Monica's Story

by Andrew Morton

  After lining up two other lawyers, Billy Martin hired a conference room at the discreet Washington Court Hotel for Monday, June i. He planned a daylong “beauty contest,” during which Monica could meet her prospective attorneys, see whom she liked and then make her choice.

  There remained one major problem for the newly re-formed “Team Lewinsky”: how to smuggle Monica, who was still in Los Angeles, to Washington without the media or—more importantly—Bill Ginsburg finding out. Subterfuge was called for. Monica and Judy Smith caught the red-eye to Washington, where they were picked up at the airport by Walter Ellerbee and whisked off to their hotel. Thus, while Ginsburg, who was still in LA, believed that Monica was at some California beach with her brother, in fact she, Judy Smith and Billy Martin were listening to Jake Stein, Plato Cacheris and two other attorneys outline their legal strategies.

  Stein, a low-key, silver-haired, courtly character, was first on the list. He told Monica he believed that, in spite of the setback at the Appeals Court, he could win her immunity. Next up was Plato Cacheris, an affable but bright attorney, who made it clear that, if what they wanted was a plea bargain in return for a measure of immunity, he was not their man. He was not prepared to enter the ring unless they were going either to fight for full immunity, or else to make an aggressive defense at trial. He felt that this was the best and only approach to take, basing his decision, not without justification, on the fact that that he had obtained immunity for another famous defendant, Fawn Hall, Oliver North’s secretary, during the investigation into the Iran—Contra scandal of the nineteen-eighties.

  Monica was impressed with both men, but by the end of the day, after meeting and considering other attorneys, she was punch-drunk from listening to their various plans to fight Starr. She had phoned her father that morning to tell him that she felt Stein and Cacheris were the men for her, and he advised her to stick with her initial instincts. So, at eleven that night, Martin called the two lawyers and asked if they would be prepared to work on Monica’s case together. It turned out that they had already informally discussed that idea, and had agreed that they would be more effective working in harness.

  On the following day, June 2, they met again, this time with Marcia present and Bernie connected via a conference call. The latter told Stein and Cacheris, “All I want is to make sure that my daughter is taken care of,” a sentiment with which everyone agreed. After some discussion about fees, the two lawyers left, so that the family and their advisors could talk over the decision and make sure that everyone was comfortable with it. Shortly afterwards, Billy Martin called Monica’s new attorneys and formally asked them to be her new legal “dream team.”

  Immediately on being engaged, Stein thought it prudent to call Kenneth Starr; he was anxious to let the Independent Counsel know what was happening before the media got wind of the new arrangements. When Starr failed to return his call, Cacheris phoned one of his deputies, Bob Bittman, and informed him that he and Stein were now representing Monica.

  Meanwhile Judy Smith, who was still pretending to be in Los Angeles, was on the phone to Ginsburg. For the last few days he had been threatening to quit, angered by the mounting media criticism as well as by his deteriorating relationship with Monica. When Judy talked to him, he returned to this theme, but she gave no hint of the new arrangements, afraid that he would immediately leak it to the media, but say that he had resigned, rather than been fired.

  Just half an hour before they made the public announcement on June 2, Judy and Monica spoke to Ginsburg in a long-distance conference call, and told him his services were no longer required. He was furious. He accused Monica of being ungrateful for all the work he had done, and threatened, ominously if unspecifically, to do what he had to do to protect himself, his family and his practice. Judy asked him to “take the high road” and join them in their press release, which stated that this had been a mutually agreeable decision. Ginsburg, however, slammed the phone down and then angrily called Bernie to vent his anger at the way he had been discarded. Bernie stood firm: “I thanked him for his efforts and the sacrifices made by himself and his family.” Generously, he adds, “We will never forget that in the early days he did come to our rescue.”

