Pointillism
Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr's obstruction of justice case against President Clinton is likely to turn
on his identification of the author of the so-called "Talking Points." Like
Shakespeare's works and the Bible, the TP, a three-page document, has inspired
numerous schools of thought that disagree on the meaning of seemingly banal
phrases and discern the handiwork of different authors. As a service to
scholars in the burgeoning field of TP Studies--as well as to the general
public--here is a Talmudic exegesis, a Reader's Guide to the TP .
Background: Only one
person claims to have firsthand knowledge of the TP's origins: Linda Tripp.
Tripp told Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff that Monica Lewinsky had
given her the TP on Jan. 14, 1998, while driving Tripp home from work. That
night, Tripp handed the document over to Starr's office. The following day,
wearing an FBI-supplied wire, she met Lewinsky at the Pentagon City, Va.,
Ritz-Carlton. FBI agents interrupted their conversation and took Lewinsky to a
room in the hotel for questioning.
The TP
advises Tripp on crafting an affidavit that would recant statements she had
made to Newsweek 's Isikoff. Tripp told Isikoff last summer that she had
bumped into Kathleen Willey after she left the Oval Office Nov. 29, 1993, and
that Willey had looked flushed, lipstickless, and happy. Three days before
Tripp received the TP, Willey gave sworn testimony in the Paula Jones case that
the president had fondled her breasts and placed her hand on his crotch. Tripp
had been scheduled to be deposed in the Jones case in December, but the
deposition was postponed.
Whodunit? There are seven theories about the authorship of the TP. The
leading suspects: Lewinsky, Tripp, her ex-lawyer Kirby Behre, Clinton, Bruce
Lindsey (the president's closest aide), the Right-Wing Conspiracy, and a
collaboration among several of the above. Click here for a summary
of the major theories.
The TP
appears to have been composed in three parts, each in a different voice. The
first section, in which Tripp receives legal-sounding advice, is smoothly and
efficiently written. The document then shifts from the substance of the
affidavit to the strategy behind it, with special reference to Tripp's
relationship with the president's lawyer Robert Bennett. The final portion
recasts the original section in the first person. It also includes a chatty
paragraph discrediting allegations about Lewinsky's alleged affair with
Clinton.
Exegesis: This is
the widely circulated version of the TP. For annotations, click on the
hot-linked phrases.
Points
to Make in an Affidavit
Your first few paragraphs
should be about yourself--what you do now, what you did at the White House, and
for how many years you were there as a career person and as a political
appointee.
You and Kathleen were
friends. At around the time of her husband's death (The President has claimed
it was after her husband died. Do you really
want to contradict him?), she came
to you after she allegedly came out of
the oval and looked (however she
looked), you don't recall her exact words, but she claimed at the time
(whatever she claimed) and was very happy.
You did not see her go in or
see her come out.
Talk about when you became
out of touch with her and maybe why.
The next you heard of her
was when a Newsweek reporter (I wouldn't name him specifically) showed up in
your office saying she was naming you as someone who would corroborate that she
was sexually harassed. You spoke with her that evening, etc., and she relayed
to you a sequence of events that was very dissimilar from what you remembered
happening. As a result of your conversation with her and subsequent reports
that showed that she had tried to enlist the help of someone else in her lie
that the President sexually harassed her, you now do not believe that what she
claimed happened really happened. You now find it completely plausible
that she herself smeared her lipstick, untucked her blouse, etc.
You never saw her go into
the oval
office, or come out of the oval office.
You are not sure you've been
clear about whose side you're on. (Kirby
has been saying you should look neutral;
better for credibility but you aren't neutral. Neutral makes you look like
you're on the other team since you are a political appointee)
It's important to you
that they think you're a team player, after all, you are a political
appointee. You believe that they think you're on the other side because you
wouldn't meet with them.
You want to meet with Bennett. You are upset about the comment he made, but
you'll take the high road and do what's in your best interest.
December 18th, you were in
a better position to attend an all day or half-day deposition, but now you are
into JCOC mode. Your livelihood is dependent on the success of this program.
Therefore, you want to provide an affidavit laying out all
of the facts in lieu of a deposition.
You want Bennett's people to
see your affidavit before it's signed.
