All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S02E08_English

♪♪

Larry:
Do you feel like a victim?

Lewinsky: No, I don't.
How do you feel?

What do you --
In this whole story,

Monica Lewinsky is what?

Uh, um...

I think she's a young woman
who made some private mistakes

and who's very sorry
for those mistakes,

but was also part
of some other forces

that she certainly
couldn't control.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

It was an affair that nearly
toppled a presidency --

A 21-year-old
White House intern

and the married leader
of the free world.

Their scandal would make
household names of Linda Tripp

and Ken Starr

and it would change how the
media covers the president,

and it would forever
change the way

we think about blue Gap dresses.

Tonight,
the unbelievable story

of Bill Clinton
and Monica Lewinsky --

what happened behind
closed doors

and the details
of an intricate trap

set by his foes

that President Clinton
walked right into.

Believe it or not, the story
first broke on the Internet

on a then relatively
little-known Website

called "The Drudge Report."

This is
"How It Really Happened."

♪♪

Larry: Tonight,
the Clinton White House

faces a huge crisis
over another allegation

of sexual impropriety
by the President.

Oh, my God.

This was a thunderclap
of monumental proportions.

On you go to Washington,
your first job there is?

I was an intern.

Franken: This was a major story.

We're talking about an intern
in the White House.

Van Susteren: The reports allege
Clinton had a year

and a half affair
with a white House intern

and then allegedly tried
to get her to lie about it.

It was just so stunning.

At issue, did the president
of the United States

participate
in a conspiracy?

I just thought,
"Oh, God. No."

We wondered,
"How is he going to react?"

I never imagined
in my wildest dreams

it was going to go
in this direction.

We're back
with Monica Lewinsky.

What was the thumb thing?

Oh.

She's lied either before
or she's lying now.

Press: Truth and consequences --
Who's telling the truth,

and what are the consequences
for President Clinton?

The story that becomes
Bill Clinton's impeachment

begins at the registration desk
in a Little Rock hotel,

long before he becomes President
of the United States.

The lawsuit is called
Paula Corbin Jones

plaintiff versus
William Jefferson Clinton.

This was an allegation
of sexual harassment.

Cammarata: Paula Jones claimed
that she was working

as an Arkansas state employee
at a conference.

Governor Bill Clinton
was speaking.

Isikoff: She said she gets
summoned by the trooper

to go up
to the hotel room,

and at that point,
Bill Clinton proceeded

to make unsolicited
sexual advances.

The allegations
about President Bill Clinton

were salacious,

and they were unending.

He pulled me and started
running his hand up my leg,

and he tried
to kiss on my neck.

Cammarata: He wound up
sitting down at a couch

and exposed himself
and asked her to kiss him.

Woodruff:
And what did you do then?

Oh, I stood straight up.

I jumped up and I said,
"I am not that kind of girl,"

and I said, "I need
to be leaving immediately."

Cammarata: On May 6, 1994,
we filed a lawsuit

on behalf of Paula Jones

against the President
of the United States

for acts that we believed
were violative of her rights.

This case is about character
and integrity.

This case is about the powerful
taking advantage of the weak.

Paula Jones is seeking
$700,000 in damage.

Cammarata: Bill Clinton's
response

was to deny anything
of the sort.

He, through his agency,
maligned Paula Jones,

said that she was
just after money,

fame, fortune, and she was just,
in essence, trailer-park trash.

This complaint is tabloid trash
with a legal caption on it.

Cammarata: One of the civil
lawsuits against Michael Jackson

had just settled,

and one of the tactics that the
plaintiffs used in that case

was a purported description
of Michael Jackson's penis,

and Paula Jones' lawyers said,

"Okay, let's use
the same tactic."

As to avoid
that "he said, she said,"

I made inquiry of Paula,

as to whether or not
there were

any distinguishing
characteristics

in Clinton's genital area.

Which mostly had the effect

of just being deeply humiliating
to the President.

It, quite frankly, was kind of
a perverse PR strategy.

