Clinton denies sexual affair with intern
WASHINGTON (AP) - Shaking his finger
at the TV cameras, President Clinton today
angrily denied improper behavior with an
intern. Investigators pressed ahead with plans
to seek grand jury testimony from his aides
and friends about the alleged sexual relation
ship.
“I did not have sexual relations with that
woman,” Clinton said, punching out each
word. “I never told anybody to lie.
“These allegations are false.”
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton stood at
his side, nodding emphatically, her lips
pursed.
Again, Clinton did not go into detail, and
the question of when he would fully confront
the swirl of allegations imperiling his presi
dency continued to hang over Washington.
Clinton raised and almost as quickly
dropped the subject of the alleged affair with
Monica Lewinsky at the ehd of a child-care
event at the White House.
“I want to say one thing to the American
people,” he said, wagging his finger at almost
every word. “I’m going to say this again. I did
not have sexual relations with that woman,
Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie.
Not a single time. Never. These allegations are
false, and I need to go back to work for the
American people.”
The president appeared to avoid eye con
tact with members of the news media during
the official part of the Roosevelt Room pro
gram, but he looked cameras and reporters
straight in the eye with a glare and thumped
the podium as he denied the allegations.
Throughout the program, the president and
Hillary Clinton stood nearer to each other than
their assigned places. Underscoring the
intense scrutiny focused on their relationship,
a clatter of camera shutters drowned out the
speaker at the ^podium as Mrs. Clinton leaned
over to Whisper in her husband’s ear.
Clinton last spoke about die allegations on
Thursday during a meeting with Palestinian
leader Yasir Arafat, and the controversy has
only escalated since.
His appearance at today’s event was part of
an effort to conduct business as usual since
allegations of having an affair with Lewinsky
and encouraging her to cover it up became
public last week.
Still ahead is Clinton’s annual State of the
Union speech to Congress and the nation
Tuesday night, tricky timing in a capital fixat
ed on the presidential crisis.
On the eve of the speech, Lewinsky’s
lawyer pressed for an immunity deal for his
client, pledging to “remain in Washington as
long as it takes to see that the truth in every
detail, wherever it may fall, comes out.”
Doing a Sunday media blitz of television
talk shows on NBC, CBS and ABC, attorney
William Ginsburg said he has talked to investi
gators about what Lewinsky, 24, will tell them
in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Ginsburg was seen entering the Watergate this
morning, where Lewinsky has an apartment.
Clinton last week denied having any
“improper sexual relationship” with the young
woman or asking her to lie to investigators.
Lewinsky filed a sworn affidavit in the
Paula Jones sexual harassment case denying
an affair with Clinton - an assertion that is
contradicted by secretly taped conversations
now in the hands of Whitewater prosecutors.
Ginsburg said it would be unwise for the
White House or Clinton’s personal* lawyers to
attack Lewinsky as unstable, noting she was
aided over a long period of time by people
around the president.
“How could they have helped her get jobs,
including with responsible companies, large
companies, if she was so unstable?” Ginsburg
said.
Clinton talked through the weekend with
heavyweight advisers, including former
Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor.
Mock-trial team wins
The UNL mock-trial team won
first place in their first-ever mock
trial competition Friday.
Ten schools, including Iowa
State University'in AmeS, Iowa,
and Omaha’s CreightonLIaiversity,;
competed in theWashbupaLaw
- School Invitational held in topefca^
Kan.
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln team’s win qualified the
team to compete in the mock-trial
regional competition, which will
be held Feb. 13 in Kansas City.
The regional winner will
advance to the national competi
tion later this year.
Study Abroad fair today
UNL International Affairs will
hold its annual Study Abroad
Extravaganza today starting at 7
p.m. in the Nebraska Union’s
Centennial Room.
Students will be able to meet
and talk with faculty study abroad
program leaders about semester
and summer-long study abroad
opportunities. They also will be eli
gible to win a $250 Study Abroad
scholarship and other door prizes.
Jeanine Niyonzima, a
Nebraska graduate who works in
international marketing, will
speak.
Award ocminations ayailabie ,
-Nommatioi»are due soon for
^ Jw:v rv'hi c
CoByccfttioir:^ ~ ‘
The Student
Foundation/Builders Award for
Outstanding Advising is due Jan,
30 in the Office of Student
Involvement. Contact Connie
Pejsar at the University
Foundation, (402) 472-2151 or
Andrea Lauenstein at (402) 436
6210 for more information.
The Scholarship in Teaching
Award, Academy of Distinguished
Teachers, Annis Chaikin Sorensen
Award and College Distinguished
Teaching Awards are due in the
senior vice chancellor for
a cadepiic a ffairs office Feb. 6.
Contact your College dean’s office
for appropriate nomination proce
dures and college deadlines.
And the Distinguished
Educational Service Award nomi
nations are due Feb. 13 in theChan
cellor’sOffice. Contact theChan
cellor’s Office at (402) 472-2116
for more information.
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
President prepares address
WASHINGTON (AP) - In his
State of the Union address, President
Clinton will offer a balanced budget
and an ambitious plan for America’s
immediate future - even as his own
future twists in a hurricane of doubt
over accusations he had an affair with
a young White House intern.
