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According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President said: "If I had known what kind of person you really were, I wouldn't have gotten involved with you."(589) He reminded Ms. Lewinsky that she had earlier promised, "[i]f you just want to stop doing this, I'll . . . be no trouble."(590) Ms. Lewinsky said she challenged the President: "[T]ell me . . . when I've caused you trouble."(591) The President responded, "I've never worried about you. I've never been worried you would do something to hurt me."(592) When the conversation shifted to her job search, Ms.
Lewinsky complained that the President had not done enough to
help her. He responded that, on the contrary, he was eager to
help.(593) The President said that he regretted Ms. Lewinsky's
transfer to the Pentagon and assured her that he would not have
permitted it had he foreseen the difficulty in returning her to
the White House.(594) Ms. Lewinsky told him that she wanted a job
in New York by the end of October, and the President promised to
do what he could.(595)
B. October 11 Meeting
At approximately 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 11,
according to Ms. Lewinsky, Ms. Currie called and told her that
the President wished to see her.(596) Ms. Lewinsky entered the
White House at 9:36 a.m. and departed at 10:54 a.m.(597) The
President entered the Oval Office at 9:52 a.m.(598)
Ms. Lewinsky met with the President in the study, and they
discussed her job search.(599) Ms. Lewinsky told the President that
she wanted to pursue jobs in the private sector, and he told her
to prepare a list of New York companies that interested her.(600)
Ms. Lewinsky asked the President whether Vernon Jordan, a well-known Washington attorney who she knew was a close friend of the
President and had many business contacts, might help her find a
job.(601) According to Ms. Lewinsky, the President was receptive to
the idea.(602)
In a recorded conversation, Ms. Lewinsky said that, at the
end of the October 11 meeting, she and the President joined Ms.
Currie in the Oval Office. The President grabbed Ms. Lewinsky's
arm and kissed her on the forehead.(603) He told her: "I talked to
Erskine [Bowles] about . . . trying to get John Hilley to give
you . . . a good recommendation for your work here."(604)
Later, Ms. Lewinsky and Ms. Tripp discussed their concerns
about the President's involvement in Ms. Lewinsky's job search.
Specifically, Ms. Lewinsky was nervous about involving the
President's Chief of Staff:
Ms. Lewinsky: Well, see, I don't really think -- I'm
going to tell him that I don't think Erskine should have
anything to do with this. I don't think anybody who works
there should.
Ms. Tripp: I don't see how that's -- how that's a
problem.
Ms. Lewinsky: Because look at what happened with Webb
Hubbell.(605)
Ms. Lewinsky preferred that Vernon Jordan assist her in her job
search:
Ms. Tripp: Well, I don't remember during the Webb
Hubbell thing, was Vernon mentioned?
Ms. Lewinsky: Yeah, but there's a big difference. I
think somebody could construe, okay? Somebody could
construe or say, "Well, they gave her a job to shut her up.
They made her happy. . . . And he [Mr. Bowles] works for
the government and shouldn't have done that." And with the
other one [Mr. Jordan] you can't say that.(606)
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C. October 16-17: The "Wish List"
On October 16, Ms. Lewinsky sent the President a packet,
which included what she called a "wish list" describing the types
of jobs that interested her in New York City.(607) The note began:
My dream had been to work in Communications
or Strategic Planning at the White House. I
am open to any suggestions that you may have
on work that is similar to that or may
intrigue me. The most important things to me
are that I am engaged and interested in my
work, I am not someone's administrative/
executive assistant, and my salary can
provide me a comfortable living in NY.(608)
She identified five public relations firms where she would like
to work.(609) Ms. Lewinsky concluded by saying of the United
Nations:
I do not have any interest in working there.
As a result of what happened in April '96, I
have already spent a year and a half at an
agency in which I have no interest. I want a
job where I feel challenged, engaged, and
interested. I don't think the UN is the
right place for me.(610)
In a recorded conversation, Ms. Lewinsky said she wanted the
President to take her list seriously and not ask her to settle
for a U.N. job.(611) She said she hoped "that if he starts to pick
a bone with me and the U.N., he sure as hell doesn't do it on the
phone. . . . I don't want to start getting into a screaming
match with him on the phone."(612)
In addition to the "wish list," Ms. Lewinsky said she
enclosed in the packet a pair of sunglasses and "a lot of things
in a little envelope," including some jokes, a card, and a
postcard.(613) She said that she had written on the card: "Wasn't
I right that my hugs are better in person than in cards?"(614) The
postcard featured a "very erotic" Egon Schiele painting.(615) Ms.
Lewinsky also enclosed a note with her thoughts on education
reform.(616)
Ms. Lewinsky testified that she felt that the President owed
her a job for several reasons: Her relationship with him was the
reason she had been transferred out of the White House; he had
promised her a job and so far had done nothing to help her find
one; and she had left the White House "quietly," without making
an issue of her relationship with the President.(617)
D. The President Creates Options
At some point around this time in the fall of 1997,
Ms. Currie asked John Podesta, the Deputy Chief of Staff, to help
Ms. Lewinsky find a job in New York.(618) Mr. Podesta testified
that, during a Presidential trip to Latin America, he approached
then-U.N. Ambassador William Richardson while aboard Air Force
One and asked the Ambassador to consider a former White House
intern for a position at the U.N.(619) At the time, Mr. Podesta
could not recall the intern's name.(620) Ambassador Richardson and
the President both testified that they never discussed Ms.
