Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [205]
The president’s efforts to secure Monica a job in the Big Apple had begun as early as October 1997. At that time, there was no reason to suspect that she would be known to the Dallas lawyers or called as a witness in the Paula Jones case. Instead, Clinton’s assistance to Monica seemed designed to calm an emotionally volatile young woman with whom he had just begun severing a relationship. On October 7, Monica wrote an angry letter to the president, demanding help in finding a job at the United Nations or elsewhere in New York. Within weeks, through the intercession of Clinton aide John Podesta, Monica was scheduled for an interview with U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson at the chic Aquarelle restaurant in the Watergate complex. (Unbeknownst to Monica, a Newsweek reporter acting as a plant for Michael Isikoff—who had been tipped off about the meeting by Linda Tripp—was posted in the dining room. It was only because the meeting was switched to Richardson’s room that the reporter walked away without a story.) The following week, Ambassador Richardson personally called Monica, offering her an entry-level position in the PR department of the United Nations. Monica remained thoroughly undecided. As she confided in Tripp, her mother and Aunt Deb had scoped out the United Nations and found that there were “a lot of Arabs” working there. Her mother thought it was “no place for a Jewish girl.”
Monica spoke again with the president, asking if Vernon Jordan might assist in finding a job in the private sector. Betty Currie arranged for her to meet with Jordan in early November. At that get-together, the dapper Jordan assured Monica that she came “highly recommended” by Bill Clinton, and that he would be pleased to help.
It was not until December 5 that Monica Lewinsky’s name appeared on the plaintiff’s witness list in the Paula Jones case, a list that was faxed to the president’s lawyer. By this time, Monica’s plan to move to New York was already in place. She made a few pestering calls to the president; in turn, Clinton prodded Jordan, reminding him that the young woman needed help.
On December 11, Monica met with Vernon Jordan a second time, joining him for a luncheon of turkey sandwiches. He wrote down contact names at three major corporations in New York City. Monica followed up by making arrangements to visit Manhattan the week before Christmas, setting up interview dates with American Express, MacAndrews & Forbes (the parent corporation of Revlon), and the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
Monica later admitted that she had no way of knowing whether there was an “increased effort” by the White House to find her a job once her name appeared on the witness list in early December. Yet she was adamant about one thing: “There certainly was never any quid pro quo—‘Hey, you know, you sign this. You go to this lawyer. You be a good girl. You sign an affidavit, and we’ll get you a nice sweet job in New York.’” That was simply not how it happened.
The day Monica was actually served a subpoena to testify in the Jones case—December 19, 1997—was the start of a long, emotional roller-coaster ride. “I was just tense and hyperventilating and freaking out,” she later told her biographer, Andrew Morton. It was, she said, the start of “my waking nightmare.”
Two nights earlier, Clinton had telephoned Lewinsky at