President Bill Clinton -- Jan. 21, 1998 PBS' "THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER" SPEAKERS: JIM LEHRER, HOST, THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES LEHRER: Mr. President, welcome. CLINTON: Thank you, Jim. LEHRER: The news of this day is that Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, is investigating allegations that you suborned perjury by encouraging a 24-year-old woman, a former White House intern, to lie under oath in a civil deposition about her having had an affair with you. Mr. President, is that true? CLINTON: That is not true. That is not true. I did not ask anyone to tell anything other than the truth. There is no improper relationship. And I intend to cooperate with this inquiry. But that is not true. LEHRER: No improper relationship. Define what you mean by that. CLINTON: Well, I think you know what it means. It means that there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship, or any other kind of improper relationship. LEHRER: You had no sexual relationship with this young woman? CLINTON: There is not a sexual relationship. That is accurate. We are doing our best to cooperate here, but we don't know much yet. And that's all I can say now. What I'm trying to do is to contain my natural impulses and get back to work. I think it's important that we cooperate. I will cooperate. But I want to focus on the work at hand. LEHRER: Just for the record, to make sure I understand what you're answer means, so there's no ambiguity about it... CLINTON: There is no... LEHRER: All right. You had no conversations with this young woman, Monica Lewinsky, about her testimony or possible testimony before in giving a deposition... CLINTON: I did not urge -- I did not urge anyone to say anything that was untrue. I did not urge anyone to say anything that was untrue. That's my statement to you. LEHRER: Did you talk to her? CLINTON: And on that... LEHRER: Excuse me. I'm sorry. CLINTON: And beyond that, I think it's very important that we let the investigation take its course. But I want you to know that that is my clear position. I didn't ask anyone to go in there and say something that's not true. LEHRER: What about your having had -- another one of the allegations is that you may have asked, or the allegation that's being investigated is that you asked your friend Vernon Jordan... CLINTON: To do that. LEHRER: ... to do that. CLINTON: I absolutely did not do that. I can tell you I did not do that. I did not do that. He is in no ways involved in trying to get anybody to say anything that's not true at my request. I didn't do that. Now, I don't know what else to tell you. I don't even know -- all I know what is what I have read here. But I'm going to cooperate. I didn't ask anybody not to tell the truth. There is no improper relationship. The allegations I have read are not true. I do not know what the basis of them is other than just what you know. We'll just have to wait and see. And I will be vigorous about it. But I have got to get back to the work of the country. I was up past midnight with Prime Minister Netanyahu last night. I've got Mr. Arafat coming in. We've got action all over the world and a State of the Union to do. I'll do my best to cooperate with this, just as I have through every other issue that's come up over the last several years. But I have got to get back to work. LEHRER: Would you acknowledge, though, Mr. President, this is very serious business, this charge against you that's been made? CLINTON: And I will cooperate in the inquiry of it. LEHRER: What's going on? If it's not true, that means somebody made this up. Is that -- is that -- is that... CLINTON: Look. You know as much about this as I do right now. We'll just have to look into it and cooperate, and we'll see. But meanwhile, I've got to go on with the work of the country. I got hired to help the rest of the American people.