Andersen:
The Paula Jones lawsuit

dragged on seemingly forever.

Franken: It was a combination
of legal maneuvers

that went on
for several years.

Andersen: There were a number
of opportunities

to settle the case,

but it was something that
Hillary was not willing to do.

She didn't want that
kind of black mark

on her husband's presidency.

Penn: One day, after
the '96 presidential election,

the president essentially sat me
down in the oval office,

and he said, "You know,
there are some people

who think I should settle
this Paula Jones suit."

I said, "Look, I think you'd be
better of settling it,"

that everything was going well
in the presidency.

We'd won reelection.

There was no reason to have this
hanging around,

and he, of course,
in the end didn't do that.

Cammarata: It was a big mistake
on the part of Bill Clinton

not to settle the case.

Morris: This entire mess
with Monica Lewinsky

and impeachment
would never have happened

if he had settled that lawsuit.

I remember talking to
Joe Cammarata about the case.

This was a couple of years
after it got filed and said,

"You know, it's unlikely you'll
ever be able to prove this

unless there are other women
out there

who will say
they had similar experiences."

Cammarata says,
"Well, what if we got one?"

And I said, "Do tell."

Cammarata: There was one day
that I received a telephone call

from a woman who would not
give me her name,

and she said that she had
something happen to her

that was similar to what
had happened to Paula Jones.

Through some detective work,

I was ultimately able
to figure out

that this was most likely
a woman named Kathleen Willey.

Andersen: Kathleen Willey
was a friend of Bill's,

and in 1993,
she went to Bill for a job,

and instead, she later claimed
Bill made his move on her.

He hugged me,
which was not unusual.

He's like that, and, you know,

the hug lasted
a little too long,

and he acted pretty badly.

Isikoff: I went to see her
and I said,

"Are there others you spoke to
about this at the time?"

And she said, "Yeah,
there was this woman

who worked in the White House,
who I told about it right away,"

and she said her name
was Linda Tripp.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

He said, "Kathleen Willey
has named you

as a contemporaneous
corroborative witness

in her sexual harassment claim
against the President."

She said,
"Well, there's a story here,

but it's not the one
you're thinking of."

She told me about a young woman,
a former intern,

who was having an ongoing affair
with the President.

This seemed at first blush
astounding and improbable,

but I wanted to know more.

♪♪

In 1995, Monica Lewinsky
came to Washington.

A friend of our families
had a grandson

who had had an internship
at the White House

and had thought it might
be something I'd enjoy doing.

Man: Had you ever worked around
politics and campaigns

or been very active?

No.

John: I remember
Monica Lewinsky,

like many interns,
were fascinated by their job,

who were honored and privileged

and lucky and excited
and curious

about working
in the White House.

Randall: The daughter of
a Beverly Hills doctor,

she graduated from
Lewis and Clarke college

in Oregon in 1995
with a degree in psychology.

From those who worked with her,

there emerges a picture
of contradictions.

Descriptions range
from easygoing to unstable.

I'd say she was very ambitious.

She was a very hard worker.

She knew what she wanted, and
she worked very hard to get it.

Lewinsky: I had met him
in August of '95

at a departure ceremony.

So were you introduced there,
or you just --

No, he went down
the rope line.

That was the first time?

Mm-hmm, and at this
departure ceremony,

he just happened
to give me this...

Look?
Look.

Andersen: Monica later said
she got the full Bill Clinton,

as she put it,

which was essentially
undressing her with his eyes.

She said there was something
terribly animalistic

about the way
he looked at her.

I did the internship that summer
and had secured a position

by late fall of that year,
right as the furlough,

the government shutdown
occurred in November.

The U.S. Government has now been
partially shut for 44 hours

with 800,000
federal workers idle.

In 1995, there was one
of these periodic fights

between a Republican Congress
and a Democratic president,

which led to
a government shutdown.

As a result, the interns took on
more responsibility

than they normally would have.

Sesno: Monica Lewinsky
was working,

interning for Leon Panetta,
the White House Chief of Staff.

