A Vast Conspiracy Read online

  ALSO BY JEFFREY TOOBIN

  Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case—United

  States v. Oliver North

  The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson

  Copyright © 1999 by Jeffrey Toobin

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82912-2

  Random House website address: www.atrandom.com

  v3.1

  To McIntosh

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Cast of Characters

  Chronology

  Prologue: “This Is Danny”

  1. What the Bubbas Wrought

  2. “Isn’t That What Happened?”

  3. Party Girl

  4. “I Love This Man”

  5. A Really Big Crush

  6. “Joan Dean”

  7. Their Tabloid Hearts

  8. “Good Strong Christian Men”

  9. “Draw the Penis for Me”

  10. Consensual Sex

  11. Revenge of the “Peace Corps”

  12. The Definition of Sex—and L-E-W-I-N-S-K-Y

  13. The Richard Jewell File

  14. “I Guess That Will Teach Them”

  15. “Words of Assent”

  16. “Eighteenth-Hand” Rumors

  17. “I Don’t Care If I’m Impeached …”

  18. Winning by Losing

  19. Mr. Genitalia and the Perjury Ladies

  20. These Culture Wars

  Epilogue: Private and Public

  Acknowledgments

  Source Notes and Bibliography

  About the Author

  Cast of Characters

  KEY PLAYERS

  William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States

  Hillary Rodham Clinton, first lady of the United States

  Paula Corbin Jones, plaintiff in civil lawsuit against President Clinton

  Monica Lewinsky, White House intern and staffer, July 1995–April 1996; Pentagon staffer, April 1996–January 1998

  Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky’s coworker and confidante at the Pentagon; former White House staffer

  Lucianne Goldberg, Linda Tripp’s literary agent

  Michael Isikoff, journalist, The Washington Post and Newsweek

  ATTORNEYS FOR PAULA JONES (in order of appearance)

  Daniel M. Traylor

  Gilbert Davis

  Joseph Cammarata

  John Whitehead, the Rutherford Institute

  Donovan Campbell, James Fisher, and David Pyke of Rader, Campbell, Fisher & Pyke

  “ELVES” (advisers to the Jones legal team)

  George Conway

  Ann Coulter

  Richard Porter

  Jerome Marcus

  OTHER SUPPORTERS OF PAULA JONES

  Cliff Jackson, Arkansas-based anti-Clinton activist

  Peter W. Smith, Chicago-based anti-Clinton financier

  David Brock, journalist, The American Spectator

  Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue

  Patrick Mahoney, clergyman, director of the Christian Defense Coalition

  Cindy Hays, fund-raiser

  Susan Carpenter-McMillan, antiabortion activist

  Rick and Beverly Lambert, private investigators

  FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF PAULA JONES

  Stephen Jones, husband

  Debra Ballentine, friend

  Pamela Blackard, friend and coworker

  Dennis Kirkland, alleged former boyfriend

  ARKANSAS STATE TROOPERS

  Larry Patterson

  Roger Perry

  Ronnie Anderson

  Danny Ferguson

  L. D. Brown

  ATTTORNEYS FOR MONICA LEWINSKY (in order of appearance)

  Francis Carter

  William Ginsburg

  Nathaniel H. Speights III

  Plato Cacheris

  Jacob Stein

  Sydney Hoffmann

  FAMILY OF MONICA LEWINSKY

  Bernard Lewinsky, father

  Marcia Lewis, mother

  R. Peter Straus, fiancé of Marcia Lewis

  ATTORNEYS FOR PRESIDENT CLINTON

  Office of the White House Counsel

  Bernard Nussbaum, counsel to the president

  Charles F. C. Ruff, counsel to the president

  Bruce Lindsey, deputy counsel to the president

  Cheryl Mills, deputy counsel to the president

  Jane Sherburne, special counsel to the president

  Lanny Davis, special counsel to the president

  Lanny Breuer, special counsel to the president

  Gregory Craig, special counsel to the president

  Personal Attorneys

  Robert S. Bennett, Mitchell Ettinger, and Amy Sabrin of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

