LAWYER: INTERN `WILL TELL ALL...'.

Byline: Angie Cannon and Jodi Edna Knight Ridder Newspapers

Monica Lewinsky, the young woman alleged to have had an affair with President Clinton, is offering Whitewater prosecutors ``complete cooperation'' in exchange for immunity, her lawyer said Saturday.

The attorney, William H. Ginsburg, ``categorically'' denied earlier news reports that the former White House intern was offering to tell prosecutors only about a sexual relationship with the president and had refused to talk about reports that Clinton and his friend lobbyist Vernon Jordan had encouraged her to lie about it.

In an interview with Knight Ridder, Ginsburg said Lewinsky would tell prosecutors ``everything we know in exchange for immunity.''

``She will tell all and everything as truthfully as she can,'' Ginsburg said. ``I will allow any question. There is no off-limits, no out-of-bounds.''

The public offer clearly was part of a high-stakes legal duel between Ginsburg and independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, who needs Lewinsky's testimony to build a criminal case against Clinton and or Jordan.

Lewinsky reportedly has been summoned by Starr to testify before a federal grand jury on Tuesday, just hours before President Clinton is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.

Thus far, Ginsburg has failed to be specific about details of Lewinsky's possible testimony. Without the details, Starr is withholding immunity.

Meanwhile, as some news organizations reported that Clinton engaged in lurid ``phone sex'' conversations with Lewinsky, many White House aides clearly were confused Saturday about what to believe about the sex scandal.

Clinton's staff typically has gone on the offensive during past crises, but this time, the president's advisers were unsure of how to respond.

White House aides still don't know whether the president had any kind of relationship with Lewinsky, said a top aide, who asked not to be identified.

``I think people here understand exactly what's going on, which is compiling information to make a complete statement,'' the staffer said. ``That doesn't mean it's not frustrating to people. It's frustrating to the president.''

Hillary Rodham Clinton has assumed a lead role in plotting strategy to combat the sex allegation, much as she did during the 1992 campaign when Gennifer Flowers said she had a 12-year affair with the president, according to a White House aide.

Support for Clinton

Key political aides on Saturday afternoon were debating whether to blanket the Sunday morning television talk shows with a battalion of articulate allies. Even though those advisers wouldn't be able to offer much concrete information, their appearance would show support for the president, officials said.

Clinton's lawyers rejected pleas from his political operatives to allow the president to address the sex scandal publicly before Tuesday's State of the Union speech.

Because of the serious criminal allegations concerning obstruction of justice and perjury, they didn't want the president to make statements before they were able to gather complete documentary evidence, including records of when Lewinsky visited the White House following her move to the Pentagon, said staffers who refused to be named.

One official, however, said there remains a chance that the president will make at least a brief comment about the scandal during the State of the Union speech because advisers know it will be difficult for the president to get the nation to pay attention to the policy agenda he plans to lay out in that address.

Lewinsky cooperation

Starr's prosecutors hope to use the threat of prosecution to win a guarantee of cooperation from Lewinsky. Prosecutors have failed to gain such help from other Whitewater figures, such as Webster Hubbell and Susan McDougal.

``Monica Lewinsky is different from Susan McDougal and Webster Hubbell,'' Ginsburg said. ``Monica Lewinsky is not political and has no agenda. She is 24, but not a sophisticated adult.''

Ginsburg also tried to downplay the importance of Thursday's FBI sweep of a Watergate apartment shared by Lewinsky and her mother.

Ginsburg said agents removed a computer and presidential gifts, including a dress and a book of poetry, Walt Whitman's ``Leaves of Grass.'' Ginsburg said he doesn't know anything about news reports that a dress had a stain from the president, which might provide a DNA link to him.

``They were very courteous,'' Ginsburg said. ``They were well-behaved. We provided them with coffee.''

Criticism of Starr

Clinton's attorney, Robert Bennett, attacked Starr on Saturday, suggesting he was pushing Lewinsky to contradict her previous affidavit, in which she denied a sexual relationship with the president.

``The issue is not what she will or will not say from this point forward; the issue is simply whether Mr. Starr's tactics will cause her to say something she has not said in the past,'' Bennett said on MSNBC. ``You're certainly going to have to question a total reversal.

``I was a federal prosecutor, and I can tell you everybody can bend if placed under enough pressure to bend. Mr. Starr seems hell-bent on getting President Clinton.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) President Clinton hugs a woman identified as then-intern Monica Lewinsky in this video of a White House lawn party in November 1996.

Associated Press

(2) A young woman identified as Monica Lewinsky, in beret, beams up at President Clinton in 1996.

Associated Press