Your deposition should include enough information to satisfy their questioning.
By the way, remember how I
said there was someone else that I knew
about. Well, she turned out to be
a huge liar. I found out she left the WH because she was stalking the
P or something like that. Well, at least that gets me out of another
scandal I know about.
The first few paragraphs
should be about me--what I do now, what I did at the White House and for how
many years I was there as a career person and as a political appointee.
Kathleen and I were friends.
At around the time of her husband's death, she came to me after she allegedly
came out of the oval office and looked
_____, I don't recall her exact words, but
she claimed at the time ______ and was very happy.
I did not see her go in or
see her come out.
Talk about when I became out
of touch with her and maybe why.
The next time I heard of her
was when a Newsweek reporter showed up in my office saying she was naming me as
a someone who would corroborate that she was sexually harassed by the
President. I spoke with her that evening, etc., and she relayed to me a
sequence of events that was very dissimilar from what I remembered happening.
As a result of my conversation with her and subsequent reports that showed she
had tried to enlist the help of someone else in her lie that the President
sexually harassed her, I now do not believe that what she claimed happened
really happened. I now find it completely plausible that she herself smeared
her lipstick, untucked her blouse, etc.
I never saw her go into the
oval office, or come out of the oval office.
I have never observed the President behave inappropriately with anybody.
Note 1
Here are
seven good guesses about the authorship of the TP:
1)
Lewinsky, the Lone Gunman. Panic-stricken by Tripp's threat that she would
expose Lewinsky's affair with Clinton if asked about it in a deposition,
Lewinsky mustered all her intellectual resources to cobble together the TP.
Lewinsky's former lawyer, William Ginsburg, never denied his client's
involvement in the document's preparation. Strikes against this theory: a)
Lewinsky doesn't have enough knowledge of the law. b) Apparently, she is not
the sharpest tool in the shed. Tripp has said she immediately suspected the TP
was too deftly crafted to have originated with Lewinsky. c) Lewinsky was too
panic-stricken to have acted this rationally. Before Christmas, for example,
the tapes record her suggesting that Tripp have a "foot accident" and be
hospitalized during the time her deposition was scheduled to take place.
2)
Tripp, the Manipulative Bitch. Gunning to bring down the president after
Bennett denounced her, Tripp entrapped Lewinsky. One scenario has her prodding
the gullible young woman to write the TP so she, Tripp, could get physical
evidence of obstruction of justice. Another has her drafting a chunk of the
TP--or even the entire thing--herself. A senior White House official has even
suggested a draft of the TP lives on the hard drive of Tripp's computer. The
theory's defects: a) Why would Tripp risk getting caught fabricating evidence
when she has mountains of damning tapes and e-mail? b) While the tapes expose
Tripp as a horrible friend and a vicious schemer, we have no evidence that she
is capable of conceiving of such a complicated machination.
3) The
Right-Wing Conspiracy. An elaboration of the Tripp theory. Without any
specific evidence, proponents of this theory posit that Tripp drafted the TP
with the assistance of lawyers involved in the Jones case or otherwise
committed to conservative causes.
4)
Behre, the White House Mole. When Tripp testified before Congress about
Travelgate and Foster's death, the White House helped her retain Behre. She
fired him three days before the TP surfaced, when he asked her to hand the
tapes over to Bennett. Behre has the knowledge and the motive (he's loyal to
the White House) to write the TP. (Some implicate Behre's replacement, James
Moody. It seems unlikely, however, that Moody, a conservative stalwart, would
have helped Tripp prepare talking points apparently so favorable to the
president.) And while the document presents legal-sounding advice, it's too
rambling, repetitive, and error-ridden to have been written out by a lawyer
worth his salt (though it might be notes based on a lawyer's advice). In
addition, lawyers know better than to give a witness written instructions about
the preparation of false testimony. Note, however, that, as one observer
argues, if the TP is entirely true (Willey did muss her own clothes, etc.),
assisting in its preparation would not be unethical or tantamount to
subornation of perjury--though it would then be most unlikely that the TP was
prepared by Moody or a right-wing cabal.
