Monica Lewinsky Reveals Bill Clinton Insinuated She Could Lie Under Oath
New comments from Monica Lewinsky that are part of the A&E series “The Clinton Affair” explain how she was persuaded to lie under oath for former President Bill Clinton.
The former White House intern said Clinton encouraged her to deny their sexual relationship if she was called to testify in the lawsuit against Clinton filed by Paula Jones, Fox News reported.
“Bill called at 2:30 in the morning and there were two pieces of bad news which he was passing along,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
One bit of bad news was the death of a co-worker’s brother. The other impacted her directly.
“And then, he really dropped the bombshell that he had seen the witness list for the Paula Jones case and I was on it,” Lewinsky said.
“The information about (the co-worker) spun me one way and the information about the witness list spun me completely the other way,” she said. “He told me that it broke his heart and that he’d thought that I probably wouldn’t get called as a witness.”
Lewinsky was not assuaged by his comments.
“I was petrified. I was frantic about my family and this becoming public,” she said.
“Thankfully, Bill helped me lock myself back from that, and he said I could probably sign an affidavit to get out of it, and he didn’t even know if a 100 percent I would be subpoenaed,” Lewinsky said.
She said their conversation never specifically discussed lying, but she was never encouraged to tell the truth, either.
However, the subpoena did come after all.
Lewinsky related that after meeting with Clinton attorney Vernon Jordan, she met lawyer Frank Carter.
“Frank Carter explained to me if I’d signed an affidavit denying having had an intimate relationship with the president it might mean I wouldn’t have to be deposed in the Paula Jones case,” she said.
“I did feel uncomfortable about it, but I felt it was the right thing to do, ironically, right? So, the right thing to do, to break the law,” Lewinsky said.
Not long after that, she was summoned to meet with Clinton.
“This is the first time I met Buddy, the dog, and we kind of all played around with Buddy in the office and then we went into the back study and we had a Christmas kiss,” Lewinsky said.
“Over the summer he had gone to Martha’s Vineyard and he brought back a bunch of different things. He had this big canvas bag from the Black Dog. This marble bear, sunglasses. It was the most presents he’d given me at one time. He knew the subpoena was gonna ask to produce certain items and yet he was giving me more gifts. He clearly still trusted me,” she said.
But the gifts soon paled in comparison with the ordeal of questioning she underwent.
“There was a point for me somewhere within these first several hours where I would be hysterically crying and then I would just shut down,” Lewinsky said. “And in the shutdown period, I just remember looking out the window and thinking the only way to fix this is to kill myself.
“I just felt terrible … and I was scared … and I was mortified.”
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