She flashed her thong
at Bill Clinton,

and they started flirting,

and later that night, they had
their first sexual encounter.

Sesno: The way she introduced
herself to the President,

with a flash
of her thong underwear,

indicated and demonstrated

that she knew exactly
what she wanted,

and she was gonna get it.

If he had said,
"Don't you ever do that,"

that would have been that,

and she would have been
just another intern.

Monica Lewinsky will never be
just another intern.

Did you say to yourself,
"Whew, this is the President?"

Larry, I was a 22-year-old
foolish kid,

and there was this charismatic,
powerful man

who was standing there
showing interest in me,

and I was attracted to him,

and I think
I was swept up,

you know, with the power
of the presidency.

After the first
physical togetherness,

did you fall in love?

Not at first,
but I came to.

Lewinsky: ...I saw somebody
totally different

than I had expected to see,

and that's the person
I fell in love with.

Morris: He was asked,
"Why did you have this affair?"

And he thought about it a while,
and he said, "Because I could."

Judd: There were occasions
when they would meet

in the White House
in the Oval Office.

There were also phone calls,

some of them in the middle
of the night.

The timing of these trysts
really defies imagination.

Were you with the president
at times when -- intimately --

and he would also be
conducting affairs of state,

the story that he was on the
phone talking to Congressmen?

Uh, yes.

Another time
he was talking

to his political adviser
Dick Morris.

I thought about how incredibly
self-involved,

narcissistic, and absurd
Bill Clinton was

for letting this happen
while he's president.

Toobin: The amazing thing about
Bill Clinton's relationship

with Monica Lewinsky was that
it was a real relationship.

It went on for years.

I mean she put an ad
inThe Washington Post

in February 1997,
Valentine's Day,

and they had started up
in 1995.

I mean, this was
pretty long-term.

There were also an exchange
of lots of gifts.

Andersen: Hat pins, sunglasses,
in one case, he gave her

the same book he gave Hillary,

a copy of Walt Whitman's
"Leaves of Grass."

It's surreal to think
that he would be doing that,

especially at the time

when he was facing the charges
from Paula Jones.

I mean, really he was courting
disaster from day one.

I formed an opinion
really early in 1996.

I knew that the minute there was
no longer any contact,

she would talk about this.

She would have to.
She couldn't help it.

It was a part of her psyche.

During this period of time,
as you're seeing him --

Yes, I had confided
in a couple of my friends.

And Linda Tripp?

Eventually, yes,
Linda Tripp.

Wisenberg: We quickly found out
she was quite the topic

of conversations
in the White House

And that she was considered
a clutch --

somebody, a female, who's
too close to the president.

John: Evelyn Lieberman, who was
the Deputy Chief of Staff

in those days, used to look
at Monica

like the nuns used to
look at me,

and I said, "Ooh, why doesn't
she like her?"

Well, now we know.

Sesno: In April of '96,

several people determined

that they needed to get her
out of the White House

and they wanted to get her
over to the Pentagon

and away from Bill Clinton,
and that's what they did.

And the rest truly is history.

Monica,
met her where?

At the Pentagon.

♪♪

Tripp:
This was abuse of a child.

Don't ever believe
that this was consensual sex,

and he went to
extraordinary lengths

to cover that up,
criminal lengths.

Larry: Abuse of a child
even though she was older?

Well, look.
She was -- I have kids that age.

She was 21.

Monica is 21 going on 14
on a good day,

and she was a child.

She was a mixed up,
unstable, volatile child.

Sesno: Linda Tripp was this
peculiar woman

who worked
at the Pentagon,

who had an agenda
all her own, it seems.

Judd: Tripp worked in the
George H.W. Bush White House,

and then Bill Clinton won.

[ Cheers and applause ]

And it became pretty clear

that she didn't like
Bill Clinton very much.

Toobin:
The Clinton administration

transferred her out
to the Pentagon

where she didn't want to be
and was unhappy.

