U.S.

Lewinsky Heading Back To California

January 31, 1998 / 3:08 PM EST / CBS/AP

With Whitewater prosecutors refusing to grant immunity to Monica Lewinsky, her lawyer said she is returning to California this week so the former White House intern can spend time with her father.

"We're not trying to send any messages" to prosecutor Kenneth Starr by leaving town, attorney William Ginsburg said Saturday, adding that the planned trip "is not part of some strategy."

Ginsburg said he and Lewinsky are leaving because "she wants to see her father." He said the day of their departure isn't certain, but that it could be anywhere from Monday to Friday.

Ginsburg told AP he would "remain active in the case" and keep in touch with Washington lawyer Nathaniel Speights, who also is representing Lewinsky.

A week of negotiations has failed to produce a deal under which Lewinsky would cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a pledge of immunity.

Ginsburg on Friday cast doubt on the assertion by Linda Tripp, a key witness in the investigation, that she was present when Lewinsky received a 2AM telephone call from President Clinton.

"Based on my investigation of the entire situation, Tripp was never privy to any conversation that Monica Lewinsky ever had with the president of the United States," Ginsburg said. His client is the focus of the investigation into whether Mr. Clinton tried to illegally cover up an alleged sexual affair with the former White House intern.

"Sometimes people don't always tell the truth, sometimes there are exaggerations," Ginsburg said in an interview Friday night on ABC's 20/20. Tripp's statement "looks more like the pre-publicity for a book than it does like the truth."

A friend of Tripp's, New York book agent Lucianne Goldberg, said Saturday that if the "serious trashing" of Tripp's integrity did not stop, she would release tapes of her own conversations with Tripp. "Everybody will be sorry and surprised. They leave no doubt about her veracity," said Goldberg, who also was the one to urge Tripp to tape her conversations with Lewinsky.

Starr said his investigators were "moving forward trying to gather the facts" but declined to provide details.

"The grand jury has been sitting actively," he told CNN. "It's very attentive. But beyond that, I can't comment."

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, avoided any mention of the alleged affair during her appearance at a children's "parliament" in Lucerne, Switzerland. She did acknowledge that the public glare was not always eas.

"It's difficult to live in the spotlight of public life, and I miss many things about my private life," she told the children.

Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, addressing a gathering of conservatives just outside Washington, said GOP leaders should refrain from turning the Lewinsky controversy into a "highly partisan political matter" before the facts are out.

But, he joined other GOP leaders who have used the issue to focus on Mr. Clinton's integrity.

"It's about the morals and the honesty and the integrity of our president," Nicholson said in an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Arlington, Va.

Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., speculated that Mr. Clinton might have a "compelling reason" for refusing to comment in detail on what sort of relationship he might have had with Lewinsky.

"It could be that there's something to it," Helms said of the allegations against Mr. Clinton. In an appearance on CNN's "Evans and Novak." Helms added that if the allegations of a sexual relationship are true, "the more doubt people will have in the strength of the office" of president.
Tripp, a former Pentagon coworker of Lewinsky who secretly recorded their telephone conversations, gave the account of the early-morning phone call in a statement released Friday.

While staying at Lewinsky's apartment at the Watergate complex last November, Tripp said, the telephone rang and she heard Lewinsky answer it. Lewinsky subsequently said the caller was the president, Tripp said in the statement.

The tape recordings Tripp turned over to Starr triggered an investigation into whether Mr. Clinton sought to get Lewinsky to deny in a court affidavit that she had had an affair with him.

Lewinsky filed such an affidavit when subpoenaed to testify in a deposition for Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against Mr. Clinton. Her lawyer has said Lewinsky stands by the affidavit.

Ginsburg is seeking immunity from prosecution for Lewinsky so that she can tell her side of the story to the federal grand jury. As he left the ABC studio, Ginsburg told reporters Lewinsky probably would be forced to testify under a court order.

Ginsburg said the decision whether his client receives immunity is entirely in Starr's hands. But he said Lewinsky would be "more cooperative than she might otherwise be" if granted blanket immunity from prosecution rather than court-ordered "use immunity." The latter would bar prosecutors from using her testimony as evidence against her.

Following attacks on her motives for coming forward, Tripp issued her statement Friday. It broke her 10-day silence since the nation learned that Starr was investigating her allegations.

Tripp said Lewinsky told her "every detail" of an alleged affair with Mr. Clinton during hundreds of conversations over the last 15 months.
"In addition, I was present when she received a late-night phone call from the president. I have also seen numerous gifts they exchanged and heard several of her tapes of him," Tripp said.

One of Tripp's lawyers, Anthony Zaccagnini, told Baltimore radio station WCBM that "it would be fair to say that she (Tripp) heard the president's voice."

Tripp said she "was also present when Monica made and received numerous phone calls which were of a volatile and contentious nature directly relating to her relationship with the president."