Was It Sex ? Sure, But . . .
By the standards of most couples and common sense, President Clinton had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. But common sense and legal logic often live in different worlds.
The Starr report cites nine instances of oral sex between Mr. Clinton and the former White House intern. Mr. Clinton asserts that his sworn denial of sexual relations with Lewinsky were legally accurate. Here are the facts, according to the Starr report and the president's statements.
The Starr allegations are based on Lewinsky's grand jury testimony. Lewinsky said her Oval Office encounters with the president often included fondling and kissing as well as oral sex. On one occasion, she said, the president inserted a cigar into her vagina.
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Mr. Clinton does not dispute the fact that he had an affair with Lewinsky, but he maintains that his sworn testimony did not constitute perjury.
The Starr report says the president's denial rests upon tortured definitions of such terms as "sexual affair," "sexual relationship" and "sexual relations."
The president, for example, said that sexual intercourse was necessary to have a "sexual affair." He gave the same explanation for his sworn denial of a "sexual relationship" with Lewinsky. In other words, Mr. Clinton argued that oral sex does not constitute sexual relations with a woman.
Mr. Clinton's denial was based on his interpretation of a definition of sex formulated in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit. Mr. Clinton gave a sworn deposition in that suit last January.
The definition (which was unmistakably the work of attorneys) reads: "For the purposes of this deposition, a person engages in sexual relations when the person knowingly engages in or causes contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person."
The president told the Starr grand jury that because he received oral sex from Lewinsky, he did not believe he caused contact between the two.
According to Starr, "the president's claim seems to be that he maintained a hands-off policy in ongoing sexual encounters with Ms. Lewinsky..."
The White House released a written rebuttal to the report that said the president's testimony did not constitute perjury.
"At a civil deposition, he gave narrow answers to ambiguous questions. As a matter of law, those answers could not give rise to a criminal charge of perjury," the president's rebuttal said. "In the face of the president's admission of his relationship, the disclosure of lurid ansalacious allegations can only be intended to humiliate the president and force him from office."
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