Lewinsky with each other.(621)
Ambassador Richardson returned from Latin America on Sunday,
October 19.(622) Within a few days, his Executive Assistant,
Isabelle Watkins, called Mr. Podesta's secretary and asked
whether "she knew anything about a resume that John was going to
send us."(623) Mr. Podesta's secretary knew nothing about it and
asked Mr. Podesta what to do; he instructed her to call
Ms. Currie.(624) At 3:09 p.m. on October 21, Ms. Currie faxed Ms.
Lewinsky's resume to the United Nations.(625)
At 7:01 p.m., a six-minute call was placed to Ms. Lewinsky's
apartment from a U.N. telephone number identified in State
Department records as "Ambassador Richardson's line."(626) Ms.
Lewinsky testified that she spoke to Ambassador Richardson. A
woman called, Ms. Lewinsky testified, and said, "[H]old for
Ambassador Richardson."(627) Then the Ambassador himself came on
the line: "I remember, because I was shocked and I was . . .
very nervous."(628) The purpose of the call was to schedule a job
interview at a Watergate apartment the following week.(629) At odds
with Ms. Lewinsky, the Ambassador and Ms. Watkins both testified
that Ms. Watkins, not the Ambassador, spoke with Ms. Lewinsky.(630)
A few days later, according to Ms. Lewinsky, the President
called her. She had been upset because no one at the White House
had prepared her for the Ambassador's recent call and because she
did not want the White House to railroad her into taking the U.N.
job.(631) She reiterated that she was eager to pursue other
opportunities, especially in the private sector.(632) The President
reassured her, promising that a U.N. position was just one of
many options.(633)
Ms. Lewinsky spoke to the President again one week later.
Ms. Lewinsky testified that she told Ms. Currie to ask the
President to call her to assuage her nervousness before the U.N.
interview.(634)
According to Ms. Lewinsky, on October 30, the night before
the interview, the President did call. She characterized the
conversation as a "pep talk": "[H]e was trying to kind of build
my confidence and reassure me."(635) The President told her to call
Ms. Currie after the interview.(636)In his Jones deposition, the
President indicated that he learned of her interview with
Ambassador Richardson not from Ms. Lewinsky herself but from Ms.
Currie.(637)
E. The U.N. Interview and Job Offer
On Friday morning, October 31, Ambassador Richardson and two
of his assistants, Mona Sutphen and Rebecca Cooper, interviewed
Ms. Lewinsky at the Watergate.(638) According to Ambassador
Richardson, he "listen[ed] while Mona and Rebecca were
interviewing her."(639) Neither Ambassador Richardson nor any of
his staff made inquiries, before or after the interview, about
Ms. Lewinsky's prior work performance.(640)
On Sunday, November 2, Ms. Lewinsky drafted a letter to Ms.
Currie asking what to do in the event she received an offer from
the U.N.(641) She wrote:
I became a bit nervous this weekend when I
realized that Amb. Richardson said his staff
would be in touch with me this week. As you
know, the UN is supposed to be my back-up,
but because VJ [Vernon Jordan] has been out
of town, this is my only option right now.
What should I say to Richardson's people this
week when they call?(642)
Ms. Lewinsky asked Ms. Currie to speak to the President about her
problem: "If you feel it's appropriate, maybe you could ask 'the
big guy' what he wants me to do. Ahhhhh . . . anxiety!!!!!"(643)
Ms. Lewinsky also mentioned the President's promise to involve
Vernon Jordan in her job search:
I don't think I told you that in my
conversation last Thursday night with him
that he said that he would ask you to set up
a meeting between VJ and myself, once VJ got
back. I assume he'll mention this to you at
some point -- hopefully sooner rather than
later!(644)
Before Ms. Lewinsky sent this letter, in her recollection,
she received an offer from the U.N.(645) Phone records reflect
that, at 11:02 a.m. on November 3, a three-minute call was placed
to Ms. Lewinsky from the U.N. line identified in State Department
records as Ambassador Richardson's.(646) Ms. Lewinsky stated that
she believes she spoke to Ambassador Richardson, who extended her
a job offer.(647)
According to his assistant, Ambassador Richardson made the
decision to hire Ms. Lewinsky. Ms. Sutphen testified:
I said, are you sure; and he said, yeah,
yeah, I'm sure, why. And I said . . . are
you sure, though you don't want to talk to
anyone else . . . . And he said, no, no, I
think it's fine; why don't you go ahead and
give her an offer?(648)
Ambassador Richardson and Ms. Sutphen both testified that
Ms. Sutphen, not the Ambassador, extended the job offer to Ms.
Lewinsky. They recalled that the offer was made a week or 10
days after the interview, though Ms. Sutphen, when shown the
phone records, testified that the November 3 call to Ms. Lewinsky
probably was the job offer.(649)
Ms. Lewinsky testified that she told Ms. Currie about the
offer and she probably also told the President directly.(650) Ms.
Currie first testified that she had "probably" told the President
about Ms. Lewinsky's U.N. offer, then testified that she had in
fact told him, then testified that she could not remember, though
she acknowledged that the President was interested in
Ms. Lewinsky's getting a job.(651)
When the President was asked in the Jones deposition whether
he knew that Ms. Lewinsky had received the offer of a job at the
U.N., he testified: "I know that she interviewed for one. I
don't know if she was offered one or not."(652)
F. The U.N. Job Offer Declined
Three weeks after she received an offer, on November 24, Ms.
Lewinsky called Ms. Sutphen and asked for more time to consider
the offer because she wanted to pursue possibilities in the
private sector.(653) Ms. Sutphen told Ambassador Richardson, who,
according to Ms. Sutphen, said the delay would be fine.(654) Over a
month later, on January 5, 1998, Ms. Lewinsky finally turned down
the job.(655)
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