Lewinsky: Tripp Vetoed Dry Cleaner

Monica Lewinsky's friend Linda Tripp convinced the former White House intern not to clean a dress that contained a stain of genetic material from President Clinton, saying "it could be evidence some day," according to documents released on Sept. 21, 1998.

Lewinsky told the grand jury on Aug. 20, during her second appearance before it, that she had been ready to clean the navy-blue dress in the fall of 1997, because she was going to wear it. But Tripp talked her out of it after learning of the stain.

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"And I said that was ludicrous because I would never -- I would never disclose that I had a relationship with the president. I would never need it."

"And then when Thanksgiving time came around and I told her that I was going to wear it for Thanksgiving, she told me I looked fat in the dress. I shouldn't wear it. She brought me a jacket from her closet as to try to persuade me not to wear the dress," Lewinsky testified.

According to Tripp's July 29, 1998, deposition to the grand jury, Lewinsky wore the dress on Feb. 28, 1997, the first time Mr. Clinton ejaculated in her presence, and had the dress on when she dined later that day at McCormick and Schmicks restaurant.

Sometime after Lewinsky was subpoenaed on Dec. 19, 1997, she moved the dress to her mother's apartment in New York, along with audio tapes containing phone messages from Mr. Clinton.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation formally concluded on Aug. 17, the day of President Clinton's testimony before the grand jury, that the stain on the dress contained Mr. Clinton's DNA, saying there was only a one in 7.87 trillion chance it was not.

Lewinsky told the grand jury she had not realized the stain was on the dress "until I went to go wear it again, and I had gained too much weight that I couldn't fit into it."

Tripp ignited the investigation of President Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky by taping hours of conversations with her friend about the affair.