  David Kendall and Nicole Seligman of Williams & Connolly

  FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON

  Jim and Susan McDougal, Whitewater investors

  David Hale, former judge and businessman

  Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, writer and producer

  Harry Thomason, director and producer

  Dick Morris, political adviser

  James Carville, political adviser

  Mickey Kantor, former trade representative and commerce secretary

  Mark Penn, pollster, Penn, Schoen & Berland

  Kathleen Willey, White House volunteer and accuser of sexual misconduct

  Julie Hiatt Steele, onetime friend of Willey’s

  White House Staff

  Betty Currie, personal secretary to the president

  Nancy Hernreich, director of Oval Office operations

  George Stephanopoulos, senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy

  Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy

  Sidney Blumenthal, assistant to the president

  Paul Begala, counselor to the president

  Bayani Nelvis, Navy steward

  Glen Maes, Navy steward

  Lewis Fox, uniformed Secret Service officer

  John Muskett, uniformed Secret Service officer

  OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT COUNSEL (OIC)

  Kenneth Starr, independent counsel

  Selected Other Attorneys (in approximate order of appearance in Starr’s office)

  Mark Tuohey III

  Roger Adelman

  John Bates

  W. Hickman Ewing, Jr.

  Jackie Bennett

  Robert Bittman

  LeRoy Jahn

  Ray Jahn

  Bradley Lerman

  Brett Kavanaugh

  Samuel Dash

  Amy St. Eve

  Solomon Wisenberg

  Paul Rosenzweig

  Bruce Udolf

  Mary Anne Wirth

  Michael Emmick

  Karin Immergut

  OTHER ATTORNEYS

  Kirby Behre, attorney for Linda Tripp

  James Moody, attorney for Linda Tripp

  William Bristow, attorney for Danny Ferguson

  Billy Martin, attorney for Marcia Lewis

  JUDGES

  Susan Webber Wright, U.S. district judge presiding over Jones v. Clinton

  Norma Holloway Johnson, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

  William H. Rehnquist, chief justice of the United States

>   HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY (selected members)

  Republicans (in order of seniority)

  Henry J. Hyde, chairman

  Bill McCollum

  George W. Gekas

  Bob Inglis

  Ed Bryant

  Bob Barr

  James E. Rogan

  Lindsey O. Graham

  Democrats

  John Conyers, Jr., ranking member

  Barney Frank

  Charles E. Schumer

  Howard L. Berman

  Rick Boucher

  Jerrold Nadler

  Maxine Waters

  Republican Staff

  Thomas E. Mooney, Sr., general counsel and chief of staff

  David P. Schippers, chief investigative counsel

  Democratic Staff

  Julian Epstein, minority chief counsel and staff director

  Abbe D. Lowell, minority chief investigative counsel

  Jim Jordan, spokesman for minority staff

  UNITED STATES SENATE

  Trent Lott, majority leader

  Tom Daschle, minority leader

  Chronology

  MAY 8, 1991 Paula Corbin and Governor Bill Clinton meet at a conference at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock.

  NOVEMBER 3, 1992 Bill Clinton wins the presidential election.

  NOVEMBER 29, 1993 President Clinton meets with Kathleen Willey, an acquaintance and White House job seeker, and allegedly makes sexual advances toward her.

  DECEMBER 18, 1993 The American Spectator magazine publishes David Brock’s “His Cheatin’ Heart,” which recounts a version of Clinton’s meeting with a woman identified as “Paula.”

  JANUARY 20, 1994 Attorney General Janet Reno names Robert Fiske to head the investigation into the Whitewater affair.

  FEBRUARY 11, 1994 At a press conference in Washington, D.C., Paula Corbin Jones accuses President Clinton of sexual harassment. Anti-Clinton activist Cliff Jackson introduces Jones to Michael Isikoff of The Washington Post.

  MAY 3, 1994 The White House announces that President Clinton has hired Robert Bennett to represent him in the Jones matter.

