Lewinsky Matter

WASHINGTON -- When President Clinton announced the surprise U.S. missile attacks on terrorist-related targets in Afghanistan and Sudan on Thursday, he said he ordered the action for four reasons. But many people wondered if there was a fifth.Pundits, politicians, the media and a sizable chunk of the public questioned whether the president was acting, at least in part, with hopes of shifting attention from his travails in the Monica Lewinsky matter.Most Americans, including Republican leaders, appear to support the administration's military strike against the two terrorist facilities.

WASHINGTON -- In 58 pages of blistering testimony, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr plans to lay out the widest possible range of presidential misconduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter today, arguing that President Clinton engaged in a "pattern of obstruction" that is "fundamentally inconsistent" with his "duty to faithfully execute the law."Starr's testimony, obtained last night, will be the first order of business in the second presidential impeachment hearings of this century.Before the House Judiciary Committee, Starr will present a case that seems at times politically devastating, at other times banal.

WASHINGTON -- In an extraordinary admission, President Clinton acknowledged to the nation last night that, contrary to his denials for the past seven months, he engaged in a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was "not appropriate" and constituted a "personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."Clinton, speaking in a four-minute televised address from the White House, did not disclose any details of that relationship. He said his deposition in the Paula Corbin Jones case, in which he denied having "sexual relations" with the former White House intern, was "legally accurate."

WASHINGTON -- He didn't give a victory speech. In fact, he stayed mostly in the shadows yesterday. But President Clinton, while not on any ballot, emerged as a clear winner last night as Democrats managed to stave off major gains by Republicans around the country.With the election viewed as a referendum on Clinton's fate -- specifically, the impending impeachment proceedings -- the respectable showing by Democrats was expected to strengthen the president's position and weaken the hand of those pushing for the impeachment and removal of Clinton.

WASHINGTON -- As the impeachment inquiry of President Clinton draws near, charges of misbehavior and abuse of office are also swirling around the president's chief nemesis: independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.Critics are questioning everything from the prosecutor's initial request for authority to investigate the Monica Lewinsky matter to his strong-arm tactics with witnesses to the sexually graphic and argumentative nature of his report to Congress.Late last week, White House special counsel Greg Craig said some of Starr's actions could amount to "entrapment."

WASHINGTON -- In 58 pages of blistering testimony, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr plans to lay out the widest possible range of presidential misconduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter today, arguing that President Clinton engaged in a "pattern of obstruction" that is "fundamentally inconsistent" with his "duty to faithfully execute the law."Starr's testimony, obtained last night, will be the first order of business in the second presidential impeachment hearings of this century.Before the House Judiciary Committee, Starr will present a case that seems at times politically devastating, at other times banal.

WASHINGTON -- Blunting comparisons to Richard M. Nixon and Watergate, President Clinton abandoned yesterday his effort to use executive privilege to keep top White House aides from testifying before a grand jury.But the president pressed on with his claim that the doctrine of attorney-client privilege should shield his conversations with a trusted adviser in the Monica Lewinsky matter. And, in a brief filed in the Supreme Court, Clinton's attorneys argued that the nation is nowhere near a constitutional crisis requiring the justices to step in immediately to resolve the conflict.

WASHINGTON -- As independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr confronted attacks over his admission that he leaked information about the Monica Lewinsky investigation to reporters, a federal judge summoned lawyers in the Lewinsky matter to her courtroom last evening.Judge Norma Holloway Johnson held a rare nighttime meeting with President Clinton's private lawyer, David E. Kendall; the White House counsel, Charles Ruff, and his deputy; several of Starr's prosecutors; and lawyers for Lewinsky, the former White House intern, among others involved in the controversy.

WASHINGTON -- The House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to release an edited version of the taped conversations between Linda R. Tripp and Monica Lewinsky that triggered Kenneth W. Starr's investigation into the Lewinsky matter.With Republicans joining the committee's Democrats, the panel voted to remove from the Tripp tapes material it said touched on "inappropriate sexual and otherwise irrelevant matters."Additionally, the committee voted to delete such passages from thousands of pages of documents that are also scheduled for public release.

From my view as a former federal prosecutor, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's grand jury investigation into the Monica Lewinsky case appears to be highly irregular. The focus of the case and Starr's investigative techniques deviate from the established standards of federal prosecutors.Starr got off to a bad start in the Lewinsky matter. He was appointed as independent counsel to investigate Whitewater. Although he has an unusually large staff and has spent more than $30 million, his four-year investigation has failed to make a case against his target, President Clinton.