  The final word on the “avuncular Mr. Ginsburg” may perhaps be left to Marcia, whose views, though less generous than Bernie’s, are typically clear-eyed. “He was an advocate seduced by the media attention that engulfed his role as attorney. It was more important for him to fan the media flames than to look after Monica. The goal was always immunity, because it was clear that Monica was simply the sacrificial lamb as far as both sides were concerned. In his hatred for Starr he lost sight of that goal. The final straw was the open letter he wrote to Starr that virtually stated that Monica had a physical affair with the President. It was an untenable position.”

  The change of attorneys—Nate Speights did remain, however—had been smooth, professional and, for once, leak-free. With Monica standing silently in the background, Stein and Cacheris made the announcement in a brief sidewalk conference, news that made headlines nationwide. Yet, though she had acquired a pair of savvy guides who knew their way around the Washington jungle, there was still no certainty that they would bring her safely home. Wandering in the legal jungle, every day facing the prospect of indictment and jail, she would need much help to sustain her on this uncertain journey.

  The people who had betrayed Monica during the past few months were people she knew, trusted and loved. In biting contrast, people whom she hardly knew, or had taken for granted, displayed a shining integrity: the Watergate doorman who refused to let journalists rummage through her trash; the garage attendant who turned down $5000 offered by a newspaper if he would tip off its reporters about Monica’s movements. She is profoundly grateful for such decency. “One lesson I’ve learned from this affair is never to judge people too hastily. All the people who worked at the Watergate were offered thousands of dollars. Instead [of taking the money], they protected and respected me as another human being, and I will always be grateful to them and the manager, Chris Hueple, for that.”

  Even complete strangers showed great sympathy and understanding—she received thousands of letters of support and encouragement from people around the world. A 101-year-old lady, who wrote that Monica was not to blame for the scandal, brought her much comfort. And a man in Sweden seemed genuinely to understand the profound fear felt by her and her family. “There is nothing more chilling,” he wrote, “than to know that you are facing the awesome power of the State.” Hearteningly, such kindnesses continue, even as the scandal rumbles on. On the last day of 1998, at King’s Road café, a young man gave Monica a small bouquet, saying, “Happy New Year. You deserve them.”

  Perhaps the most touching message of all came in a package sent to Monica in April. Inside were two letters, one for her, the other for her father, and a packet. In the first letter the anonymous author, a woman, talked about her own experiences, which she felt were reminiscent of the difficulties Monica was enduring. Her father’s parcel contained a beautiful and valuable diamond and sapphire ring in an elegant Limoges box, which the sender asked Bernie to place on Monica’s finger to remind her of how special she was. Her reason for sending the ring, she wrote, was that, in an equally trying time in her life, she had been sent a similar ring with the same message. “The generosity of a complete stranger who wanted to share this lovely gift with me was very moving,” recalls Monica. She tracked down the woman’s address through the parcel company and sent her an effusive and heartfelt letter of thanks.

  Some public figures, too, showed their support. One such was comedienne Kathy Buckley, who was born deaf but, because her condition was not diagnosed until she was in her mid-twenties, was sent to a school for the mentally handicapped. In her one-woman show she has her audience crying and laughing by turns, as she tells them about the trials and tribulations of her life—she has been run over by a lifeguard truck, and has had to overcome breast cancer; to cap it al
l she can’t pronounce the letter “f.”

  In June 1998, Kathy was playing in a Los Angeles theater. Back in LA after signing up Stein and Cacheris, Monica, Bernie and Barbara went to see her, and laughed through their tears as she talked about the criticism and hostility she had faced. At the end of the show, she aimed a verbal kick at all the people who had attacked her in the past: “Don’t buck with me.” As she said those words, she winked at Monica and blew her a kiss.

