The President on Trial: Sifting Through the Evidence            Full Coverage Search Clinton in Crisis The Trial Trial Guide Evidence Guide Transcripts Video Discuss the Trial The Starr Report and Rebuttals Video Index Documents Starr Investigation Jones v. Clinton Whitewater Jones v. Clinton Whitewater Article I, Charge 4: A Man of Influence? William Jefferson Clinton willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury concerning...his corrupt efforts to influence the testimony of witnesses and to impede the discovery of evidence in that civil rights action. Days after his Jones deposition, Clinton allegedly met with presidential secretary Betty Currie. He allegedly said several things to her, including: "You were always there when she [Lewinsky] was there, right? We were never alone." (Those sentences have appeared both together and individually.) "You could see and hear everything. " (Alternately, "You can see and hear everything, right?") "Monica came on to me, and I never touched her, right?" "She wanted to have sex with me and I couldn't do that." When asked why he said such things, Clinton told the grand jury, "I was trying to figure out what the facts were. I was trying to remember." Currie told grand jurors his remarks were "more like statements than questions." There is nothing at this point to illuminate the conversation besides Currie and Clinton's recollections. However, as Republicans have repeatedly suggested, it could be difficult to understand why he would pose questions that, if answered affirmatively, allegedly would be false. If Clinton was honestly trying to have this conversation with Currie to refresh his recollection of his relationship with Lewinsky, his claim to the grand jury is true. If he used the questions to hint to Currie what he hoped she might tell anyone who asked, his testimony on this point would be false. (It would also be evidence of obstruction, but that's covered in Article II.) Additional testimony from Currie could be crucial in establishing just what Clinton's intentions were in this conversation. Clinton also told the grand jury that, shortly after the Lewinsky story broke in January 1998, he "said things that were true" to his aides about his relationship with Lewinsky, though he admitted they "may have been misleading." One of the most salient statements came during a January 21, 1998 conversation he had with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal . Clinton told Blumenthal about a conversation earlier in the day with political adviser Dick Morris, according to Blumenthal's own grand jury testimony. Morris had told Clinton that "Nixon could have survived Watergate if he had gone on television...and got it all out in the beginning." "What have you done wrong?" asked Blumenthal in response. "Nothing, I haven't done anything wrong," replied the president. "Well then, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Why would you do that if you've done nothing wrong?" Another statement came during a meeting with then-Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and then-Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta. According to the two men, Clinton said that "this story is not true," that he "had not had a sexual relationship with [Lewinsky] and that he never asked anybody to lie." And, he added "when the facts come out," his two aides would "understand." A careful reading of their conversations yields little. Was Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky "wrong," thereby making his denial to Blumenthal untrue? Possibly. (He publicly admitted the relationship was wrong in his televised speech after his grand jury testimony, but he wasn't under oath.) And while his statements to Podesta and Bowles were arguably false, Clinton never said that everything he told his aides was true. His motives in saying such things to White House staffers may be questionable, but his testimony is vague enough that House prosecutors will have a hard time proving he lied about these conversations to the grand jury. Introduction Article I Charges 1 & 2: What is Sex? | Charge 3: Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil? | Charge 4: A Man of Influence? | In Sum...A Man of Honor? Article II Charges 1 & 2: Greasing the Wheels? | Charge 3: The Trail of the Gift Horse | Charge 4: Escape to New York | Charge 5: Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil? (Part II) | Charge 6: The Four Questions | Charge 7: An Influential Man (Pt. II) | In Sum...All or Nothing? Version for Printing