Calm, relaxed, and even jokey, Clinton stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Blair and issued all the usual denials: "I never asked anyone to do anything but tell the truth"; "This investigation is going on, and you know what the rules for it are." Knowing that wasn't enough, he also threw some meat off the wagon to the baying hounds by alluding again to that right-wing conspiracy: "If someone is leaking unlawfully out of a grand jury proceeding," he added, "that's a different story."
After a week of relative calm, the Monica Lewinsky affair has been blown wide open again. What Currie has apparently told investigators about Clinton, that he coaxed her with questions like "We [he and Lewinsky] were never alone, right?" seems in contradiction to Currie's own recollections about Lewinsky and her relationship to the president.
While their boss acted presidential, the attack dogs of the White House were let loose. At 4:30 p.m., assistant White House counsel David Kendall delivered an angry statement announcing his intention to take Starr's team to court over deliberate leaks "which violate the fundamental rules of fairness in an investigation like this." Kendall is releasing the 15-page letter detailing his complaints to the press.