5)
Clinton, the Dictator. A lawyer by training, Clinton spent much time on the
phone with Lewinsky. He could have dictated points during his calls, and he has
a clear interest in changing Tripp's testimony. But in crises such as this one,
Clinton has historically turned to proxies for his dirty work. Moreover the TP
is wrong about what Clinton said in his Jones deposition about when his meeting
with Willey took place.
6)
Lindsey, the Fixer. Immediately following the TP's release, reporters
fingered the president's confidant as a suspect. He was the administration's
point man on the Jones case and has been known to wipe up after Clinton's bimbo
eruptions. And he had reason to believe he could change or blunt the impact of
Tripp's testimony. In August, Tripp told Newsweek she doubted Clinton's
advances to Willey constituted sexual harassment, as Willey--despite her later
protestations--had not seemed upset at the time. Tripp also contacted Lindsey
last summer to discuss the Willey affair. Tripp and Lindsey spoke on at least
two more occasions, according to the New York Times . However, there is
no evidence that Lewinsky and Lindsey knew each other or ever communicated.
7) A
Combo of the Above. While there is no credible scenario in which the people
mentioned above could have concocted the TP on their own, several of the
suspects could have worked in concert. For instance, it is plausible Tripp and
Lewinsky collaborated on the TP with insight from a trained lawyer (Clinton,
Lindsey, Behre). As our annotation of the text shows, the TP appears to be the
handiwork of multiple authors.
Back to story.
Note 2
One
scenario has the president dictating points over the phone to Lewinsky, with
whom he spent much time talking. A lawyer by training, Clinton has a clear
interest in changing Tripp's testimony. But the author of the TP seems
unfamiliar with Clinton's actual testimony in the Paula Jones case, in which he
said Willey's visit occurred before her husband's suicide. This
contradiction might exculpate Clinton.
But it does
not necessarily clear aide Lindsey or others close to the president. After all,
the president's sealed, private testimony contradicts his lawyer Bennett's
public pronouncements that the encounter with Willey took place after
her husband's suicide.
Back to story.
Note 3
According
to Howard Kurtz's book Spin Cycle , this characterization of the Oval
Office is common only among White House staffers.
And it
seems possible that a White House staffer wrote a chunk of the TP. Immediately
following the TP's release, reporters fingered Lindsey as the leading suspect.
Many speculate that he wipes up after the president's bimbo eruptions; he was
also the administration's point man on the Jones case. Lindsey also had reason
to believe he could change Tripp's testimony. Last summer, Tripp contacted
Lindsey to discuss the Willey affair (she told Newsweek that because
Willey didn't seem upset at the time, she didn't think Willey had been sexually
harassed). Tripp and Lindsey spoke at least two more times, according to the
New York Times . However, there is no evidence that Lewinsky and Lindsey
knew each other or ever communicated.
Back to story.
Note 4
The
parenthetical phrasing is emblematic of the tight construction of the first
half of the TP. Some theorists have pointed to it as evidence that a lawyer
drafted--or at least advised on the drafting of--the document. Fabricating
evidence would, of course, be a highly unethical activity for a lawyer, but if,
as some administration advocates maintain, the TP is all true, assistance in
its drafting would not be unethical. However, as noted later, the TP makes
legal errors, and the smooth phrasing could as easily be that of a PR person,
journalist, or nonpracticing lawyer. Nonetheless, it casts doubt on the theory
that Lewinsky was the lone author. Tripp told Newsweek she suspected
immediately that the TP was too deftly crafted to have originated with
Lewinsky. Lewinsky's former lawyer Ginsburg never denied his client's
involvement in the document's preparation (his theory is that it was a
collaborative effort).
Back to story.
Note 5
Why doesn't
the author want to mention Isikoff, the reporter in question? Only Tripp had a
clear interest in not seeming unduly familiar with him. For months, she had
been meeting clandestinely with Isikoff, discussing her conversations with
Lewinsky. Tripp had hoped to remain anonymous in Isikoff's story. There's no
good reason why Lindsey should have inserted this detail.
