Starr Denies Lewinsky Was Bullied

WASHINGTON —  Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, in written responses to the House Judiciary Committee released Saturday, rebutted as untrustworthy Monica S. Lewinsky’s “perception” that his prosecutors bullied her during their initial encounter.

Specifically, Starr denied that his prosecutors threatened her with a long jail term, threatened her mother with prosecution, prevented her from speaking to her lawyer or asked her to tape conversations with President Clinton or his friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Starr’s prosecutors and FBI agents surprised the former White House intern while she was lunching with her friend Linda Tripp at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 16. The Lewinsky-Tripp conversation was secretly recorded by Tripp for the FBI.

Against her will, Lewinsky then became Starr’s main witness in his case against the president. Now the discrepancies between the testimony of Clinton and the former intern about the precise nature of their sexual encounters is at the heart of the key impeachment charge of grand jury perjury that goes before the House this week.

After Starr’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last month, Democrats asked him about a series of allegations lodged against his office, including reports of heavy-handed treatment of Lewinsky at the Ritz Carlton.

But Starr replied that the criticisms “rely on Ms. Lewinsky’s perception of events as they unfolded that day.” She was “understandably upset and distraught” and her later testimony should be seen as coming “from the perspective of a very difficult and emotional day.”

Repeatedly, Starr prefaced his answers by saying, “I was not, of course, present” at the hotel.

He then went on to deny almost all her allegations. He denied that:

* Lewinsky was threatened with a 27-year jail term. “At no time was Ms. Lewinsky told what her actual sentence would be. She was advised of the nature of the possible charges against her and what the maximum penalty would be for each offense.”

* Her mother was threatened with prosecution. She was simply told “some of the facts . . . concerning her mother’s apparent involvement in the crimes under investigation.”

* She was told that she would be treated better if she did not call her lawyer. “We invited Ms. Lewinsky to cooperate with our investigation,” he wrote. “We warned her, though, that any cooperation could be less effective if others, including [her lawyer] Mr. [Francis] Carter, knew she was cooperating.”

* She was asked to tape the president or Jordan. “Ms. Lewinsky may have reached an incorrect inference as to this office’s intentions based upon our general discussion of the possibility of tape-recording conversations,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Starr also denied that he had heard in November 1997 a rumor that a woman had been taped telling of her sexual affair with the president.

He noted the FBI has been told that he was at a dinner party in December of last year and spoke of the tapes. “I deny such an event occurred,” he wrote.

Tripp delivered her secret tapes of Lewinsky to Starr’s office on Jan. 12, and on Jan. 16 she briefed lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton. The Jones lawyers questioned Clinton under oath the next day.

Starr again denied that he knew of the link then.

“To my knowledge, no employee of the office knew that [Tripp] was going to meet that evening with the attorneys representing Paula Jones,” Starr said.