There were a number
of alienated

White House employees

who had been very successful
in writing books

about how terrible
the Clintons were,

and Linda starts thinking
about a book deal,

and she mentions it
to Tony Snow,

who had been the White House
press secretary.

So Tony Snow arranges
for Linda Tripp

to meet Lucianne Goldberg.

Goldberg: Linda was, to me,

your basic
hardworking bureaucrat.

Toobin: Lucianne Goldberg
is a literary agent

who loves conservatives,
but even more than that,

she loves gossip and juice
and controversy,

and Linda Tripp is manna
from heaven for her.

This is not about me.

It's about Linda Tripp.

I was in the position
to get information

that it looked like
the rest of the world

was interested in hearing.

Sesno: Monica Lewinsky gets
to the Pentagon,

and she meets Linda Tripp.

Monica was looking to Linda, who
was older and more experienced

in the government, for advice,
and they liked talking

and, I think, talked very,
very frequently,

sometimes in person
and often on the phone.

Larry: And when you got to know
her, did you like her?

A lot.
A lot.

-Mm-hmm.
-Like an aunt?

Like a -- no, my aunt
is incredible.

[ Laughs ] She was nothing like
an aunt.

You have to weigh
a bigger mistake

between the moment of getting
involved with the President

and the moment
of blurting out

that I had the affair
with him to Linda Tripp as --

You relate them equally?

I probably have to say that.
Really?

McDaniel: And so Monica chose
Linda as her confidant.

As this relationship developed,

she would regularly tell
Linda what was going on.

Sesno: Tripp wanted to sell
her story to Lucianne Goldberg,

which would help
Linda Tripp's pocketbook.

My job is to sell books,
so I was going to do everything

I could to move
that story along,

sell the book,
take my 10%,

and go on to the next person.

That was my motivation.
I mean, it was a job.

I told Linda I had to have
more solid evidence

than her say-so
for her to do a book.

She said, "Well, what can I do?"

And I said, "Can you just tape
your conversations?

And she said, "I don't know
how to do that."

And I said, "Well,
you go to Radio Shack,

and you buy
a inexpensive recorder.

They will tell you how to do it.

You just put it on your phone,"

and that's the thing
that got her kind of messed up

was that
it's illegal in Maryland.

I didn't know. It was just, you
know, the dumbness on my part.

How would I know?

These phone calls go on and on,

hour after hour with Monica
complaining about her boyfriend,

Bill Clinton,
whom she calls the big creep.

[ Laughter ]

Linda Tripp is the definition
of the faithless,

horrible friend who is dragging
these highly personal,

highly embarrassing secrets
out of Monica,

not for Monica's sake,
but for Linda's sake.

Goldberg: She never said to me
she felt guilty,

and I don't think she did.

I think she felt she had
a higher calling.

Lewinsky: You and I have a good
friendship and stuff,

and I consider you
a good friend.

♪♪

On February 28th, the day
after Chelsea's 17th birthday,

Monica made her visit
to the president

wearing what would
probably become

the most famous
blue dress in history.

And the result of
the sexual encounter

is that there's
a semen stain on her dress.

Larry: How did the semen
on the dress even come up?

She wanted me to try
on some jackets

that she thought
I would fit into,

and I did,
and at that time,

she pulled out the semen-stained
dress and showed it to me.

Was it one little stain?

No, it was everywhere.

One day, Linda Tripp calls me up

and describes a blue dress
that has a stain

that would prove what it was

Monica Lewinsky
had been telling her.

And she said, "Do you think
I should take it?"

I said, "And do what with it?"

And she said, "Give it to you."

What would I do with it?

Linda just mentioned it to me,
almost casually, one night.

She said she was going to
have it dry cleaned,

and I said, "Oh, for God's sake,
don't let her do that."

Toobin: Now, Linda, who's not
a forensic expert,

doesn't know whether
it could still be tested,

so she asked Lucianne Goldberg,
"Can the dress still be tested?"

Lucianne doesn't know,
but she has a former client,

Mark Fuhrman, the detective
in the O.J. Simpson case,

who does know something
about DNA evidence.