Speaking today at a gathering pn
M'&fter-§ctl6ol child care, Clinton said
r’BS WBr^fopos^in effort to limit to 18
die number of children in first-, sec
ond- and third-grade classes, based
on a “quite controversial and enor
mously beneficial” policy he institut
ed as governor of Arkansas.
Clinton said he would offer a plan
to build and renovate more schools
and create after-school programs.
“All these will help our children get
the future they deserve,” Clinton said.
Clinton’s chief of staff, Erskine
Bowles, consulted with congression
al leaders to try to determine the
mood of Congress and the type of
reception Clinton might receive
Tuesday night, White House
spokesman Mike McCurry said
today. , .*
He denied Bowles was seeking to
reschedule the speech, although
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
“may have had that impression,”
McCurry said. “There is not, to my
knowledge, any serious consideration
of moving it.”
Clinton and a handful of aides
spent several hours over the weekend
in the White House theater, carefully
rehearsing the speech he will deliver
before a joint session of Congress
and a nationwide television audience
at 8 p.m. CST Tuesday.
On Sunday, he also reviewed
drafts with his speechwriters and
advisers before watching the Super
Bowl with his family and civil rights
activist Jesse Jackson.
“His spirits are quite good,” one
adviser helping with the speech
preparation said on the condition of
anonymity. Asked whether Clinton
was worried the se* allegations
would detract from Tuesday’s speech,
the aide replied: “He didn’t seem that
way to me.”
Along with the balanced budget,
Clinton will propose big spending
increases for schools, child care,
medical research and the environ
ment. He will advocate an expansion
of the Peace Corps, a consumers’
“bill of rights” for health care, an
anti-smoking initiative for children
and greater investment in federal
efforts on food safety, medical
research and AIDS treatments.
Clinton is seeking to expand
Medicare to cover those under age
65, offer incentives for small busi
nesses to set up pension plans, and
carry out overhauls of Social Security
and Medicare before retiring baby
boomers begin to swell the systems’
rolls.
Republicans, mindful of the legal
and political drama encircling the
president, plan to roll out their own
agenda, which focuses on improving
education, overhauling the Internal
Revenue Service, reducing taxes and
expanding the war against drugs.
Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., voiced doubt in a radio
address Saturday whether Clinton
could keep to his balanced-budget
deal with Congress while expanding
numerous government programs.
"... Our concern about what the
president may propose in his speech
isn’t just a matter of money,” Lott
said. “It’s a matter of honor and trust.”
,The big question is how much of
the president’s message will get
through to.Americans. Many are
waiting for his explanation of allega
tions he carried on an affair with
Monica Lewinsky, 24, and later tried
to get her to lie about it.
“He’s going to have a heck of a
hard time making himself heard on
the State of the Union,” said Colgate
University political scientist Michael
Johnston. “People are eminently dis
tracted.”
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. and
chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, who has counseled cau
tion in considering possible impeach
ment of the president, told CNN’s
“Late Edition” on Sunday that
Clinton could expect “civil, polite,
restrained applause” from lawmak
ers.
Stunned by news leaks and accu
sations, White House officials are
anxious about the atmosphere in
which Clinton will speak. Before the
Lewinsky furor, the administration
expected up to 60 million TV view
ers. Officials now anticipate even
more as Americans seek clues on how
Clinton will handle the most serious
allegations of his five-year presiden
cy.
j
OMAHA (AP) - A grand jury
indicted an Omaha police officer
Monday on a charge of manslaughter
in the shooting death of an Army
reservist who had served in the Gulf
War.
A police department investiga
' tion earlier cleared officers Todd
Sears and Troy Kister in the death of
Marvin Ammons. Police said
Ammons approached them with a
gun and refused to drop his weapon
before Sears shot him early Oct. 26,
1997, Ammons’ 33rd birthday.
“The grand jury determined there
was probable cause to believe Sears
committed manslaughter when he
shot Marvin Ammons,” special pros
ecutor John Grant said. Amnions
died of two gunshot wounds to the
chest.
Sears will be allowed to turn him
self in, Grant said. John Fahey, an
attorney for the police union who
represented Sears during the grand
jury proceedings, said Sears was
astounded at the indictment.
“His actions don’t come within a
mile of a Criminal charge,” Fahey
said.
The indictment alleges Sears
caused the death of Ammons “with
out malice, either upon a sudden
quarrel, or unintentionally while in
the commission of an unlawlul act.”
Sears did neither of those things,
Fahey said. The shooting was not the
result of a sudden quarrel, nor did
Sears unintentionally shoot
Ammons, he said.
Members of the Ammons family
were relieved when they heard about
the indictment, said Jidianne Dunn,
an attorney for the family.
“Their immediate reaction was
relief that this step of the process is
over,” said Dunn. -
A manslaughter charge is punish
able by up to 20 years in prison.
The Douglas County grand jury
returned its indictment Monday
afternoon after three weeks of testi
mony and deliberations. The FBI also
has been investigating the shooting.