ALSO BY JEFFREY TOOBIN
Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case—United
States v. Oliver North
The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson
Copyright © 1999 by Jeffrey Toobin
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-307-82912-2
Random House website address: www.atrandom.com
v3.1
To McIntosh
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Cast of Characters
Chronology
Prologue: “This Is Danny”
1. What the Bubbas Wrought
2. “Isn’t That What Happened?”
3. Party Girl
4. “I Love This Man”
5. A Really Big Crush
6. “Joan Dean”
7. Their Tabloid Hearts
8. “Good Strong Christian Men”
9. “Draw the Penis for Me”
10. Consensual Sex
11. Revenge of the “Peace Corps”
12. The Definition of Sex—and L-E-W-I-N-S-K-Y
13. The Richard Jewell File
14. “I Guess That Will Teach Them”
15. “Words of Assent”
16. “Eighteenth-Hand” Rumors
17. “I Don’t Care If I’m Impeached …”
18. Winning by Losing
19. Mr. Genitalia and the Perjury Ladies
20. These Culture Wars
Epilogue: Private and Public
Acknowledgments
Source Notes and Bibliography
About the Author
Cast of Characters
KEY PLAYERS
William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States
Hillary Rodham Clinton, first lady of the United States
Paula Corbin Jones, plaintiff in civil lawsuit against President Clinton
Monica Lewinsky, White House intern and staffer, July 1995–April 1996; Pentagon staffer, April 1996–January 1998
Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky’s coworker and confidante at the Pentagon; former White House staffer
Lucianne Goldberg, Linda Tripp’s literary agent
Michael Isikoff, journalist, The Washington Post and Newsweek
ATTORNEYS FOR PAULA JONES (in order of appearance)
Daniel M. Traylor
Gilbert Davis
Joseph Cammarata
John Whitehead, the Rutherford Institute
Donovan Campbell, James Fisher, and David Pyke of Rader, Campbell, Fisher & Pyke
“ELVES” (advisers to the Jones legal team)
George Conway
Ann Coulter
Richard Porter
Jerome Marcus
OTHER SUPPORTERS OF PAULA JONES
Cliff Jackson, Arkansas-based anti-Clinton activist
Peter W. Smith, Chicago-based anti-Clinton financier
David Brock, journalist, The American Spectator
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue
Patrick Mahoney, clergyman, director of the Christian Defense Coalition
Cindy Hays, fund-raiser
Susan Carpenter-McMillan, antiabortion activist
Rick and Beverly Lambert, private investigators
FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF PAULA JONES
Stephen Jones, husband
Debra Ballentine, friend
Pamela Blackard, friend and coworker
Dennis Kirkland, alleged former boyfriend
ARKANSAS STATE TROOPERS
Larry Patterson
Roger Perry
Ronnie Anderson
Danny Ferguson
L. D. Brown
ATTTORNEYS FOR MONICA LEWINSKY (in order of appearance)
Francis Carter
William Ginsburg
Nathaniel H. Speights III
Plato Cacheris
Jacob Stein
Sydney Hoffmann
FAMILY OF MONICA LEWINSKY
Bernard Lewinsky, father
Marcia Lewis, mother
R. Peter Straus, fiancé of Marcia Lewis
ATTORNEYS FOR PRESIDENT CLINTON
Office of the White House Counsel
Bernard Nussbaum, counsel to the president
Charles F. C. Ruff, counsel to the president
Bruce Lindsey, deputy counsel to the president
Cheryl Mills, deputy counsel to the president
Jane Sherburne, special counsel to the president
Lanny Davis, special counsel to the president
Lanny Breuer, special counsel to the president
Gregory Craig, special counsel to the president
Personal Attorneys
Robert S. Bennett, Mitchell Ettinger, and Amy Sabrin of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
David Kendall and Nicole Seligman of Williams & Connolly
FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON
Jim and Susan McDougal, Whitewater investors
David Hale, former judge and businessman
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, writer and producer
Harry Thomason, director and producer
Dick Morris, political adviser
James Carville, political adviser
Mickey Kantor, former trade representative and commerce secretary
Mark Penn, pollster, Penn, Schoen & Berland
Kathleen Willey, White House volunteer and accuser of sexual misconduct
Julie Hiatt Steele, onetime friend of Willey’s
White House Staff
Betty Currie, personal secretary to the president
Nancy Hernreich, director of Oval Office operations
George Stephanopoulos, senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy
Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy
Sidney Blumenthal, assistant to the president
Paul Begala, counselor to the president
Bayani Nelvis, Navy steward
Glen Maes, Navy steward
Lewis Fox, uniformed Secret Service officer
John Muskett, uniformed Secret Service officer
OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT COUNSEL (OIC)
Kenneth Starr, independent counsel
Selected Other Attorneys (in approximate order of appearance in Starr’s office)