So Lucianne Goldberg asked
Mark Fuhrman,

"You know, if there's this dress
that's been stained,

could you still test it?"

And he says yes,
so Lucianne says to Linda,

"Tell her to save the dress."

But did you ever think
of this?

If she didn't tell you
to save the dress,

President Clinton today

could be saying he never had
a relationship with you.

Mm-hmm.

So in that sense,
didn't Linda Tripp help you?

I don't know.

It's --
I think that's one thing

that I'll probably never be
able to reconcile within me.

Because he would have
denied it.

Of course he would have.

On May 24, 1997,
Bill told Monica it was over.

Man: Did you ever receive a call
from the President?

Sesno: She would have gone,

had the whole story
not exploded.

I'm really sort of trying
to do the best

I can with the situation
that I found myself in.

Larry: Even though you know
you're part of the fault

for the situation.

Of course, and I'm not
blameless for it.

I completely recognize
that I bear

some responsibility
in what happened.

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

In early 1997,
President Bill Clinton

and Monica Lewinsky's affair

had been going on
for more than a year,

but how long could
they keep it a secret?

At the same time the President
was seeing Monica,

he was fighting
a sexual harassment lawsuit

from Paula Jones.

Jones' attorneys fought and won
the right to question

other women President Clinton

may have had
sexual encounters with.

Now, they began looking
for others to testify.

The Paula Jones case
and the Lewinsky affair

were about to collide,

and the results
for President Clinton

would spell disaster.

Lewinsky: It has been made clear
to me that there's no way

I'm going to be able to
come back to the White House.

♪♪

On May 24, 1997,
Bill told Monica it was over.

Sesno: So then this relationship
isn't going any place,

and Monica realizes that she's
going to have to figure out

where is she going to land,

and she expresses an interest
in going to New York.

Man: And you received a job
offer from Revlon,

with the help
of Vernon Jordan.

Is that correct?
Yes.

She enlists the help
of Vernon Jordan,

one of Bill Clinton's
closest friends and allies.

Lewinsky: I'm afraid to
hear him say, "Yes, of course,

I'll do that,"
and then him not do it.

Sesno: Clearly the president
was trying to keep her happy.

She would have gone, had
the whole story not exploded.

McDaniel:
The Paula Jones lawsuit

was working its way
through the system,

and it came time
for depositions to be taken.

Isikoff: The judge had said,

"Other women who were state
or federal employees

were fair game to be subpoenaed

as potential witnesses
in the Paula Jones lawsuit

if it fit into a pattern
of Bill Clinton's conduct."

The lawyers for Paula Jones
became aware of Linda Tripp

and Monica Lewinsky,

and so they put them
on the witness list.

So you went
to the Paula Jones lawyer?

No. Mnh-mnh.

But I allowed them
to find me.

By letting it be known
that you could be found?

Well, I told Lucianne Goldberg
that if they contacted me,

I would be
forthcoming with them.

It eventually was clear that
the Paula Jones lawyers

were having outside legal help

from a network
of conservative lawyers

who I call the elves.

And one of them is Anne Coulter,

the famous
conservative activist.

Another one is a lawyer
named Conway,

who is married
to Kellyanne Conway,

who becomes a very famous person
during the Trump campaign,

and this group who were working
in secret for Paula Jones

become the glue
between the Paula Jones case

and the Monica Lewinsky matter.

They figure out that if they
could get the information

that Linda Tripp
has about Monica Lewinsky

into the hands
of the Paula Jones lawyers,

they could really create
a lot of mischief.

That's exactly what they did.

Toobin: Bob Bennett,
Clinton's lawyer,

in preparation
for his deposition,

goes through a list of names
who might come up,

Monica Lewinsky's name,

and Clinton pooh-poohs
the whole thing.

He said, "You think I'm crazy
to get involved

with someone like that?"

Good question.

Bear in mind that this was
a carefully coordinated

political trap

set for Bill Clinton
to fall into.

