Reprinted from The Washington Times, March 4, 1998
Jordan testifies before
grand jury for six hours
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
White House confidant Vernon E. Jordan Jr. was interrogated for more than six hours yesterday before a federal grand jury in the sex-and-lies investigation. He later told reporters he testified "truthfully and completely" while strongly reaffirming an "enduring friendship" with President Clinton.
Mr. Jordan, long considered a key figure in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's grand jury probe, said he had been ordered to return tomorrow for more testimony. The grand jury wants to know what efforts he made to find former White House intern Monica Lewinsky a job and a lawyer after she was subpoenaed in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit against Mr. Clinton.
"I answered all of their questions truthfully and completely to the best of my ability," Mr. Jordan said outside the U.S. District Courthouse, where the grand jury is meeting. He did not disclose what he told the grand jury and did not take questions from reporters. His attorney, William Hundley, said his client had been taken through a "slow, step-by-step" interrogation, although he did not elaborate.
Mr. Jordan, one of Mr. Clinton's closest advisers and friends, made a strong effort outside the courthouse to dismiss media reports of a possible rift with the president over the ongoing scandal.
He discounted reports that he had separated himself from the White House in an attempt to show that any help he gave Miss Lewinsky was not knowingly part of a possible conspiracy to suborn perjury or obstruct justice.
"As to those of you who cast doubt on my friendship with President Clinton, let me reassure you that ours is an enduring friendship, an enduring friendship based on mutual respect, trust and admiration," Mr. Jordan said. "That was true yesterday, that is true today, and it will be true tomorrow."
Mr. Jordan, a lawyer, used his personal recommendation to find Miss Lewinsky a job at the Revlon Corp. in New York, where he is a member of the board of directors. It was one of three job interviews he arranged for the 24-year-old former White House intern.
Mr. Starr is investigating accusations that Miss Lewinsky had an affair with Mr. Clinton and that he and Mr. Jordan told her to lie about it in an affidavit in the Jones suit. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Jordan have denied the accusations.
The grand jury is probing four meetings and seven telephone conversations Mr. Jordan had with Miss Lewinsky, including a Dec. 19 meeting at his office, during which she told him she had been subpoenaed in the Jones suit. It was at that meeting that Mr. Jordan asked her whether she had been romantically involved with Mr. Clinton and, he said, was told she had not.
Three days later, Mr. Jordan referred Miss Lewinsky to a lawyer, Francis Carter, who helped her prepare the affidavit in which she denied having a sexual relationship with the president. Mr. Jordan has told colleagues he sought legal representation for Miss Lewinsky after being personally assured by Mr. Clinton there was no sexual relationship.
Meanwhile, Mr. Carter mounted a court challenge yesterday to a subpoena from Mr. Starr seeking his documents. A hearing is scheduled for today. "We're moving to quash the subpoena because it attempts to pierce the attorney-client privilege," said Charles Ogletree, Mr. Carter's attorney.
Mr. Starr's investigation also proceeded in Arkansas, where a separate grand jury was supposed to hear testimony from two state troopers-turned-private investigators. But both Tommy Goodwin and Bill Mullenax apparently convinced prosecutors they did not need to testify because they were not part of any effort to smear Mr. Starr.
The Washington grand jury prepared for testimony from two other key witnesses, both of whom already have testified and are likely to be called again as early as tomorrow, lawyers and others close to the probe said.
White House Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey, one of the president's most trusted advisers, and Mr. Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, are expected to be interrogated again about their knowledge of a suspected sexual relationship between Mr. Clinton and Miss Lewinsky.
The grand jury wants to know, among other things, whether Mr. Lindsey had a role in the preparation of a three-page summary, or "talking points," given by Miss Lewinsky to Pentagon colleague Linda R. Tripp, suggesting how Mrs. Tripp could lie in the Jones suit. The summary is believed to corroborate accusations that an attempt was made to obstruct justice and suborn perjury in the Jones case.
The grand jury also is trying to determine what conversations Mr. Lindsey had with Mrs. Tripp after she called him at the White House when reporters began asking questions on her pending deposition in the Jones case. The sources said if Mr. Lindsey instructed her to alter her testimony in the case, he could face obstruction-of-justice charges.
During two previous days of testimony, Mr. Lindsey is said to have declined to answer some questions pending a resolution of the White House's threatened use of executive privilege. Mr. Clinton wants to prevent White House officials from having to disclose conversations they had with the president about Miss Lewinsky.
The suspected affair is detailed in 20 hours of secretly recorded audiotapes of Miss Lewinsky by Mrs. Tripp, which have since been given to Mr. Starr. In her affidavit in the Jones suit, Miss Lewinsky denied she had sexual relations with the president -- contrary to her taped comments.
Miss Lewinsky made contrary statements on the tapes, including one recorded by FBI agents assigned to the Starr probe, the sources said. Miss Lewinsky also told investigators during a meeting she had with them at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City, Va., that she had told Mr. Jordan of the affair with the president, they said.
It was not clear yesterday when Mr. Starr would call Miss Lewinsky to testify. Her attorney, William H. Ginsburg, has demanded full immunity for his client, something Mr. Starr has been unwilling to offer any of 13 Whitewater defendants in the case. Mr. Starr has offered Miss Lewinsky only limited or "use" immunity -- meaning she could not be prosecuted for what she tells the grand jury.
It is possible, the sources said, that the impasse could result in charges being brought against the former intern of suborning perjury or obstructing justice.
The grand jury also wants to know whether Miss Lewinsky refused to file the Jones affidavit until after Mr. Jordan found her a job. The document was signed before she met Dec. 28 with Mr. Clinton in the White House but was not filed until Jan. 7. The next day, Mr. Jordan contacted Revlon; within a week, a job was offered.
The day began on a bad footing for Mr. Jordan when he arrived at the courthouse, despite the fact that his attorney described him as being "cool." Despite a police escort, his driver turned the wrong way into a one-way access driveway to the court and had to stop several yards from the courthouse steps --forcing him to maneuver through a tangle of reporters and photographers.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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