  MAY 4, 1994 The Washington Post publishes an article by Michael Isikoff (and others) about Paula Jones’s accusations.

  MAY 6, 1994 Paula Jones’s lawyers file a lawsuit against President Clinton.

  JUNE 30, 1994 President Clinton signs a reauthorization of the expired independent counsel statute.

  AUGUST 5, 1994 The Special Division of U.S. Court of Appeals replaces Fiske with Kenneth Starr as independent counsel investigating Whitewater.

  JULY 1995 Monica Lewinsky begins to work as an intern at the White House.

  NOVEMBER 15, 1995 Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton have their first sexual encounter in his White House study.

  JANUARY 4, 1996 White House aide Carolyn Huber finds copies of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s billing records from the Rose Law Firm, which had been subpoenaed more than a year earlier.

  JANUARY 18, 1996 Hillary Clinton subpoenaed to Kenneth Starr’s grand jury.

  JANUARY 26, 1996 Hillary Clinton testifies before grand jury.

  APRIL 5, 1996 Monica Lewinsky is informed that she will be transferred from her job at the White House to one at the Pentagon. There she becomes friends with Linda Tripp.

  MAY 28, 1996 Jim and Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker are convicted in the Whitewater case.

  JUNE 24, 1996 Supreme Court accepts a writ of certiorari in Jones v. Clinton and agrees to decide whether President Clinton can be sued while in office.

  AUGUST 1, 1996 An Arkansas jury fails to convict two bankers charged by Starr with felonies in connection with Bill Clinton’s 1990 gubernatorial campaign.

  NOVEMBER 5, 1996 Bill Clinton is elected to a second term as president.

  FEBRUARY 17, 1997 Kenneth Starr announces plans to resign as independent counsel and accept a deanship at Pepperdine University. Later the same week, Starr agrees to continue his work as prosecutor.

  FEBRUARY 28, 1997 During an assignation with President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky’s dress is stained with his semen.

  MARCH 24, 1997 Michael Isikoff meets Linda Tripp.

  MARCH 29, 1997 Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton have their final assignation.

  MAY 24, 1997 President Clinton tells Monica Lewinsky that they can no longer continue their relationship. Lewinsky refers to this event as “D-Day” or “Dump Day.”

  MAY 27, 1997 Supreme Court rejects President Clinton’s bid for immunity from civil suits while in office. Jones v. Clinton is ordered to proceed.

  AUGUST 3, 1997 In Newsweek, Isikoff publishes a story revealing Kathleen Willey’s allegations.

  NOVEMBER 3, 1997 Monica Lewinsky receives a job offer from the office of the United States ambassador to the United Nations.

  NOVEMBER 5, 1997 Monica Lewinsky meets with Vernon Jordan for the first time.

  DECEMBER 5, 1997 Jones’s lawyers fax the witness list in the Jones case to President Clinton’s lawyers. Monica Lewinsky’s name is included.

  DECEMBER 6, 1997 In a meeting with his lawyers, President Clinton denies having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

  DECEMBER 11, 1997 Monica Lewinsky and Vernon Jordan discuss her job hunt over lunch. Later in the day, Judge Wright rules that Jones’s lawyers can ask President Clinton about his consensual sexual partners.

  DECEMBER 17, 1997 President Clinton telephones Monica Lewinsky to inform her that her name is on the witness list for the Jones case. They discuss a sanitized account of their relationship.

  DECEMBER 19, 1997 Monica Lewinsky receives a subpoena from lawyers for Paula Jones.

  DECEMBER 22, 1997 Monica Lewinsky meets with attorney Francis Carter.

  DECEMBER 28, 1997 Betty Currie drives to Monica Lewinsky’s apartment to retrieve gifts given to Lewinsky by President Clinton. Currie takes them home and hides them under her bed.

  JANUARY 5, 1998 Monica Lewinsky rejects the UN job offer.

  JANUARY 7, 1998 Monica Lewinsky signs an affidavit, prepared by Francis Carter, denying a sexual relationship with President Clinton.