Man: In the morning
on December the 17th,

did you receive a call
from the President?

Yes.

What was the purpose
of that call?

To tell me that my name
was on a witness list

for the Paula Jones case.

Once I had been subpoenaed

in the Paula Jones case
in December

and that Linda
had been subpoenaed

in the Paula Jones case,

my antenna started to go up,
and I was petrified.

I was concerned because
the subpoena

had called
for a hat pin,

that I turn over a hat pin,
and that was an alarm to me.

It mentions a hat pin,

one of the gifts that
Bill Clinton has given her,

so she begins to suspect someone
has been

telling the Paula Jones lawyers
about their relationship,

and she goes to Linda Tripp
to speculate about that,

not knowing that Linda Tripp
is

Isikoff: She's continuing
to talk to Linda Tripp

who she thinks
is her good friend.

Sesno: Lewinsky, after
consultations in Washington

with the Clinton loyalists,
signed an affidavit

saying there was
no sexual relationship.

Isikoff: And at the same time,
she's becoming more

and more anxious
about getting this job,

so it could look more
and more like Bill Clinton

is trying the get her a job
in order to keep her quiet.

In the beginning of 1998,
Bill and Hillary

went to the Virgin Islands
on a vacation.

McDaniel: A long-angled camera
was able to capture

the two of them
dancing on the beach.

Andersen:
There was a speculation
that this had been arranged

for public consumption to show

that they were indeed
still very much in love.

Isikoff: Bill and Hillary
not having a care in the world

while all this turmoil
is about to unfold.

This just in --
Kenneth W. Starr,

a Republican
and former appellate judge

and solicitor general,

has been named
by a special court

to take over
as independent counsel

in charge of
the Whitewater Investigation.

Ken Starr started with the
investigation into Whitewater.

McDaniel: Whitewater was
a real-estate transaction

in which it was believed

that Mrs. Clinton
and perhaps the President

had gotten a special deal

because they'd had
insider knowledge.

Starr was an odd choice
to be the independent counsel,

special prosecutor.

He had never prosecuted anyone.

He had never worked
in criminal law.

I think his motive was always to
be a devoted public servant.

I'm certain that
when he first came in 1994,

his thought was, "This will
be done in about 6 months."

What happened was,
as the investigation went on,

a bunch of other scandals
involving President Clinton

or Mrs. Clinton occurred,
for example,

the White House
Travel Office investigation.

We also got assigned to handle
the Vince Foster investigation.

Mr. Clinton canceled
his public appearances today,

except to share his grief
for Foster's apparent suicide.

Doyle: Vince Foster was the
Deputy White House Counsel,

and he tragically
killed himself.

There were allegations
that he was murdered.

That was never proven.

Isikoff: The Whitewater case,
by late '97,

was beginning to look like

it was meandering
and going nowhere.

Starr is getting heat.

When are you going to
wrap this thing up?

And then suddenly,
along comes Monica Lewinsky.

Wisenberg: We first heard
the name Monica Lewinsky

when we got a call
from Linda Tripp.

We were completely uninterested

in whether he was having
an affair with Monica Lewinsky.

I think presidents
should be allowed,

even encouraged,

to have all the affairs
they want.

That wasn't
what was going on.

What we were told
by Linda Tripp,

who's a very intelligent
and manipulative person,

is that Monica Lewinsky
is being asked to lie

for the president
by Vernon Jordan,

and she's being asked
to fill out a false affidavit.

♪♪

So they took it upon themselves
to start investigating

whether there had been
obstruction of justice

in the Paula Jones case.

Sesno: Paula Jones gets
connected to Monica Lewinsky.

Monica Lewinsky leads back
to the President.

It's a disaster.

Wisenberg: Linda Tripp was
scheduled to meet

the very next day
with Monica Lewinsky.

What better way than
to wire her up

and see if she can corroborate
some of the things

she's been
talking about with us.

Sesno: Linda is wearing a wire.

Of course,
Lewinsky has no idea.

Tripp: I feel like we're
in the middle

of a John Grisham book,
frankly.

