Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [373]
It was perhaps the most genuine explanation the president would ever give of his untruthful answers in the Jones deposition. As Paul Rosenzweig said later, “I mean, a lot of what he said was true. His anger. The fact that he thought he was being ‘set up’ probably. He felt like he was entitled to lie.” Unfortunately, from the perspective of Rosenzweig and his law enforcement colleagues, President Clinton had forgotten what it meant to take an oath as a citizen and as an officer of the court. Regardless of perceived “traps” and “trick questions,” one was not permitted to slide out of political danger by uttering falsehoods under oath. Watching Clinton’s face on the screen, Rosenzweig was most troubled that the president still seemed to lack remorse, except for the fact that he had been caught. Said Rosenzweig, “I mean, I saw no contrition, and I thought that was very unfortunate.”
Yet Bill Clinton continued to sprint around the field in all-star form. He was now using the grand jury proceedings to clean up the record from the Jones deposition, reducing rather than broadening his criminal exposure. At the same time, Wisenberg was methodically scoring his own points. By delving into the nasty “sex” questions that nobody else was willing to touch, he was slowly making a case.
In fact, the president was digging himself into a hole that was not yet visible. In response to a new flurry of questions posed by the tenacious Wisenberg, Clinton repeated that touching Monica’s breasts, kissing her breasts, or touching her genitalia with intent to arouse or gratify would constitute “sexual relations” under the typed definition. He then continued to deny engaging in such activity. This was particularly significant because, unbeknownst to Clinton, Monica Lewinsky had already confessed to the grand jury that the president had sexually gratified her, in that fashion, on numerous occasions.
A number of grand jurors “hooted” or guffawed when it came to some of Clinton’s word dances, particularly when the president tried to get cute with the “sex” definition. When Starr’s prosecutors reminded the president that his own lawyer, Bob Bennett, had assured Judge Wright during the deposition “there is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form,” Clinton tried to pirouette around this point by taking advantage of verb tenses, stating with a straight face, “It depends on what the meaning of the word is, is.” A number of grand jurors audibly “snorted” at this blatant use of wordplay.
But the clock was running out. Ken Starr took his turn posing several perfunctory questions, asking the president whether he had improperly invoked his “executive privilege” on certain subjects, including the Secret Service matter. As if swatting away a fly, Clinton replied that there was “an honest difference” between the White House and OIC on these issues.
Wisenberg jumped in again, trying to salvage the proceedings. After producing a photo of the president wearing a bright tie on August 6—the first day of Lewinsky’s grand jury testimony—Wisenberg asked, “My question to you on that is … Were you sending some kind of a signal to her by wearing a tie she had given you on the day that she appeared in front of the grand jury?”
The president appeared genuinely baffled. He drawled, “No, sir. I don’t believe she gave me this tie. And if I was sending a signal, I’m about to send a terrible signal, and maybe you ought to invite her to talk again. I don’t want to make light about this. I don’t believe she gave me this tie.… And I had absolutely no thought of this in