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Lewinsky attorney William Ginsburg disavowed knowledge of the dress on Jan. 25's Meet the Press. Tim Russert asked if "some dresses or a dress with DNA evidence" had been taken from his client. Ginsburg called the question "salacious." If Lewinsky "had a dress that was sullied or dirty, she would have had it cleaned," he said, adding, "I know of no such dress." He also said the FBI had searched her apartment and taken "black and blue pantsuits and dresses."
On Jan. 25 TIME and Newsweek ran stories reporting on the dress in similar terms. TIME stated that in an untaped conversation with Tripp, Lewinsky "allegedly held up a dress she claimed was stained with the President's semen and said, 'I'll never wash it again.'" TIME's story did not contain attribution for this point, but its source was someone close to Tripp that TIME believes credible. Newsweek wrote that "Lewinsky told Tripp that she was keeping, as a kind of grotesque memento, a navy blue dress stained with Clinton's semen. Holding it up as a trophy to Tripp, she declared, 'I'll never wash it again.'" Newsweek did not attribute this part of its story. Newsweek also referred to a dress Lewinsky was given by Clinton. In its next issue the magazine wrote that it had "misinterpreted" a tape it listened to. Newsweek is no longer sure, as it reported Jan. 21, that there was ever a gift dress. "We don't know," says Newsweek assistant managing editor Ann McDaniel. But she says Newsweek stands by its account, obtained from nontape sources, that Lewinsky claimed to have a dress bearing the President's semen. On Jan. 27 the Washington Post reported that a "person who saw Clinton over the weekend" told a friend that Clinton had said on the subject, "There is no dress." It was unclear, the Post said, "whether the President was referring to reports of a dress containing incriminating evidence or a dress he reportedly gave Lewinsky as a gift."
On Jan. 29 CBS Evening News was the first to report that FBI testing was complete, and "no DNA evidence or stains have been found on a dress that belongs to Lewinsky." The network did not give a source. TIME has confirmed with its own FBI sources that no semen stains or DNA evidence was found on any of the clothing seized from Lewinsky. The next day New York Newsday ran a story quoting forensic scientists saying tests for seminal stains can be rendered useless if clothing is laundered or dry-cleaned.
Also on Jan. 30, Ginsburg appeared on ABC's 20/20. Asked by Barbara Walters whether Clinton ever gave Lewinsky a dress, Ginsburg responded, "Unless you consider a long T shirt a dress, the answer is no." Last Friday the New York Times reported that Betty Currie, Clinton's personal secretary, had turned over to investigators items she had retrieved from Lewinsky, including a dress. The Times did not say whether it was a stained dress, a gift dress, both, or neither.