Clinton Defends His Lewinsky Speech
Judge considers sanctioning the president; Lewinsky testifies again
 | | Clinton in Moscow |
MOSCOW (AllPolitics, Sept. 2) -- President Bill Clinton, taking his first public questions about his admitted inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky, said in Moscow Wednesday he was heartened by the reaction of the American people. (264 K WAV sound)
But back home, the president's troubles continue as the judge in the Paula Jones case considers sanctioning Clinton for his misleading testimony in that case, and details emerged of a new deposition given by Lewinsky last week.
Clinton's comments on the Lewinsky scandal came during a Kremlin news conference with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at the end of a two-day summit between the two embattled leaders.
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Clinton said he believed his televised speech to the nation two weeks ago had conveyed his "profound regret to all who were hurt," and pledged to continue "the personal process" of making amends for his actions.
The president, who has been criticized by political leaders in both parties and by some members of the public for not being more apologetic in his remarks, said he had reread the speech recently and signaled no desire to amend it.
"All I wanted to say is I believe it's time for us to now go back to the work of the country and give the people their government back," he said.
"I have acknowledged that I made a mistake, said that I regretted it, asked to be forgiven, spent a lot of very valuable time with my family in the last couple of weeks and said I was going to back to work," he said.
"I believe that is what the American people want me to do and, based on my conversations with leaders around the world, I think that's what they want me to do and that is what I intend to do."
Clinton, trying to quickly dispense with questions about his personal life in an international setting, said there were more important issues to be dealt with.
"As you can see from what we're discussing here, there are very large issues that will affect the future of the American people in the short run and over the long run," he said. "There are large issues that have to be dealt with now in the world and at home.
"I'm going to do my best to continue to go through the personal process in an appropriate way but to do my job, to do the job that I was hired to do and I think that very much needs to be done right now," he said.
Clinton's aides had suggested that the president was looking for an opportunity to expand on his initial remarks about the Lewinsky investigation.
Twice questioned about the tone of his comments on the Lewinsky matter, including his pointed criticism of Independent Counsel Ken Starr, Clinton said, "I thought it was clear that I was expressing my profound regret to all who were hurt and to all who were involved and my desire not to see any more people hurt by this process and caught up in it.
"I was commenting that it seemed to be something that most reasonable people would think had consumed a disproportionate amount of American time, money and resources and attention and would now continue to involve more and more people."
 | | Judge Susan Webber Wright |
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., suggested she may consider sanctions or a contempt of court citation against Clinton for being less than forthcoming about his relationship with Lewinsky.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright said Tuesday she will release Clinton's deposition in the Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit, in which Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Lewinsky.
In a one-sentence footnote, Wright said she "has concerns about the nature of the president's Jan. 17 deposition" but "makes no findings at this time regarding whether the president may be in contempt."
Clinton acknowledged Aug. 17 before a federal grand jury that he had an inappropriate relationship with the former White House intern.
In the January deposition in Jones' now-dismissed lawsuit, Clinton said, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." He also testified that he did not recall being alone in a room with the former White House intern.
 | | Plato Cacheris |
Lewinsky attorney Plato Cacheris said in a statement Wednesday his client had given a new sworn deposition to Starr's office.
"On August 26, Monica Lewinsky gave a sworn deposition to the Office of the Independent Counsel," Cacheris said in the statement. "I will not discuss the subject matter that was discussed."
However, two sources familiar with the session said Lewinsky described specifics of her sexual relationship with Clinton, covering areas the
president refused to discuss when he gave his televised testimony to the grand jury in August.
CNN's Bob Franken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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