Willey Defends Clinton Letters
Kathleen Willey defended friendly letters she sent to President Clinton after their meeting at which she alleges he made a crude sexual advance. She accused the White House of trying to portray her as a "wacko."
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In an interview in the issue of Newsweek on newsstands Monday, Willey said by distributing the letters, which were friendly in tone despite the encounter she alleged, the White House was "trying to make me look like a wacko."
Willey also said there was nothing improper about the letters, which she portrayed as a way of trying to secure a job.
"I never hid those letters. They were my way of saying, 'Hello, I'm still out here. I need a job,"' she said. "I had made a decision that I was going to put that incident behind me. I made that choice, and I'm allowed to make that choice."
In a dramatic television appearance a week ago, Mrs. Willey told CBS' 60 Minutes that during the 1993 visit, Mr. Clinton placed his hands on her breasts, kissed her on the mouth and placed her hand on his genitals after she visited him to discuss her financial troubles.
Willey said in the television interview that she was so taken aback by the advance that she wanted to slap Mr. Clinton but pushed him away instead and eventually left the office.
Two days after the incident, Willey began a series of attempts to get back in touch with President Clinton. Records released by the White House last week showed Willey contacted Clinton's office on Dec. 1 seeking to talk to the president.
Time magazine reported Sunday that a former confidante of Willey told the FBI that Willey faked a pregnancy in 1995 to seek revenge on a boyfriend. According to the Time on newsstands Monday, the friend, Julie Steele, told investigators Willey urged her to go along with the lie and tell the boyfriend Willey had a miscarriage, Time reported, without identifying its sources.
Steele also has claimed that Willey asked her to lie to a reporter about the alleged Clinton incident.
Willey's lawyer Dan Gecker would not discuss the latest Time report, which he said he had not read. "I haven't seen it, and I'm not going to dignify it," Gecker said Sunday.
Meanwhile, book publisher Mike Viner said on CNN's Late Edition that he thought Willey "shaded" her version of events as she tried to win a contract for a book on her experiences.
Viner said he began talking with Willey's lawyer in early January, and at that time she was "very much pro-Clinton." But this later "changed a great deal to the sort f Anita Hill-want-to-be that I saw on 60 Minutes.
Written by Kalpana Srinivasan.
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