Tell me the honest truth,
Monica,

because this means a lot
to me.

Has he already said that?

Lewinsky: What?
That someone else knows?

Mm-hmm.
Yeah.

Great.

Things are reaching this
remarkable moment of crescendo.

I get a phone call that day
tipping me off

that the FBI was involved,
that Ken Starr was involved.

I nearly fell off my chair.

I mean, my God.

This is real.

This is going to explode.

♪♪

Ken Starr's investigator decided

that it was time to talk
directly with Monica herself.

To see if she would cooperate
with us,

to see whether or not
there really

is obstruction of justice
going on.

Judd: Tripp invited
Monica Lewinsky to meet her

at a food court in a mall.

Monica Lewinsky thought
it was a social occasion.

It was not.

Goldberg: Linda told me
they were going to meet

at the courtyard coffee shop,

and evidently the place
was swarming with FBI.

Little does Monica know,

not only is Linda Tripp
not her friend,

not only has she been recording
her, but who's waiting for her?

Not just Linda Tripp,
but FBI agents.

Linda Tripp was -- was keeping
notes in a notebook.

She writes about Monica,
"We are on opposite sides.

Guilt is still there
but lessening.

Her decision to lie
is hers alone."

Goldberg: : Linda called me
from the escalator

and said she was on her way
to meet Monica.

She said, "I see her now."

Then the phone goes dead.

And I never spoke to her
again.

McDaniel: All of a sudden,
the FBI agents

descended on the place,

they took Monica
up to a hotel room.

Lewinsky: That's when I knew
I was in trouble.

This was definitely something
that had gone awry.

Isikoff: The strategy
was to flip Monica,

get her to talk about
Vernon Jordan's efforts

to get her a job
in exchange for her being quiet

about her affair
with Bill Clinton.

That's what they were hoping,

but it doesn't quite
play out that way.

She decided not to tell us
anything.

Isikoff: At one point, Monica's
allowed to leave the room,

and she passes Linda Tripp
on the escalator.

At this point, she knows
Linda Tripp has betrayed her.

"Thanks a lot," she says.

"They did it to me too,"
Linda replies,

which, of course,
is a total lie.

Sesno: Nothing of this
has broken yet.

These storm clouds are gathering
just over the horizon,

but most of the media
and the public had no idea.

Larry: When is the last time
you spoke to Bill Clinton?

January of '98,
obviously before this broke.

Was it a good-bye call
or what?

No, I mean,
of course not.

Nobody knew this was
going to happen.

Van Susteren: Tomorrow
in the nation's capital,

President Clinton will be
deposed by Paula Jones' lawyers.

He becomes the first
sitting president

to testify as a defendant.

Isikoff: January 17th is the day
of the deposition

of Bill Clinton
in the Paula Jones lawsuit,

and he has no idea
what he's walking into.

Man: Do you understand, sir,
that your answers

to my questions today
are testimony

that is being given
under oath?

Yes.
If the President had known

how much we knew
about Monica Lewinsky,

I believe he would have
either delayed the deposition,

settled the case, or answered
in a very different way.

And your testimony is subject
to the penalty of perjury.

Do you understand that,
sir?

I do.

He sticks to his script,

claims he doesn't
remember Paula Jones,

and then the questions
come about Monica Lewinsky.

Did anyone other than
your attorneys ever tell you

that Monica Lewinsky
had been served

with a subpoena
in this case?

I don't think so.

Clinton went into his deposition
with some confidence

about the Monica Lewinsky
situation

because he already knew

that Monica
had signed an affidavit

saying nothing
had taken place,

so if he denied it
and she denied it,

he thought he was
probably home free,

and then he got
a strange gift.

Instead of just asking him
in a straightforward way,

"Did Monica Lewinsky
perform oral sex on you?"

they asked it in this
incredibly convoluted way.

That allowed him to sort of talk
around the truth

of their relationship
when a straightforward question

would have yielded
a complete and obvious lie.

