Sources: Starr-Lewinsky Talks At Loggerheads
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Starr
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By John King and Bob Franken/CNN
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 21) - Sources tell CNN that Monica Lewinsky's negotiations for an immunity deal from Independent Counsel Ken Starr are at loggerheads because of Starr's insistence that the former White House intern plead guilty to perjury or some other offense as part of any agreement.
But one source familiar with the talks said flatly that The Washington Post report saying that Lewinsky's new lawyers offered to have Lewinsky testify she had sex with the President is "false."
Three sources familiar with the discussions say the last offer is the one made by Lewinsky's former legal team, led by California attorney Bill Ginsburg.
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Lewinsky
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The sources said Lewinsky - and her lawyers - were adamantly opossed to any deal in which she has to admit a crime. Yet both sources said talks with Starr's office were continuing and that Lewinsky's legal team was hopeful a deal could be reached.
These sources said the talks had not progressed to the point at which the new team had made a formal proffer. One of the three said, "the discussions have not gotten specific yet."
But two of these sources said that in hours of meetings with her attorneys in recent days that Lewinsky's story has remained steadfast: that she had a sexual relationship with the president but was not asked by him to lie about it if questioned in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.
'It's the same story and the same hang-up'
Said one of the sources: "She hasn't wavered. It's the same story and the same hang-up - is Starr willing to accept what she has to say."
This source also said that Starr told Ginsburg he would not accept Lewinsky's statement unless she entered a guilty plea to perjury or some other offense "and that hasn't changed either."
Lewinsky said in an affidavit in the Jones case that she did not have sexual relations with the president. She also said she had not seen the president, except for official functions, after leaving the White House staff for a Pentagon job in April 1996.
But White House access logs sent to Starr by the Secret Service under subpoena document several visits to the West Wing when no official functions were under way, and administration sources have confirmed to CNN that at on at least one of these occasions Lewinsky met briefly with the president.
Separately, a source familiar with the White House legal strategy confirmed this element of the Post story: that a private detective firm hired by Mr. Clinton's personal attorneys had turned over some records of an investigation of Lewinsky's background. Starr subpoenaed the records of Group International; the source said some documents were withheld on grounds of attorney-client privilege.
This source said White House aides John Podesta and Sidney Blumenthal had been told by Starr's office they would be recalled to the grand jury sometime next week; Podesta is slated to testify Tuesday.
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