Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [156]
Having just been promoted to a paid position in the Office of Legislative Affairs located in the East Wing, Monica was happy to report to work during the shutdown. The date was November 15. As a small group of workers hung around the chief of staff’s office in the West Wing, answering phones as a way of pitching in, the president sauntered into the room. Monica looked up; she noticed that the president was smiling at her. There was “continued flirtation,” she later told the grand jury, as the informal workday continued. In fact, as Monica would later point out, the president was doing as much (or more) flirting with her as she was doing with him. He was wandering down the hallway toward her desk so frequently that a fellow intern started joking “he must have a crush on Monica” or words to that effect. During one defining moment in the evolution of the scandal, Monica happened to pass by the door to the inner office of the West Wing and spotted Clinton standing by himself. She playfully lifted the jacket of her blue pantsuit and revealed her thong underwear, visible just above the waistline of her pants. The president, she recalled, gave her “an appreciative look.”
Later that night, when most of the staffers had gone home, the opportunity finally arrived. Monica recounted the events to the Office of Independent Counsel during her first grand jury appearance:
LEWINSKY: Around 8:00 in the evening or so I was in the hallway going to the restroom, passing Mr. Stephanopoulos’ office, and he [President Clinton] was in the hall and invited me into Mr. Stephanopoulos’ office and then from there invited me back into his study.
PROSECUTOR: Okay. And what happened there?
LEWINSKY: We talked briefly and sort of acknowledged that there had been a chemistry that was there before and that we were both attracted to each other and then he asked me if he could kiss me.
PROSECUTOR: And what did you say?
LEWINSKY: Yes.
PROSECUTOR: And did you kiss on that occasion?
LEWINSKY: Yes.
Monica recalled that there was “a softness and tenderness about him [Clinton], his eyes were very soul-searching, very wanting, very needing and very loving. There was, too, a sadness about him that I hadn’t expected to see.” Several hours later, at approximately 10:00 P.M., the president returned to Leon Panetta’s office and asked Monica if she was free to meet again in five minutes. They arranged a rendezvous in the study area behind George Stephanopoulos’s darkened office. This time, both Clinton and the intern partially disrobed. As Monica later acknowledged to the federal grand jury, one thing led to another, and “we were more physically intimate.”
PROSECUTOR: With respect to physical intimacy, other than oral sex, was there other physical intimacy performed?
LEWINSKY: Yes. Everything up until oral sex.
That night, Monica awakened her mother and Aunt Debra to tell them that the president had kissed her. They groaned and went back to sleep. Monica, both women told themselves in a dreamlike state, had such a heightened sense of imagination.
Two nights later—with the government shutdown still in effect—Monica volunteered to work late again. This time, at the president’s suggestion, she delivered two slices of vegetarian pizza to the commander in chief in the inner sanctum of the Oval Office. Following Clinton’s instructions, she checked in with the president’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, and used her as a passkey. Currie opened the door and said, “Sir, the girl’s here with the pizza.” Currie left, and Monica followed the president into the back study area, where they were “physically intimate again.”
Over the next few months, Monica carried brown envelopes under the pretext of making deliveries to the president, with Currie acting as the gatekeeper.