  After the performance Kathy came out to greet her public and made a beeline for Monica. Giving the girl an affectionate hug, she told her that she had often prayed for her, at which point both women shed tears. Then she put her hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eye and said with a smile, “Do what I do, Monica. Just turn a deaf ear.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “An Utterly Preposterous Document”

  WHEN MONICA WOKE UP on the morning of July 23, 1998, at her father’s house in Los Angeles, for once she felt expectant and excited. It was her twenty-fifth birthday, a milestone in her personal calendar and one that she looked forward to celebrating with her friends and family. Catherine Allday Davis had flown in specially from Portland, and her mother and Peter Straus had traveled from New York to be with her.

  As she mulled over her plans for the day—she fretted that Catherine and her friend Neysa DeMann Erbland, who had never met before, might not get along—she received a call from Plato Cacheris. Ominously, he told her that he wanted a conference call with her father before he would give any details about the matter in hand. But Bernie was operating on a patient, and they had to wait for over an hour before he could come to the phone.

  During that anxious wait, Monica’s first instinct was to assume that Starr had deliberately held off until her birthday before deciding to indict her. Since the fingerprinting session in May, the chance of being charged with a criminal offense had seemed greater; the threat was ever present at the back of her mind. It seemed that even the deployment of her new “dream team” of lawyers, Jake Stein and Plato Cacheris, would not be able to stave off the apparently inevitable indictment. Now, while she waited for Bernie to come out of surgery, she had plenty of time to review the legal twists and turns in her case over the last few weeks.

  Early in June she had undergone a five-day debriefing by her new legal team. It convinced them that she was an eminently credible and forthright witness, smart if unworldly, a far cry from the almost universal image of her as a predatory opportunist. So far, however, they had not been able to convince Starr. At a meeting on June 9 between the Office of Independent Counsel and Monica’s attorneys, Starr’s deputy, Bob Bittman, had emphasized that the case against her for perjury and obstruction of justice was very strong. He had followed up that point in a letter which stated that the Office of Independent Counsel would have to interview Monica before any decision could be made about a possible immunity deal.

  In mid-June. Bernie had flown to Washington to join Monica, her mother, Judy Smith and the legal team for a meeting at her Watergate apartment. By then, all the smoke signals coming from Starr indicated that it was more, rather than less, likely that he would indict Monica. The nightmare of her mother, her aunt, her closest friends and her former White House colleagues being obliged to testify against her in a criminal case, rather than just to a Grand Jury, had seemed ever nearer.

  There had been one moment of unalloyed pleasure for Monica and her family in the course of this waiting game, when it was announced that the Maryland State Attorney was opening an investigation into whether Linda Tripp had broken state laws in taping Monica without her consent. The Lewinskys were delighted at the news. “Everyone in our family wants Linda Tripp to lie awake at night worrying about going to jail,” says Monica, “because that’s what happened to us. I was thrilled, literally jumping for joy. There was a feeling that, somehow, justice would prevail.”

  As Monica and her new team waited on the Office of Independent Counsel’s next moves, it had became clear that time was at a premium for the Special Prosecutor. On July 17 Starr had made history by issuing the President with a subpoena ordering him to testify to the Grand Jury. Now he needed all the information he could gather from his potential star witness, before he examined the most powerful man in the world.

  Four days later, Starr had called Stein and Cacheris, and asked if they would care to meet him for breakfast at the Maryland home of his ethical advisor, Sam Dash, on July 23, Monica’s birthday. At that meeting it became clear that Starr was very keen to interview Monica. What was more, it seemed that, after six months of toing and froing, he was prepared to offer her an immunity agreement. Far from having her worst fears confirmed, she was about to have her best hopes realized.

  Those negotiations completed, Plato Cacheris returned to his Washington office to deliver Starr’s birthday present to Monica. Now, in the conference call with her and her father, he said that he and Stein believed Starr was ready to offer her transactional immunity—that is, full immunity from prosecution on any aspect from the case—but that they wanted to make her what is known as a “queen for a day” proffer, under which the witness tells the prosecutor everything he or she knows without fear of prosecution, so that they could assess her credibility. Cacheris also explained that Sam Dash, a distinguished Democrat, was involved, a factor which immediately made everyone much more comfortable. In the light of all this, the lawyer asked Monica to fly to New York for a meeting with Starr’s deputies and Dash on Monday, July 27. He emphasized that this had to be kept absolutely secret. For her part Monica insisted that Starr keep away those of his deputies who had browbeaten her in Room 1012.

