Tapes of Ms Monica Lewinsky's conversations with President Clinton appear to confirm an 18-month affair involving late-night and early-morning visits to the White House for sex, suggestive phone calls and an intimate relationship, according to transcripts that became known at the weekend.
Newsweek magazine yesterday published edited transcripts of some of the recordings, detailing conversations between Ms Lewinsky and her Pentagon colleague, Ms Linda Tripp, in which the talk focuses on whether both women should lie to lawyers about the alleged relationship with Mr Clinton.
Ms Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship with Mr Clinton in a sworn affidavit given on January 7th to lawyers in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against the President.
In the transcripts, an apparently fearful Ms Lewinsky expresses her determination to deny an affair. Referring to Mr Clinton she says: "I will deny it so he will not get screwed in the case."
Asked by Ms Tripp about the possible existence of hard evidence of an affair, including gifts, that could incriminate her, Ms Lewinsky says: "Nobody saw him give me any of those things and nobody saw anything happen between us."
Ms Tripp asks: "Are you positive that nobody saw you in the study?" and Ms Lewinsky answers: "I'm absolutely positive."
The women discuss the ethics of lying under oath. Challenged about whether she is prepared to lie, Ms Lewinsky says: "I was brought up with lies all the time . . . That's how you get along . . . I have lied my entire life."
Newsweek has transcribed only a portion of the 20 hours recorded by Ms Tripp, including one in which she was "wired" by the FBI at the behest of the Whitewater independent prosecutor, Mr Kenneth Starr.
The tapes are said to include:
a suggestion by Ms Lewinsky that she and Mr Clinton were having a genuine romance and not only a sexual relationship. She grows distraught in recordings in which she talks of Mr Clinton beginning to distance himself from her and is "crushed" when she suspects that he has turned his attentions to other women.
allegations of "phone sex" between Ms Lewinsky and Mr Clinton. On the Newsweek transcript Ms Lewinsky says: "I'm sure he calls on some sort of special phone [which cannot be recorded]".
Ms Lewinsky saying she wants to return to the White House and Ms Tripp asking in what capacity. Ms Lewinsky apparently answers that she could become special assistant to the President for oral sex.
Ms Lewinsky allegedly saying she has a dress with Mr Clinton's semen on it.
The two women discussing a plan for Ms Tripp to injure her foot and be hospitalised at the time she is supposed to give evidence to Paula Jones's lawyers.
Ms Lewinsky apparently reporting that she phoned Mr Clinton in December after she was contacted by the Jones legal team. She says she asked him: "What do I do?" The Washington Post has reported Mr Clinton as replying, in paraphrase, that she must deny the affair. In the same conversation, Mr Clinton then tells Ms Lewinsky that he is sending his friend Mr Vernon Jordan to talk to her. Ms Lewinsky reports Mr Jordan as saying that people do not get sent to jail for perjury in civil cases.
On a more recent tape, Ms Lewinsky again pleading with Ms Tripp to tell Ms Jones's lawyers under oath that Ms Lewinsky did not have an intimate relationship with Mr Clinton. This tape coincides with the provision to Ms Lewinsky of a set of written talking points, possibly drafted by Mr Jordan, for her to use to coach Ms Tripp to buttress her testimony.
According to insiders, it was this exchange which prompted Ms Tripp to contact Mr Starr and turn over her tapes. On the following day, January 13th, Ms Tripp was wired by the FBI for a meeting with Ms Lewinsky.