ANGER, REMORSE; VIDEO, OTHER EVIDENCE WILL SHOW CLINTON LIKE WE'VE NEVER SEEN HIM.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

President Clinton's defenders braced Saturday for the release of a mountain of new detail from the Starr investigation, including, congressional sources said, transcripts of messages the chief executive left on Monica Lewinsky's telephone answering machine.

Those transcripts - along with Lewinsky's grand jury testimony and numerous interviews with prosecutors and the FBI - were among the 2,800 pages set for release on Monday. A videotape of Clinton's four-hour grand jury testimony and an accompanying transcript will also be made public.

Several officials have said in recent days that the videotape shows Clinton evasive and sometimes angry when questioned about various sex acts with Lewinsky, frequently referring prosecutors back to a prepared statement he read at the beginning of his questioning.

Even before the video's release, broadcast outlets were making plans for an unprecedented airing of images of a president being questioned under oath about sexual relations with a young aide.

In addition to the tape and the grand jury testimony, congressional sources said, the material to be released includes an inventory of the items taken from Lewinsky's apartment by the FBI. The material also includes the text of unsent letters to the president and files removed from her computer hard drive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The public also will get a look at lab reports on Clinton's blood and on a blue dress owned by Lewinsky, results that Starr says confirmed a sexual encounter between the two.

Legal memorandums and letters that testify to a long, hard-fought battle between the White House and Kenneth Starr's office also will be made public, these sources said. The material includes correspondence in which the two sides negotiated over the president's grand jury testimony and pleadings related to Starr's attempt to force testimony by presidential aides and Secret Service employees.

The only grand jury testimony to be released Monday is that of Clinton and Lewinsky. Distribution of testimony by other key players, including presidential secretary Betty Currie, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and onetime Lewinsky friend Linda Tripp, will remain under seal, at least for the time being.

Nor will the tape of Clinton messages on Lewinsky's answering machine be made public; only the written transcripts are to be released, according to sources.

A complex president

The videotapes have not been made available to the media, but lawyers familiar with Clinton's testimony say the public will see a more complex president than the one in Starr's 445-page report. While Starr's report drew on many sources, particularly on Lewinsky's testimony, to painstakingly chronicle what the independent counsel says are impeachable acts, it did not describe in detail the president's justifications for his actions.

``The referral itself is an extremely one-sided and unfair document,'' said a Clinton ally, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ``It does not fairly reflect the president's testimony, and the only purpose of the excessive graphic detail is to harm the president.''

Starr's supporters have argued that he was forced to include such graphic detail. They say it was done to prove Clinton lied when he denied having ``sexual relations'' with Lewinsky in a deposition on Jan. 17 in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit and because he refused to answer in detail their questions in his grand jury testimony last month.

Details of testimony

Clinton began his grand jury testimony on Aug. 17 at 1:03 p.m., in the Map Room of the White House. In a high-backed chair, the president sat facing three lawyers from his team, with Starr and a row of prosecutors to his right and a lectern and a camera in front of him. As four prosecutors took turns questioning him under oath, Clinton was at times evasive, angry, cajoling and even philosophical, the lawyers said.

At several points in the testimony, the president expressed embarrassment and regret about the affair, the lawyers said. After one five-minute break, he told the grand jurors, ``I'd give anything in the world to not admit what I had to testify to today,'' the lawyers said.

Such moments of remorse were mixed with flashes of fury at the prosecutors. As one of Starr's deputies pressed him on his efforts to help Lewinsky find a job, the president lashed out, saying, ``You have made this the most important issue in America,'' the lawyers said. Clinton even accused the prosecutors of impairing his memory by increasing the already considerable pressure on him over the previous four years, they said.

Clinton's `diatribe'

At another point, the president delivered what one lawyer called a ``diatribe,'' in which he criticized the prosecutors for swooping down on Lewinsky upon learning of their relationship. ``Monica was kept by five of your lawyers and five of your FBI agents,'' he said, according to the lawyer.

The president then extended a rare olive branch to Starr and his team, thanking them for having provided broad immunity from prosecution to Lewinsky and her mother, Marcia Lewis. Referring to Monica Lewinsky, he added, ``It breaks my heart that she was involved in this,'' the lawyers said.

But many of the exchanges with prosecutors may prove embarrassing to Clinton when they are played and replayed on television in the coming days, his advisers believe.

One such exchange came at the beginning of the testimony, when Robert Bittman, a member of Starr's team, spent about seven minutes questioning Clinton about whether he understood the meaning of the oath he had taken to tell ``the whole truth.'' As Bittman repeatedly pressed him, Clinton skirted some of the questions, the lawyers said without providing more details.

Almost immediately after that exchange, Bittman asked the president if he had been intimate with Lewinsky, the lawyers said. Clinton responded by reading a statement that he had had ``inappropriate intimate contact'' with Lewinsky ``on certain occasions in early 1996 and once in early 1997.''

``I regret that what began as a friendship came to include this conduct,'' Clinton said, according to a copy of the statement that was provided to The New York Times. ``And I take full responsibility for my actions.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1) New detail from Kenneth Starr's investigation will be made public Monday.

(2) President Clinton's videotaped testimony will be released at 6 a.m. Monday.

Box: Monday tv coverage of the Clinton crisis