The earliest documents illustrate some of the mundane aspects of Lewinsky’s job. How W.H. tried to handle Lewinsky

The Clinton White House tried just about everything to pull itself through the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

A trove of documents released Friday by the Clinton Presidential Library sheds light on the White House’s internal machinations as it coped with the scandal — from efforts to discredit rivals and attack the media to attempts to boost West Wing spirits by sharing supportive op-eds or the unfavorable poll numbers for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr.


The emails follow the arc of the scandal as it grew from a media frenzy to a constitutional crisis and then began to subside as President Bill Clinton regained political support after the release of Starr’s explicit report.

The earliest documents illustrate some of the mundane aspects of Lewinsky’s job.

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She was copied on an email in February 1996 about how White House staff should have received a subpoena from the counsel’s office for files related to the travel office. A month later, Lewinsky put in an official request to hang a picture in the legislative affairs office of Clinton signing a telecom bill.

By April 1996, as the West Wing grew concerned about Lewinsky’s relationship with Clinton, aides exchanged emails about placing her at the Pentagon.

“We are working closely with DOD to make this happen for Monica,” Patsy Thomasson, the White House deputy director of personnel, wrote on April 9, 1996, several days after Lewinsky had been removed from her West Wing job. “We have not finalized the deal but are working toward that end. … Our direction is to make sure she has a job in an Agency.”

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In the days after the Drudge Report first wrote that Newsweek was working on a bombshell story, Lanny Davis, then special counsel to Clinton, received a stream of urgent phone messages from Washington’s top reporters.

Susan Schmidt, a Washington Post reporter who was among the first to report the news, tried to reach Davis on Jan. 20, 1998, the day before her story ran: “Call me — jeez?!”

Others who showed up on a call log include CNN’s John King; Peter Baker, who shared a byline on the first Washington Post story; Tom Squitieri, then with USA Today; and Warren Strobel, then of the Washington Times.

“Wants to talk to you NOT about the facts of Lewinsky matter but about the political impact/importance,” according to the log of Strobel’s message for Davis.

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As the scandal unfolded, senior adviser Sidney Blumenthal shopped around negative stories about Clinton’s critics, including book agent Lucianne Goldberg and conservative pundit Bill Kristol. Blumenthal also spent quite a bit of energy trying to push back at Christopher Hitchens, the late Vanity Fair writer, who had claimed that Blumenthal had spread defamatory stories about Lewinsky.

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On the day Starr released his report in September 1998, the White House distributed talking points on the president’s defense that opened with this: “We are all hopeful that this morning’s remarks will begin an important healing process for all of us — thank you for your kind thoughts.”

Throughout the scandal, the White House fielded advice and criticism from Democrats, professors, columnists and disgruntled constituents.

Aides circulated thoughts from Joe Jamison, described as an Irish American labor leader from Queens, N.Y., in an email with the subject line: “Attack media responsibility.”

“There is considerable popular anger at media. People say ‘the damn media,’” Jamison wrote in an email forwarded to Clinton aide Minyon Moore. “OJ and Lady Di media weariness syndrome has set in. A political opportunity for the Administration exists, I think. Attacking the media would, probably, be a bad idea from the White House, but, surely, an appropriate group to attack media irresponsibility can be found?”

In January 1999, aides sent around thoughts from Susannah Heschel, a religion professor at Dartmouth College, who argued that Judaism views Clinton’s conduct differently than other religions. The subject line: “For what it is worth …”

“According to classical Jewish law, President Clinton did not commit adultery; adultery is defined as a married man having intercourse with a married woman, and Monica Lewinsky is single,” Heschel wrote. “At worst, President Clinton is guilty of the common sin of onanism, a sin that probably afflicts the consciences of most Jewish men at one time or another.”

Aides weighed how press secretary Joe Lockhart should respond to a question about whether the president would watch Lewinsky’s interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters.

“I had a line about him not planning on watching TV next Wednesday, but one of the lawyers took it out,” an aide wrote in February 1999. “Perhaps Joe, if asked, can say he usually watches ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ at that hour.”

At one point, White House officials considered cutting off talk radio host Tom Joyner for an off-color conversation on his show. While discussing Lewinsky’s job prospects, Joyner had said: “You know what her qualifications are, she obviously has some skills she learned at the White House.”

An aide emailed a transcript of the exchange to others in the West Wing with the opener: “I wanted you to see this. This is a transcript from ‘Talk Daily.’ Please keep this in mind the next time he asks for an interview.”

Robert B. Johnson, a domestic policy aide, dismissed the suggestion.

“I find some things said on his show distasteful too,” Johnson said. “BUT, to be on our side when it counts. I would not be too hasty to pull the plug. He needs to be kept engaged for our message and for GORE. Politics baby!!!!!”

Correction: A previous version of this article referred to Dartmouth University.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Daniella Diaz @ 10/11/2014 09:06 AM Correction: A previous version of this article referred to Dartmouth University.