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"Yes he did. But what he also said was, 'Look, I want you to -- I want you to think about it, I want you to spend some time and think about...what kinds of things you could -- what you could do there.' You know, [Richardson's] a good guy, he's flexible, he's, you know, he's willing to kind of create a position. You know, 'Maybe he might be able to create a position, what you want to do.'"

The president's words seemed to reassure Lewinsky. The interview was set for 7:30 a.m. at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. (Richardson explained that he is in Washington at least part of each week, and he always stays at the Watergate, which, he says, provides him a suite at a government rate. He also said he did not know that Lewinsky lived nearby in the Watergate apartments.) Lewinsky arrived right on time and was greeted by one of Richardson's top aides, a woman named Mona Sutphen, who took her to meet the ambassador.

Richardson had made room for Lewinsky in a very tight schedule. Between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on that Friday, he was scheduled to meet separately, in quick succession, with ten members of Congress to discuss pending fast track trade legislation. He had a one o'clock p.m. speaking engagement at the National Press Club and was scheduled to fly back to New York on the two o'clock p.m. shuttle. At 3:30 p.m., he attended a meeting of the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council on the Iraq issue; at four o'clock he was due at a meeting with the full Security Council. By 6:30, he was supposed to be at CNN's New York studios for a live interview about Iraq. In sum, his schedule that day was a world crisis, ten members of Congress, and Monica Lewinsky.

Although she was apprehensive about moving forward on the U.N. job that she didn't want, Lewinsky had reason to feel confident speaking to Richardson. The night before, she had arranged through Currie for Clinton to call her with some presidential pointers on what she should say during the interview. "I was really nervous about my interview and meeting with Ambassador Richardson," Lewinsky told Starr's prosecutors. "I just, I didn't, I didn't want to make anyone look bad. I didn't want to sound like a fool, or -- so, the president called me and we talked about some of the different issues at the U.N., and he gave me some suggestions of things I could say."

It worked. Although Richardson said he spoke only briefly to Lewinsky and left most of the questioning to Sutphen and another top assistant, Rebecca Cooper, he clearly liked what he saw. "She was impressive in the interview,"

Richardson later testified. "She seemed poised, professional. And I must say after the interview, I was impressed with her."

Richardson said he discussed Lewinsky with Sutphen and Cooper as they drove to Capitol Hill for the fast track meetings. "Mona said, 'I'm impressed,'" Richardson recalled. "And Cooper said, 'I'm impressed. I think we should hire her.' And I said, 'Well, let me think about it. Let's put it off.'"

Richardson told Starr's prosecutors that "I think that it took me about a week or ten days to decide" to hire Lewinsky. Sutphen, who handled several of the contacts with Lewinsky through the entire employment process, also testified she believed it took seven to ten days to make the decision.

But in fact Richardson acted much more quickly than that. "I became a bit nervous this weekend when I realized that Amb. Richardson said his staff would be in touch with me this week," Lewinsky wrote in a letter to Currie on Sunday, just two days after the interview. "As you know, the U.N. is supposed to be my back-up, but because VJ [Vernon Jordan] has been out of town, this is my only option right now. What should I say to Richardson's people this week when they call?…If you feel it's appropriate, maybe you could ask 'the big guy' what he wants me to do. Ahhhhh…anxiety!!!!!"

Lewinsky was right to be nervous. At 11 o'clock Monday morning, the first business day after the Friday interview, the phone at her Pentagon desk rang. It was Richardson's office. She got the job.

Mona Sutphen testified that Richardson "called me into the office and said, 'You know, I've decided to hire Monica Lewinsky. What do you think?' And I said, 'Oh, you know, that's fine.' I said, 'Are you sure?' And he said 'Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Why?' And I said, 'No, no, you know, there's no issue. Are you sure, though, you don't want to talk to anybody else, you don't want to interview anybody else?' And he said, 'No, no, I think it's fine. Why don't you go ahead and give her an offer.'" Sutphen testified she then suggested bringing Lewinsky to New York to go into more detail about what she would actually be doing. Sutphen said Richardson agreed and suggested Rebecca Cooper should be flown up from Washington to be there, too.

Prosecutor Bienert brought up the conversation during Richardson's testimony. "Is it accurate that Ms. Sutphen told you at that point words to the effect of, are you sure you don't want to interview any other people?" he asked.

"I don't remember that," Richardson answered.

"If Ms. Sutphen told investigators...that that is what she said to you, do you believe that it was said? Do you adamantly believe it was not said? Or do you not know?"

"No, she might have said it," Richardson said. "No."