Mark Tuohey III
Roger Adelman
John Bates
W. Hickman Ewing, Jr.
Jackie Bennett
Robert Bittman
LeRoy Jahn
Ray Jahn
Bradley Lerman
Brett Kavanaugh
Samuel Dash
Amy St. Eve
Solomon Wisenberg
Paul Rosenzweig
Bruce Udolf
Mary Anne Wirth
Michael Emmick
Karin Immergut
OTHER ATTORNEYS
Kirby Behre, attorney for Linda Tripp
James Moody, attorney for Linda Tripp
William Bristow, attorney for Danny Ferguson
Billy Martin, attorney for Marcia Lewis
JUDGES
Susan Webber Wright, U.S. district judge presiding over Jones v. Clinton
Norma Holloway Johnson, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
William H. Rehnquist, chief justice of the United States
> HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY (selected members)
Republicans (in order of seniority)
Henry J. Hyde, chairman
Bill McCollum
George W. Gekas
Bob Inglis
Ed Bryant
Bob Barr
James E. Rogan
Lindsey O. Graham
Democrats
John Conyers, Jr., ranking member
Barney Frank
Charles E. Schumer
Howard L. Berman
Rick Boucher
Jerrold Nadler
Maxine Waters
Republican Staff
Thomas E. Mooney, Sr., general counsel and chief of staff
David P. Schippers, chief investigative counsel
Democratic Staff
Julian Epstein, minority chief counsel and staff director
Abbe D. Lowell, minority chief investigative counsel
Jim Jordan, spokesman for minority staff
UNITED STATES SENATE
Trent Lott, majority leader
Tom Daschle, minority leader
Chronology
MAY 8, 1991 Paula Corbin and Governor Bill Clinton meet at a conference at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock.
NOVEMBER 3, 1992 Bill Clinton wins the presidential election.
NOVEMBER 29, 1993 President Clinton meets with Kathleen Willey, an acquaintance and White House job seeker, and allegedly makes sexual advances toward her.
DECEMBER 18, 1993 The American Spectator magazine publishes David Brock’s “His Cheatin’ Heart,” which recounts a version of Clinton’s meeting with a woman identified as “Paula.”
JANUARY 20, 1994 Attorney General Janet Reno names Robert Fiske to head the investigation into the Whitewater affair.
FEBRUARY 11, 1994 At a press conference in Washington, D.C., Paula Corbin Jones accuses President Clinton of sexual harassment. Anti-Clinton activist Cliff Jackson introduces Jones to Michael Isikoff of The Washington Post.
MAY 3, 1994 The White House announces that President Clinton has hired Robert Bennett to represent him in the Jones matter.
MAY 4, 1994 The Washington Post publishes an article by Michael Isikoff (and others) about Paula Jones’s accusations.
MAY 6, 1994 Paula Jones’s lawyers file a lawsuit against President Clinton.
JUNE 30, 1994 President Clinton signs a reauthorization of the expired independent counsel statute.
AUGUST 5, 1994 The Special Division of U.S. Court of Appeals replaces Fiske with Kenneth Starr as independent counsel investigating Whitewater.
JULY 1995 Monica Lewinsky begins to work as an intern at the White House.
NOVEMBER 15, 1995 Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton have their first sexual encounter in his White House study.
JANUARY 4, 1996 White House aide Carolyn Huber finds copies of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s billing records from the Rose Law Firm, which had been subpoenaed more than a year earlier.
JANUARY 18, 1996 Hillary Clinton subpoenaed to Kenneth Starr’s grand jury.
JANUARY 26, 1996 Hillary Clinton testifies before grand jury.
APRIL 5, 1996 Monica Lewinsky is informed that she will be transferred from her job at the White House to one at the Pentagon. There she becomes friends with Linda Tripp.
MAY 28, 1996 Jim and Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker are convicted in the Whitewater case.
JUNE 24, 1996 Supreme Court accepts a writ of certiorari in Jones v. Clinton and agrees to decide whether President Clinton can be sued while in office.
AUGUST 1, 1996 An Arkansas jury fails to convict two bankers charged by Starr with felonies in connection with Bill Clinton’s 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
NOVEMBER 5, 1996 Bill Clinton is elected to a second term as president.
FEBRUARY 17, 1997 Kenneth Starr announces plans to resign as independent counsel and accept a deanship at Pepperdine University. Later the same week, Starr agrees to continue his work as prosecutor.
FEBRUARY 28, 1997 During an assignation with President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky’s dress is stained with his semen.
MARCH 24, 1997 Michael Isikoff meets Linda Tripp.
MARCH 29, 1997 Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton have their final assignation.
MAY 24, 1997 President Clinton tells Monica Lewinsky that they can no longer continue their relationship. Lewinsky refers to this event as “D-Day” or “Dump Day.”
MAY 27, 1997 Supreme Court rejects President Clinton’s bid for immunity from civil suits while in office. Jones v. Clinton is ordered to proceed.
AUGUST 3, 1997 In Newsweek, Isikoff publishes a story revealing Kathleen Willey’s allegations.
NOVEMBER 3, 1997 Monica Lewinsky receives a job offer from the office of the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
NOVEMBER 5, 1997 Monica Lewinsky meets with Vernon Jordan for the first time.
