4 ARTICLES CONDEMN ACTIONS, STRATEGIES.

Byline: Knight Ridder Newspapers

Details of the proposed articles of impeachment against President Clinton:

ARTICLE I

The charge:

On Aug. 17, 1998, President Clinton perjured himself in testimony before Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's federal grand jury concerning: (1) his relationship with White House aide Monica Lewinsky, (2) his prior testimony about their liaison in the Paula Jones civil case, (3) statements he allowed his lawyer to make in the Jones case denying any kind of sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and (4) his attempts in the Jones case to influence the testimony of Lewinsky and his secretary, Betty Currie, and to impede the discovery of evidence.

The prosecutorial argument:

President Clinton could not have believed he was telling ``the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'' while denying a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. His denial that he ever touched Lewinsky's breasts or genitalia, during sexual activity that he later acknowledged, is contradicted credibly by Lewinsky. Clinton also allowed his lawyer, Robert Bennett, to testify in the Jones case to the credibility of Lewinsky's sworn denial of any improprieties with the president. Finally, Clinton lied to Starr's grand jury when he denied lying to top aides about the Lewinsky relationship so that they would give misleading testimony to the grand jury.

Clinton's defense:

The tortuous definition of sex agreed upon in the Jones case did not cover the oral sex with Lewinsky in which he was only a passive partner. He was not paying attention when Bennett offered his misleading assurances, and it was Jones' lawyers' responsibility, not his, to pin down details of testimony. Lewinsky testified before Starr's grand jury that the president never told her to lie, and neither she nor Currie testified that Clinton had asked Currie to recover gifts from him to Lewinsky that were the evidence of his liaisons with her. Clinton admits misleading some aides, but says he did not lie to them, and that, in any event, lying to aides is not perjury.

ARTICLE II

The charge:

Clinton ``corrupted and manipulated the judicial process'' in the Jones civil case. First, in a written submission he answered ``none'' when asked to name every state and federal employee since 1986 with whom he had sexual relations. He perjured himself again when he denied to Jones' lawyers that he'd had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky.

The prosecutorial argument:

In his testimony in the Jones case, Clinton denied, or allowed his lawyer to deny, that he'd had a ``sexual relationship,'' a ``sexual affair'' or ``sexual relations'' with Lewinsky. Lewinsky's testimony, her disclosures to confidante Linda Tripp about sexual encounters and phone sex, and similar disclosures to other friends of hers are overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Clinton's defense:

He and Lewinsky did not have intercourse, which was his definition - and hers - of sexual relations. This and other terms describing romantic or sexual liaisons are ambiguous and differences over definitions do not constitute perjury. Nonetheless, under the definition of sexual relations in the Jones case, Clinton's passive acceptance of oral sex did not constitute sexual relations because he did not ``engage in or cause'' contact with Lewinsky's ``genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh or buttocks.''

ARTICLE III

The charge:

President Clinton tried to impede, cover up or delay the offering of evidence and testimony in the Jones case, a federal civil rights action.

The prosecutorial argument:

President Clinton phoned Lewinsky on Dec. 17, 1997, informed her she was on the witness list in the Jones case and told her to call Betty Currie, his personal secretary, if she was subpoenaed. Before and after that date, Clinton's friend Vernon Jordan arranged job interviews for Lewinsky. On Jan. 13, six days after she signed an affidavit denying a sexual relationship, a firm approached by Jordan, Revlon, offered Lewinsky work. After Clinton testified in the Jones case, he summoned Currie to compare her recollections of his dealings with Lewinsky to his own. His contemporaneous denials to aides, in effect, instructed them on what to say.

Clinton's defense:

Lewinsky told Starr's grand jury: ``No one ever asked me to lie and I was never promised a job for my silence.'' Jordan helped many aides find jobs, and his efforts on Lewinsky's behalf began before Clinton knew she would be on the Jones case witness list. Clinton's questioning of Currie, Currie testified, did not amount to pressure to agree with him, and Clinton had no inkling, at the time he denied to aides having had ``sexual relations'' with Lewinsky, that they would ever be called to testify before Starr's grand jury.

ARTICLE IV

The charge:

Contrary to his constitutional duty to assure that laws are faithfully executed, President Clinton has undermined them. He has brought disrepute to the presidency, betrayed the public trust and subverted the rule of law and justice ``to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.''

The prosecutorial argument:

Clinton deceived the public, judges and federal investigators to hide his misconduct and escape accountability for it. By lying to his aides, who are federal employees and who repeated his false assurances to Starr's grand jury, Clinton misused public resources. He ``frivolously and corruptly'' invoked executive privilege in attempts to silence his aides' testimony and responded as slowly as possible to requests from congressional investigators.

Clinton's defense:

He did not obstruct justice or delay the submission of evidence and invoked executive privilege only to protect the important tradition of confidentiality between presidents and their aides. His false denials of an improper relationship with Lewinsky do not amount to abuse of office and are not ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' specified in the Constitution as grounds for impeachment.