(24 Jan 1999) English/Nat
Monica Lewinsky has arrived in Washington to be interviewed by a team of Congressional prosecutors in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
The court order compelling her to talk has caused outrage in the Senate where senators continued posing questions to the president's defence team and the prosecutors.
Monica Lewinsky was already on her way to Washington as U-S District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson granted independent counsel Ken Starr's subpoena.
The ruling electrified proceedings in the Senate where Democrats and the president's defence team bitterly attacked the move by the House prosecutors.
They said the House team had acted unconstitutionally and breached the procedure agreed by the Senate for the need to call witnesses to be debated later in the trial.
Lewinsky will be interviewed on Sunday by the House prosecutors, with Starr present.
The president's lawyers said the meeting would intimidate Lewinsky and make anything she said suspect.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Knowing the threat that she's under, knowing how she got into that room, do we have any reason to believe that what comes out of that process will be a fair unvarnished truth or will she have the necessity to be looking over her shoulder and saying 'I'd better not put one foot wrong because the independent counsel is sitting over there watching?'"
SUPER CAPTION: Charles Ruff, Chief White House Counsel
The prosecutors defended the move as being quite routine and questioned the motivation for the Democrats outrage.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It makes me wonder with all the complaints that are going on here from the White House attorneys and their desire not to have witnesses. Are they afraid of us talking to Monica Lewinsky? Are they afraid of the deposition of Monica Lewinsky? Are they afraid of what she might say out here? I don't think they should be, but they appear to be."
SUPER CAPTION: Representative Bill McCollum, Republican Florida
The president' lawyers said the continued campaign by the prosecutors to call witnesses, including Vernon Jordan and Betty Currie, was evidence of vindictiveness - and was not about gaining new information.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They seek to do nothing more than to attack, attack, attack the best friend of the United States - the President of the United States, and his personal secretary. That's the reason they want to talk to these people. And I think it's an improper reason. It's wanting to win too much. And I don't think the United States Senate should be part of it."
SUPER CAPTION: Greg Craig, White House counsel
But Henry Hyde, the House Judiciary chairman, insisted that there was no ulterior motive - only that justice be served.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Equal justice under the law is what moves me, it animates me and consumes me and I'm willing to lose my seat any day in the week rather than sell out on those issues. Despite all the polls and all the hostile editorials America is hungry for people who believe in something. You may disagree with us, but we believe in something."
SUPER CAPTION: Representative Henry Hyde, House Judiciary Chairman
Outside the chamber, outraged Democrats said Kenneth Starr had no right to seek the court order and asked Chief Justice William Rehnquist to rule it illegal.
They quoted Rehnquist's own opinion during Watergate that the judiciary may not play any part in an impeachment.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat Iowa
They say their overtures are being met with interest.
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