The White House has reacted angrily to a Republican attempt to widen the impeachment inquiry into fundraising abuses in the 1996 election campaign.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee conducting the inquiry voted yesterday to call the Director of the FBI, Mr Louis Freeh, to testify about a secret memorandum on alleged abuses in President Clinton's re-election campaign.
Mr Freeh is believed to have argued in his memorandum that the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, should appoint an independent counsel to investigate evidence of abuses.
Democrats on the committee strongly opposed the move saying it showed that the Republicans have not come up with enough evidence to impeach Mr Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice arising from his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky.
The White House spokesman, Mr Joe Lockhart, attacked the decision saying the chairman of the committee, Mr Henry Hyde, "is not being entirely straight with the President" about the scope of the inquiry. Mr Lockhart suggested the committee has been "hijacked by the extremists".
The White House and Democrats were also angered by yesterday's public hearing by the committee, when two women convicted of lying about sexual affairs gave testimony.
The Republicans wanted to embarrass the President's defenders, who have been arguing that he should not be impeached for lying under oath about his affair with Ms Lewinsky. Mr Lockhart has called this a "stunt" by the Republicans.
Dr Barbara Battalino told the committee that "because a president is not a king, he or she must abide by the same laws as the rest of us."
She is serving a home detention sentence and wearing an electronic monitoring device, after pleading guilty to lying in a civil case about an affair with a patient.
The other woman, Pam Parsons, a former basketball coach was sentenced to three years for lying under oath in a libel case about an affair with one of her team.
She has said she is a Clinton supporter who thinks he is "one of the greatest Presidents we ever had".
Later the committee heard from legal experts arguing about whether Mr Clinton committed impeachable offences, and from retired generals who testified about the impact on morale in the armed services of the denials of an affair by Mr Clinton who is also Commander-in-Chief. Adultery with a subordinate is a serious offence for officers.
The decision by the Republicans on the committee to widen its investigation at such a late stage into alleged fundraising abuses by Mr Clinton is puzzling. At the same time, Mr Hyde is saying he intends to wrap up the investigation during the next two weeks.
The Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, has so far refused to appoint an independent counsel to inquire into the alleged abuses in the election campaigns of Mr Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, saying there is not enough evidence. But the FBI director, Mr Freeh, is known to have sent her a confidential memorandum urging her to appoint an independent counsel.
The Republicans want to question Mr Freeh for his reasons for disagreeing with Ms Reno, who is his political superior. They also want to secure the release of his memorandum which Ms Reno says contains highly confidential information.
The surprise move by the Republicans may be part of their negative reaction to the answers given by Mr Clinton to the 81 questions sent to him by Mr Hyde, asking him to admit or deny key facts arising from his affair with Ms Lewinsky.
Mr Hyde accused Mr Clinton of using "bizarre technical definitions and legalistic defences" in choosing to "evade" questions from the committee.