Clinton at a White House event. (AP)

By Richard Tapscott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, Jan. 26, 1998; 11:40 a.m. EST

President Clinton today forcefully denied the charges that have swirled around him for five days, saying he did not have sexual relations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and did not urge anyone to lie about their relationship.

"I want you to listen to me; I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," the President said, wagging his finger and speaking in an almost angry tone. "I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false."

[Later, the Associated Press reported that Lewinsky's attorney submitted a formal offer to cooperate with Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, and was awaiting word on whether Starr would accept it.

[Lawyer William Ginsburg emerged from a day of meetings with Ms. Lewinsky to announce: ``We have made a complete proffer to the office of the independent counsel.''

[A proffer is an outline of the information Ms. Lewinsky would give prosecutors regarding Clinton. Ginsburg has said that he wants blanket immunity from prosecutors in in exchange for her testimony.

[The White House has anxiously awaited word on whether Ms. Lewinsky will cooperate with Starr, setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown between the president and the former White House intern.]

Clinton, who had not spoken publicly about the allegations since appearances in two interviews last Thursday, used a White House announcement on child-care initiatives to rebut in more determined tones the charges that detractors say threaten his presidency.

The president, with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Gore at his side, did not go into detail and declined to answer questions after the brief statement. "I need to go back to work for the American people," he said. He said he was working on the State of the Union address, to be delivered to Congress Tuesday night.

The president's remarks today came at the end of the kind of routine White House event that usually gets little notice. But given the heat of the controversy surrounding the president in recent days, this one was broadcast live by the major television networks. Clinton was greeted with extended applause by the group of educators, members of Congress, leaders of charity groups and parents of school-age children attending the event.

Clinton had come under criticism for what some commentators described as a faltering denial in broadcast interviews last week. During one of them, he used the present tense to say there "is" no relationship between him and Lewinsky, 24.

Lewinsky had said in a sworn affidavit given in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against Clinton that the two had no sexual relationship. However, sources said she discussed such a relationship extensively in tape recordings made by Linda Tripp, a Lewinsky friend who worked with Lewinsky at the Pentagon.

With negotiations to win Lewinsky's cooperation in the investigation stalled, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has been searching for alternative evidence that she had a sexual relationship with Clinton.

Advisers had been urging Clinton to reiterate his earlier denials of a sexual relationship since last week, hoping to keep the sensational charges from overshadowing the State of the Union speech.

[The Associated Press also reported:

[Clinton's White House statement marked his first comments on the subject since Lewinsky told prosecutors she was willing to testify under the protection of full immunity that she had an affair with him -- raising the prospect of a high-stakes showdown between the president and a former White House intern.

[There is no turning back now for Clinton if Lewinsky changes her story and says she had sexual relations with him. Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas, said Clinton's statement ``sounded pretty categorical to me. I don't see any weasel words.''

[Lewinsky, 24, told a friend she had an affair with Clinton but later denied the claim in an affidavit. She spent several hours Monday with her attorneys, both at her Watergate apartment and a local law office. Lewinsky's lead attorney, William Ginsburg, is trying to secure a pledge of immunity from Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

[Starr's team met into the evening, apparently preparing to question witnesses Tuesday in front of a grand jury at the U.S. Courthouse.

[Meanwhile, attorneys for Clinton asked a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., to move up the trial date for Paula Jones' sex harassment lawsuit against Clinton, complaining that the media frenzy surrounding the Lewinsky case had created an ``undue distraction.'' Clinton's legal team thinks the lawsuit could be a high-profile forum to discredit Lewinsky if she cooperates with prosecutors against the president.

[Jones was opposing the change, and the judge in the case ended Monday's hearing without ruling.

[Warned by legal advisers that impeachment is not out of the question, the president again refused to publicly explain his relationship with Lewinsky. Aides now say the president will wait weeks or even months to provide a full accounting, unless Monday's effort fails to slow the political hemorrhaging.

[On Wall Street, investors halted a three-session slide in the Dow Jones industrial average -- there was a modest 12.20 point increase -- but most broad market measures fell for a fourth straight session.

[The president's fresh denial did not put the issue to rest. Reporters asked spokesman Mike McCurry exactly what sex acts Clinton would include under the term ``sexual relations.'' McCurry replied testily, ``I'm not going to dignify that question.''

[The critical test will be on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans alike are using grave terms to discuss the mounting scandal.

[Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., called this a ``crisis of the regime'' and warned that the presidency will crumble if Clinton had sex with Lewinsky.

[``If it's so, it represents a disorder,'' Moynihan said.

[Clinton dispatched Vice President Al Gore to Capitol Hill to tout his State of the Union address and rally Democrats. Behind closed doors, the vice president pre-empted the questions of concerned Democrats with his opening statement: ``It's important that Democrats support the president and his agenda today, tomorrow and in the future.''

[In one of the controversy's rare light moments, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., drew laughter from the caucus by accidentally calling Gore ``the president.''

[For now, most Democrats are withholding judgment -- waiting to see how Clinton weathers the coming few days. ``The president made an unequivocal statement. That was good enough for me,'' Moran said after the meeting.

[Most lawmakers are still away from Washington; a truer test of Clinton's standing in Congress will come Tuesday during his State of the Union address. Democrats promised a warm reception, but said the address will be awkward -- especially with Clinton's plan not to mention the controversy.

[``Obviously, it's impossible to ignore the context of the speech, what is happening -- true or false,'' said Rep. Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn.

[Democrats across the country are privately begging Clinton to quickly provide a full accounting of his relationship with Lewinsky. His closest allies, even some senior administration officials, have expressed doubts about whether Clinton is telling the truth and can survive.

[Trying to avoid a fatal erosion of support, the president is telephoning elected officials and donors, reiterating his denial but providing no details. His pollster, Mark Penn, is conducting extensive surveys to test the public's mood. Penn's polls have shown Clinton's favorability rating falling.

[Lewinsky told a friend in secretly recorded conversations that she had an affair with Clinton and he tried to cover it up. She later filed an affidavit in Jones' sexual harassment case against Clinton denying both allegations, making her a target of Starr's investigation.

[Aides said a lay-low strategy devised by Clinton's legal team began to take hold Monday. They hope Clinton's firm denial will slow his downward spiral in polls and be the last he says on the subject for a long while.

[If Lewinsky does not agree to testify against Clinton, aides believe he can weather the allegations without further comment. If she agrees to cooperate with Starr, the legal team will be prepared to try to discredit Lewinsky.

[One Clinton confidant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the legal team is conducting a massive search of her background in case she changes her story.

[The Sunday Oregonian reported that Lewinsky had an affair with a married man while she was in college in Oregon and used the school's stationery to write a phony letter.

[In New York, literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, who has said she encouraged former White House staffer Linda Tripp to tape her conversations with Lewinsky, said that she had received a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury but that it had been quashed.]