Post reported the Secret Service had no comment on what any agent might have seen.
In another newspaper interview earlier this month, Fox said he saw nothing unusual in
Lewinsky's visits to the West Wing of the White House.
The interview with the Observer-Reporter of Waynesburg, Pa., was not
directly at odds with the Post interview, but the tone was quite different.
In the local interview, published Feb. 4, Fox said, "She would
come to the Oval Office on weekends and bring documents over for the president. It would be nothing unusual for people to show up with papers for the president."
In the Observer-Reporter interview, Fox said he was not privy to what happened when she entered the Oval Office but said it would have been difficult for any sexual activity to take place because of attendants in an adjoining pantry and security personnel stationed outside the Oval Office windows.
Fox said it was his opinion it would be difficult for the president to carry on an affair anywhere in the White House because of the security. "You just can't understand until you go there and see," Fox told the Observer-Reporter.
Fox said he met Clinton once early in his term, and said he believed Richard Nixon was the "real president" if asked to compare the two. He
also said he was a big fan of Ronald Reagan.
Former agents' group questions Fox's story
In a related development, an official at the Association of Former Secret Service Agents raised questions about Fox's account.
According to the Post's report, Fox said Clinton instructed him to let Lewinsky into his office.
But an official at the retired agents association and a law enforcement source both say that would break stringent Secret Service guidelines.
According to the sources, it is the Secret Service agents, not the uniformed officers, who stand immediately outside the Oval office when the president is there.
The Association of Former Secret Service Agents did not contact Fox about whether he should discuss what he may have seen, an official
with that organization said. Nor did the Fraternal Order of Police Uniform Division Labor Committee, according to Andrew J. Mutchler, a spokesman for the group.
CNN's John King contributed to this report.
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