WASHINGTON (AP) — In a signal that the Monica Lewinsky investigation might be reaching a decisive stage, the attorney for presidential secretary Betty Currie said Wednesday she apparently has completed her grand jury testimony.
Currie was the first witness to testify in the Lewinsky investigation, causing a stir when she first walked through a throng of reporters and camera crews last Jan. 27.
Wednesday, she appeared for the fifth time. If anything, her testimony is more important than ever.
Prosecutors now can compare hertestimony in key areas to that of Secret Service officers, who are testifying reluctantly under court order; and to Pentagon employee Linda Tripp, whose tape recordings of Lewinsky triggered the investigation.
The grand jury has been delving into what Currie may know about Ms. Lewinsky’s visits to the White House, including those made after she was transferred to a job in the Pentagon’s public affairs office.
Clinton has said under oath that Currie’s friendship with Lewinsky was the reason the former intern visited the White House on several occasions.
After the president testified in the Paula Jones case that he never had sex with Lewinsky, the president called Currie into work the next day — a Sunday. He reportedly asked about her recollections of his contacts with Ms. Lewinsky.
Prosecutors want to know whether Clinton had an affair with Ms. Lewinsky and asked her to lie about it, and whether Clinton and others knowingly played a role in trying to keep her from telling the truth.