DECEMBER 5, 1997 Jones’s lawyers fax the witness list in the Jones case to President Clinton’s lawyers. Monica Lewinsky’s name is included.
DECEMBER 6, 1997 In a meeting with his lawyers, President Clinton denies having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
DECEMBER 11, 1997 Monica Lewinsky and Vernon Jordan discuss her job hunt over lunch. Later in the day, Judge Wright rules that Jones’s lawyers can ask President Clinton about his consensual sexual partners.
DECEMBER 17, 1997 President Clinton telephones Monica Lewinsky to inform her that her name is on the witness list for the Jones case. They discuss a sanitized account of their relationship.
DECEMBER 19, 1997 Monica Lewinsky receives a subpoena from lawyers for Paula Jones.
DECEMBER 22, 1997 Monica Lewinsky meets with attorney Francis Carter.
DECEMBER 28, 1997 Betty Currie drives to Monica Lewinsky’s apartment to retrieve gifts given to Lewinsky by President Clinton. Currie takes them home and hides them under her bed.
JANUARY 5, 1998 Monica Lewinsky rejects the UN job offer.
JANUARY 7, 1998 Monica Lewinsky signs an affidavit, prepared by Francis Carter, denying a sexual relationship with President Clinton.
JANUARY 9, 1998 Monica Lewinsky receives an informal job offer, which she accepts, from Revlon. The offer is formalized four days later.
JANUARY 12, 1998 Linda Tripp contacts the Office of Independent Counsel and reveals her information about Monica Lewinsky’s relationship with President Clinton. Also, in a secret hearing in Arkansas, Judge Susan Webber Wright urges both sides to settle the Jones case.
JANUARY 13, 1998 Linda Tripp wears a recording device and produces a “sting tape” of her lunch with Monica Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton.
JANUARY 14, 1998 Monica Lewinsky gives Linda Tripp written suggestions (“talking points”) for how to prepare an affidavit in the Paula Jones case.
JANUARY 16, 1998 The Special Division grants Kenneth Starr authority to investigate whether Monica Lewinsky or others suborned perjury or obstructed justice. Linda Tripp arranges to meet Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton. There Lewinsky is taken to a hotel room and interviewed by prosecutors from the Office of Independent Counsel.
JANUARY 17, 1998 In a videotaped deposition in the Jones case, President Clinton denies a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
JANUARY 18, 1998 The Drudge Report publishes item alleging a sexual relationship between the president and an “intern.” President Clinton meets with Betty Currie to discuss his contacts with Lewinsky. Over the next day, Currie makes repeated attempts to contact Lewinsky.
JANUARY 21, 1998 In the early morning, The Washington Post and ABC News disclose Starr’s investigation of the alleged affair, including a denial from the White House. In midafternoon President Clinton denies allegations about Lewinsky in interviews with Jim Lehrer and others.
JANUARY 26, 1998 While speaking at the White House, President Clinton denies having “sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”
JANUARY 27, 1998 On NBC’s Today show, Hillary Clinton denounces a “vast
right-wing conspiracy.” Later, President Clinton delivers his State of the Union address.
FEBRUARY 4, 1998 Kenneth Starr rejects a proposed agreement granting Monica Lewinsky immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation.
APRIL 1, 1998 U.S. District Court judge Susan Webber Wright grants President Clinton’s motion for summary judgment in Jones v. Clinton, dismissing the case. Jones’s lawyers announce plans to appeal.
JULY 17, 1998 Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sends a subpoena to President Clinton to testify before the grand jury.
JULY 27, 1998 In exchange for a promise of immunity from prosecution, Monica Lewinsky meets with prosecutors in New York and discusses her relationship with President Clinton.
JULY 28, 1998 Monica Lewinsky gives the Office of Independent Counsel her semen-stained dress.
AUGUST 6, 1998 Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury. President Clinton wears a blue-and-gold Zegna tie.
AUGUST 17, 1998 In testimony before the grand jury, President Clinton acknowledges intimate contact with Monica Lewinsky. Later, he admits the affair in a televised address.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1998 Kenneth Starr submits his report to Congress.
SEPTEMBER 11, 1998 The House votes, 363–63, to release the Starr report.
SEPTEMBER 21, 1998 The videotape of President Clinton’s grand jury testimony is released.
OCTOBER 8, 1998 The House votes, 258–176, for an impeachment investigation.
NOVEMBER 3, 1998 The Republicans lose five seats in the House in midterm congressional elections.
NOVEMBER 13, 1998 President Clinton agrees to pay $850,000 to settle Jones v. Clinton.
NOVEMBER 19, 1998 Kenneth Starr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee.
DECEMBER 11, 1998 The House Judiciary Committee approves four articles of impeachment against President Clinton.
DECEMBER 16, 1998 President Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq for its violation of weapons agreements.
DECEMBER 19, 1998 The House votes to impeach President Clinton, adopting two of the proposed four articles of impeachment. House speaker-designate Robert Livingston announces his resignation.
JANUARY 7, 1999 The Senate impeachment trial is formally opened by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
JANUARY 14–16, 1999 The House managers present the case against President Clinton.
A Vast Conspiracy Page 1