Man: This is a definition
of a term

that will be used
in the course of my questioning.

The term
is sexual relations.

He was asked whether or not,
under the definition

in the case, he had sexual
contact with Monica Lewinsky.

He brazens right through it
and denies a sexual relationship

with Monica Lewinsky and figures
the whole thing is over.

Counsel is fully aware
that Ms. Lewinsky has filed --

has an affidavit which they
are
in possession of saying

that there was absolutely
no sex of any kind,

in any manner, shape, or form
with President Clinton.

It's absolutely clear
what sexual contact

meant under the definition,
and he lied about it.

In paragraph eight of
her affidavit, she says this,

"I have never had
a sexual relationship

with the President."

Is that a true and accurate
statement as far as you know
it?

That is absolutely true.

After he did that,
he was then on record,

under oath in the deposition,
as having lied,

and that really set the basis
for everything that followed.

Isikoff: And at that point,

I thought this was
a no-brainer of a story,

that this was going to be
one of the biggest

and most explosive political
stories in Washington in years,

but the editors atNewsweek
were nervous.

We were racing
towards a deadline.

It was late in the afternoon.

We had to make a decision
whether to publish or not.

We knew it was possible that
this could lead to the President

of the United States
being removed from office.

Are we sure we know
what we're talking about here?

Are we sure this reporting
is true?

And so late
on Saturday night,

we made the decision
not to publish.

They were just afraid of it.

They were afraid to come out
and publish a story

saying that the President
of the United States

was having
a blatant affair.

Isikoff:
Obviously, I was bummed.

We knew more about this
than anybody else.

Nobody else had talked
to Linda Tripp

or Lucianne Goldberg,

or knew about how Ken Starr
had gotten involved.

The phone rings, and it's Mike,
and he's furious.

He's absolutely livid,
and he said,

"They're not going to run it.
They've spiked it,"

so that's when I took it
to "Drudge."

I said, "I'm sitting on a story
that nobody wants to publish.

It's yours if you want it."

"Drudge Report,"
January 17, 1998.

11:32 P.M.

"The Drudge Report" has learned
that reporter Michael Isikoff...

...developed the story
of his career,

only to have it spiked
by topNewsweek

...hours before
its publication.

A young woman, 23...

...sexually involved
with the love of her life,

the President
of the United States...

...since she was a 21-year-old
intern at the White House.

She was a frequent visitor
to a small study

just off the Oval Office...

...where she claims to have
indulged the President's

sexual preference.

Michael Isikoff was not
available for comment

late Saturday.

[ Imitates explosion ]

A potentially damaging cloud

is hanging over
the White House this morning.

This story is a bomb, literally,
that drops out of the air.

CNN has confirmed that
Whitewater counsel Kenneth Starr

has been granted permission
to expand his investigation.

What we wanted to know
was everything.

Information
about an alleged affair

continues to pour
out of Washington.

Doyle: We had absolutely no idea

what was going to come
at us.

We had no idea that there was
going to be

a semen-stained blue dress.

Today, more details
and more denials

in the matter
of Monica Lewinsky.

There were
salacious accusations

that the public
had never heard before.

Press: Meet Monica Lewinsky.

Man: Do you, Monica S.
Lewinsky,
do swear or affirm...

Did he do it?
Didn't he do it?

...the whole truth and nothing
but the truth?

What we realized
is this has just begun.

I do.

Larry: When you first saw
your name mentioned,

do you remember
your first reaction?

I mean, it was just --
it was scary.

Initial reports of this
shocking affair

spun Washington
on its head,

and news outlets
scrambled for details.

Some answers came from
reporter Michael Isikoff.

Days after news
of the affair leaked,

Newsweek
Isikoff's article,

publishing it online,

the first time
they'd ever broken

a big news story on the Web,
but this was just the beginning.

Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp,
and a cast of dozens

were now stepping onto
the national stage,

a the stage befitting
the Shakespearean drama

about to unfold next time

on part 2
of "How It Really Happened."

Thanks for watching.

Good night.