  JANUARY 9, 1998 Monica Lewinsky receives an informal job offer, which she accepts, from Revlon. The offer is formalized four days later.

  JANUARY 12, 1998 Linda Tripp contacts the Office of Independent Counsel and reveals her information about Monica Lewinsky’s relationship with President Clinton. Also, in a secret hearing in Arkansas, Judge Susan Webber Wright urges both sides to settle the Jones case.

  JANUARY 13, 1998 Linda Tripp wears a recording device and produces a “sting tape” of her lunch with Monica Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton.

  JANUARY 14, 1998 Monica Lewinsky gives Linda Tripp written suggestions (“talking points”) for how to prepare an affidavit in the Paula Jones case.

  JANUARY 16, 1998 The Special Division grants Kenneth Starr authority to investigate whether Monica Lewinsky or others suborned perjury or obstructed justice. Linda Tripp arranges to meet Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton. There Lewinsky is taken to a hotel room and interviewed by prosecutors from the Office of Independent Counsel.

  JANUARY 17, 1998 In a videotaped deposition in the Jones case, President Clinton denies a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

  JANUARY 18, 1998 The Drudge Report publishes item alleging a sexual relationship between the president and an “intern.” President Clinton meets with Betty Currie to discuss his contacts with Lewinsky. Over the next day, Currie makes repeated attempts to contact Lewinsky.

  JANUARY 21, 1998 In the early morning, The Washington Post and ABC News disclose Starr’s investigation of the alleged affair, including a denial from the White House. In midafternoon President Clinton denies allegations about Lewinsky in interviews with Jim Lehrer and others.

  JANUARY 26, 1998 While speaking at the White House, President Clinton denies having “sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

  JANUARY 27, 1998 On NBC’s Today show, Hillary Clinton denounces a “vast
right-wing conspiracy.” Later, President Clinton delivers his State of the Union address.

  FEBRUARY 4, 1998 Kenneth Starr rejects a proposed agreement granting Monica Lewinsky immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation.

  APRIL 1, 1998 U.S. District Court judge Susan Webber Wright grants President Clinton’s motion for summary judgment in Jones v. Clinton, dismissing the case. Jones’s lawyers announce plans to appeal.

  JULY 17, 1998 Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sends a subpoena to President Clinton to testify before the grand jury.

  JULY 27, 1998 In exchange for a promise of immunity from prosecution, Monica Lewinsky meets with prosecutors in New York and discusses her relationship with President Clinton.

  JULY 28, 1998 Monica Lewinsky gives the Office of Independent Counsel her semen-stained dress.

  AUGUST 6, 1998 Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury. President Clinton wears a blue-and-gold Zegna tie.

  AUGUST 17, 1998 In testimony before the grand jury, President Clinton acknowledges intimate contact with Monica Lewinsky. Later, he admits the affair in a televised address.

  SEPTEMBER 9, 1998 Kenneth Starr submits his report to Congress.

  SEPTEMBER 11, 1998 The House votes, 363–63, to release the Starr report.

  SEPTEMBER 21, 1998 The videotape of President Clinton’s grand jury testimony is released.

  OCTOBER 8, 1998 The House votes, 258–176, for an impeachment investigation.

  NOVEMBER 3, 1998 The Republicans lose five seats in the House in midterm congressional elections.

  NOVEMBER 13, 1998 President Clinton agrees to pay $850,000 to settle Jones v. Clinton.

  NOVEMBER 19, 1998 Kenneth Starr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee.

  DECEMBER 11, 1998 The House Judiciary Committee approves four articles of impeachment against President Clinton.

  DECEMBER 16, 1998 President Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq for its violation of weapons agreements.

  DECEMBER 19, 1998 The House votes to impeach President Clinton, adopting two of the proposed four articles of impeachment. House speaker-designate Robert Livingston announces his resignation.

  JANUARY 7, 1999 The Senate impeachment trial is formally opened by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

  JANUARY 14–16, 1999 The House managers present the case against President Clinton.