  As though that news were not reason enough to celebrate, Cacheris called again later and gave her another birthday present. He had had a message from the attorney representing Ashley Raines, passing on birthday wishes and telling Monica that she loved her. “That was the best birthday surprise I could have imagined,” Monica says. “I had expected her to hate me because of all the trouble this had caused her at the White House. It was wonderful that she was still my friend.”

  Monica did as her attorney had said, smiling broadly but saying not a word to her friends about the upcoming meeting in New York. Before they left Judy Smith, who was in charge of what they called “covert operations,” bought Monica a blonde, Pamela Anderson-style wig as a disguise. To complete the transformation, Monica boarded the plane on Sunday morning wearing not only the wig but also a baseball hat, a pair of reading glasses and no make-up. The subterfuge worked: no one gave them a second glance on the five-hour flight to New York.

  That afternoon they met with Plato Cacheris, Jake Stein and Sydney Hoffmann, a female associate of Cacheris’s who had been engaged to help with the case, in a small apartment off Fifth Avenue. Monica felt very comfortable with Hoffmann, who during their meeting led her sensitively and professionally through the more embarrassing aspects of her story. Hoffmann was and is impressed by Monica: “She is an incredibly intelligent, sharp and analytical young woman who has been very impressive throughout this oppressive and politically motivated investigation.”

  Despite the benefits of the meeting with her legal team, Monica spent a nervous, sleepless night, knowing that the next day’s meeting was make or break. In the morning she met her three lawyers again. They decided that Sydney Hoffmann should question her for the first thirty minutes, taking her through major topics such as the details of her affair, her false affidavit, her search for a job, the “Talking Points” memo and the President’s gifts to her. Then they took a short taxi ride to the elegant penthouse apartment of Starr’s mother-in-law, which overlooked the East river—a fitting setting for Monica to be queen for a day. There she was introduced to Starr’s legal team, which included Sam Dash, Mary Anne Wirth, Solomon Wisenberg and Bob Bittman.

  As agreed, Sydney Hoffmann began the questioning. When she finished it was time for Starr’s deputies to take over. Monica made an inauspicious start, bursting into tears when Mary Anne Wirth ask
ed her what the President had said to let her know that he cared for her. It touched a very raw nerve, and she needed some minutes to compose herself.

  Once she was calm again, they focused on less emotional matters, mostly times, dates and places, repeatedly asking about the role of Vernon Jordan and the origins of the “Talking Points.” Monica made it clear that, if they looked at events during the critical weeks of December 1997 within the overall context of her two-year relationship with the President, matters which might otherwise seem suspicious, notably Vernon Jordan’s involvement in her job search and the “Talking Points,” were perfectly explicable.

  After a sandwich lunch, the questioning resumed; it continued until late in the afternoon. Monica’s legal team was quietly confident that she had performed well, but their satisfaction was short-lived. When, back at the apartment, she switched on the television, to her horror she heard NBC correspondent Lisa Myers announce that Monica Lewinsky had met with Starr’s deputies and had admitted to having had a sexual relationship with the President. How could NBC have got the story so quickly? Only through a deliberate leak—and Monica knew it had not come from her side. She was “very upset, most concerned that some nut would try and kill me because I had turned on the President. It was very disturbing and selfish.” Moreover, the delicate situation in which she was now poised was in danger of being compromised, for at that time no deal had been finalized: Starr’s team had indicated that they would make a decision on the following day. With a final turn of the screw, the media reported that Starr wanted Monica to take a lie-detector test, an idea that Plato Cacheris had no truck with.