WASHINGTON -- As the impeachment inquiry of President Clinton draws near, charges of misbehavior and abuse of office are also swirling around the president's chief nemesis: independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.Critics are questioning everything from the prosecutor's initial request for authority to investigate the Monica Lewinsky matter to his strong-arm tactics with witnesses to the sexually graphic and argumentative nature of his report to Congress.Late last week, White House special counsel Greg Craig said some of Starr's actions could amount to "entrapment."

WASHINGTON -- Months before she began secretly taping Monica Lewinsky, Linda R. Tripp set out to expose President Clinton's affair with the former White House intern, believing the president's actions were an "unconscionable" abuse of power, according to testimony by Tripp made public yesterday.Tripp's justification for her betraying her former friend -- one of the enduring mysteries of the Lewinsky matter -- is one of many new details to emerge from 4,610 additional pages of documents sent to Congress by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

WASHINGTON -- The House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to release an edited version of the taped conversations between Linda R. Tripp and Monica Lewinsky that triggered Kenneth W. Starr's investigation into the Lewinsky matter.With Republicans joining the committee's Democrats, the panel voted to remove from the Tripp tapes material it said touched on "inappropriate sexual and otherwise irrelevant matters."Additionally, the committee voted to delete such passages from thousands of pages of documents that are also scheduled for public release.

BILL CLINTON'S ambitions were clear. He wanted to be a president who made a difference, a president of substance, to whom history would be kind and laudatory. But his basic personal instincts overwhelmed his basic political instincts: As a severely crippled president, Mr. Clinton heads into the homestretch of his tenure. The legacy he desired has slipped away.To accomplish even some of the tasks he has set, Mr. Clinton will have to mobilize his fellow Democrats and enlist Republicans in the name of domestic tranquillity.

NEW YORK -- In a day of respite from the intense circumspection going on in Washington, President Clinton came to New York yesterday in pursuit of money and perhaps solace, and found some of both.Making his first trip since the release of the Starr report and accompanied by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clinton gave a speech on the global economy and planned to circulate at three crowded Democratic fund-raisers, including an evening performance of "The Lion King."Among a populace long supportive of him, he was largely greeted with encouragement to proceed with his job, though he also encountered his share of dissidents.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- After several weeks of avoiding the word and under mounting criticism from leaders in his party, President Clinton said yesterday that he was "sorry" for his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter.Clinton's comments came one day after Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, delivered a forceful speech from the Senate floor in which he called the president's actions "immoral," "disgraceful" and deserving of formal public rebuke.During a photo opportunity yesterday with Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, Clinton said, "I've already said that I made a bad mistake, it was indefensible, and I'm sorry about it."

WASHINGTON -- He didn't give a victory speech. In fact, he stayed mostly in the shadows yesterday. But President Clinton, while not on any ballot, emerged as a clear winner last night as Democrats managed to stave off major gains by Republicans around the country.With the election viewed as a referendum on Clinton's fate -- specifically, the impending impeachment proceedings -- the respectable showing by Democrats was expected to strengthen the president's position and weaken the hand of those pushing for the impeachment and removal of Clinton.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- After several weeks of avoiding the word and under mounting criticism from leaders in his party, President Clinton said yesterday that he was "sorry" for his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter.Clinton's comments came one day after Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, delivered a forceful speech from the Senate floor in which he called the president's actions "immoral," "disgraceful" and deserving of formal public rebuke.During a photo opportunity yesterday with Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, Clinton said, "I've already said that I made a bad mistake, it was indefensible, and I'm sorry about it."

WASHINGTON -- When President Clinton announced the surprise U.S. missile attacks on terrorist-related targets in Afghanistan and Sudan on Thursday, he said he ordered the action for four reasons. But many people wondered if there was a fifth.Pundits, politicians, the media and a sizable chunk of the public questioned whether the president was acting, at least in part, with hopes of shifting attention from his travails in the Monica Lewinsky matter.Most Americans, including Republican leaders, appear to support the administration's military strike against the two terrorist facilities.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton sought to bring closure to the sex scandal that has engulfed his presidency by apologizing last night for misleading the country about his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky.At the same time, Clinton portrayed himself as a victim of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's investigation. He said he had truthfully answered "questions no American citizen would ever want to answer," during a steamy afternoon spent facing prosecutors' questions.But while Clinton's day of reckoning before a grand jury may be over, the Lewinsky matter isn't.