The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

TAS Live

(Page 10 of 14)

Sutphen passed the news to Richardson. She also told him she had the impression that Lewinsky probably wasn't going to take the job. "And he asked me, 'Well, why?'" Sutphen recalled. "And I said, 'Oh, because I think she's looking for something in the private sector.' And he said, 'Hmmm.' And I said, 'But she asked for some more time, you know, is that okay?' And he said, 'Yeah, yeah, that's fine.'"

Nothing much happened for the rest of November. The job remained open while Lewinsky stalled, waiting for help from Jordan. Then, on December 11, the two job efforts -- Richardson on the government side and Jordan in private business -- crossed paths.

Vernon and Bill
Lewinsky was looking forward to the 11th. She was going to have her second meeting with Jordan, and he was to give her the names of people she could contact at several New York companies -- places where she was guaranteed to get a friendly reception after a recommendation from Vernon Jordan.

Lewinsky went to Jordan's office around one in the afternoon. Jordan ordered sandwiches and the two had lunch together. Somehow, in the course of a conversation about jobs and companies and résumés, the talk turned to Lewinsky's relationship with the president. "I don't remember how we got to this point," Lewinsky testified, "but Mr. Jordan said something to me, 'Well, you're a friend of the President of the United States.'"

"And I remarked that I didn't -- I didn't really look at him as the president, that I saw him more as a man and reacted to him more as a man and got angry at him like a man and just a regular person."

"And Mr. Jordan asked me what I got angry at the president about, so I told him when he doesn't call me enough or see me enough. We were sort of bantering back and forth about that.… So Mr. Jordan said to me, 'Well, you know what your problem is?' And I said, 'What?' He said, 'Don't deny it.' And he said, 'You're in love, that's what your problem is.' So I think I just -- probably blushed or giggled, something like that."

Phone records obtained from Jordan's office told Starr's prosecutors that Jordan met with Lewinsky after a morning on the phone with Monica's potential employers. At 9:45 a.m., Jordan called Peter Georgescu, chairman and CEO of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. At 10:39 he called an official at American Express. At 10:59 he called American Express again. At 11:12 he called Howard Gittis of Revlon. At 12:47 he called American Express again. At 12:49 he called Georgescu again. At 12:51 he called Gittis again. At 1:06 he called American Express again. At 1:07 he called Richard Halperin of MacAndrews & Forbes, the parent company of Revlon. And at 11:17, right in the middle of all those Lewinsky phone calls, Jordan dialed Bill Richardson.

"You'll note that the phone records at least indicate that the calls from Mr. Jordan's office went to, among others, persons at Young & Rubicam, American Express, and Revlon," prosecutor Tom Bienert asked Richardson. "Do you see that listed?"

"Yeah," Richardson said.

"And my question to you is, what did you and Mr. Jordan talk about that day?"

"Well, I don't think I talked to him," Richardson answered. "This -- I think he called Isabelle."

"Okay."

"Or his office called Isabelle. And I think it's relating to the -- I wanted to see him, and we were trying to schedule it."

"And what was it that you needed to speak to Mr. Jordan about?"