Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [258]
The eleventh-floor conference room—which served as Skadden’s boardroom—glittered with recessed lighting. The participants sat at a huge marble table that was shaped like a gem polished into a perfect oval. The entire wall of the boardroom, to the president’s right, was filled with windows that provided a breathtaking view of the Treasury Building and the White House along Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Today, the shades were drawn and heavy drapes pulled over so that news cameras and swooping helicopters could not discern that this room of the tall office building was the site of this historic proceeding.
The deposition commenced at 10:30 A.M. sharp. Bob Bennett made a brief opening statement imploring Judge Wright to keep a tight rein over the questioning—especially relating to tawdry sexual topics. Information in this case had been leaking like a sieve, he said, and that had to cease. “A lie gets around faster than [the truth],” Bennett stated with a booming New York accent that echoed in the small conference room. “The Presidency is an important institution, Your Honor,” he declared. “And it is very important that it not be held in disrespect or it be held up to the laughingstock of the world.”
Judge Wright nodded as she told the parties, “I have agonized over this case and the very embarrassing nature of some of the issues in this case, and it does not give me pleasure even to be here today.” Turning to the president’s lawyer, she continued: “However, we’re here, I’ve done it before, I’ve gotten tougher.… What was initially very shocking and embarrassing to the Court is not quite as shocking and embarrassing anymore.” Judge Wright waved a finger in the air and made clear that if anyone violated her gag order and disgorged any details of this deposition, there would be hell to pay. The guilty party would be sanctioned and even locked up in jail. After nodding their heads in response to this stern warning, the assembled lawyers picked up their pens and readied their note pads.
Jim Fisher, counsel for the plaintiff, began his direct examination by reminding the president that he was under oath and that his testimony “is subject to the penalty of perjury.” He then pulled out a typed definition of “sexual relations” and placed it on the table. “Sir, I’d like to hand you what has been marked Deposition Exhibit 1.” Fisher slid the paper in front of the president. “So that the record is clear today, and that we know that we are communicating, this is a definition of a term that will be used in the course of my questioning, and the term is ‘sexual relations.’”
Immediately, the defense team erupted into objections. Bob Bennett declared that the definition was confusing, overbroad, and a “political trick.” Bennett turned to Judge Wright and demanded, “They have got the President of the United States in this room for several hours. Why don’t they ask him questions about what happened or didn’t happen?” This kind of grandstanding filled with sexual innuendo, Bennett said, had only one purpose—to get the salacious details leaked to the media.
Judge Wright scratched her head; she hadn’t been expecting to make major rulings within the first three minutes. The judge inspected the proposed definition and immediately crossed out two subsections that potentially dealt with non-intentional conduct. These, she said, could include something as innocent as a slap on the rear end. Plaintiff’s counsel could use only that portion of the definition of “sexual relations” that dealt with “knowingly” engaging in or causing “contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.”
“I’ll permit that,” Judge Wright said, sliding the definition back onto the table. “Go ahead.”
Fisher flipped over a new page of notes. “Mr. Clinton,” he asked, “do you know