Aside from
this sentence, there is no specific hint that Tripp penned the TP to entrap
Lewinsky. However, Tripp had a motive: She wanted to take down the president
after Bennett, his lawyer, denounced her. One scenario has Tripp--with the
assistance of lawyers involved in the Jones case or otherwise committed to
conservative causes--prodding the gullible Lewinsky to write the TP so she,
Tripp, would have clear evidence of attempted obstruction of justice. Another
has Tripp drafting a chunk of the TP--or even the whole thing--herself. A
senior administration official has suggested that a draft of the TP lives on
Tripp's hard drive. The defect with these theories: Why would Tripp risk
getting caught fabricating evidence when she has mountains of damning tapes and
e-mail?
Back to story.
Note 7
"Someone
else" apparently refers to Julie Steele, a friend of Willey's. Steele initially
told Newsweek that Willey had confided the details of the incident with
Clinton to her shortly after it happened. Later, Steele changed her story,
saying Willey had told her that the president had "made a pass" at her only
weeks after the alleged incident and that she had lied at Willey's behest.
Back to story.
Note 8
On its
face, the suggestion seems highly unlikely: that Willey, who had gone in
seeking a job from the president, would leave the Oval Office and stop to muss
herself, hoping to run into someone who could later confirm a false allegation
of sexual advances by Clinton. However, by this time, Steele had changed her
story, saying Willey had asked her to lie about exactly when Willey had
confided in her and also about the details of the alleged sexual encounter. The
suggestion in the TP would be consistent with the amended Steele statements.
The TP also says Willey's blouse was untucked--a point that has been cited as
evidence Willey was lying, since an untucked blouse would probably have been
noticed by the other people waiting in the reception area outside the Oval
Office. However, Tripp is quoted in Newsweek as observing only that
Willey was "disheveled. Her face was red and her lipstick was off." So the
added detail in the TP may have been intended to further discredit Willey.
Back to story.
Note 9
At this
juncture, it seems another author takes over. Note the "the oval" is now
referred to as the "oval office." Also, this sentence essentially repeats the
advice already given: "You did not see her go in or see her come out." The TP's
tenor and tone shift from legalistic to colloquial.
Back to story.
Note 10
The author
is obviously on the side he or she thinks Tripp would do well to be on. As
subsequent sentences make clear, that side is the administration's--as distinct
from Jones'.
Back to story.
Note 11
When Tripp
testified before Congress about Travelgate and Vince Foster's death, the White
House helped her retain lawyer Kirby Behre. She fired Behre three days before
she gave the TP to Starr, when, she says, Behre asked her to hand the tapes
over to Bennett. Behre has the knowledge and the motive (he's loyal to the
White House) to have written the TP.
The writer
is familiar with what Behre has been telling Tripp and calls him by his first
name, which might suggest Tripp (or perhaps Lewinsky, who has been discussing
Tripp's legal strategy with her) is the author. However, New York
Observer columnist Philip Weiss says presidential adviser and
troubleshooter Lindsey also commonly refers to everyone but the president by a
first name. However, Behre denies having talked with Lindsey.
Back to story.
Note 12
This is
clumsily phrased: The identity of the "other side" is ambiguous. It sounds more
like loose drafting by a PR person than it does the work of a practicing
lawyer.
Back to story.
Note 13
The New
York Times and others, quoting "lawyers connected to the case," report
Lindsey had earlier advised Tripp to seek Bennett's help, advice Tripp
eschewed.
Back to story.
Note 14
Bennett was
quoted as saying that "Linda Tripp is not to be believed" in the Willey
controversy.
Back to story.
Note 15
The date
when Tripp was originally scheduled to be deposed by Jones' lawyers.
Back to story.
Note 16
This is the
acronym for the Joint Civilian Orientation Course, a program Tripp ran at the
Pentagon. Lewinsky, as well as Tripp, would be familiar with the acronym, as
would people in the White House who knew where Tripp had been placed following
her transfer.
Back to story.
Note 17
Presumably,
only someone with legal training--though not necessarily a practicing
lawyer--would know that an affidavit could substitute for a deposition.
However, this is not good lawyerly advice. It is unlikely that Jones' lawyers
would have accepted an affidavit in lieu of a deposition from someone who had
changed her story.
Back to story.
Note 18
The writer
means "affidavit," since the stated point of this exercise is to enable Tripp
to avoid being deposed in person. This is not a mistake that a practicing
lawyer would make, though it could be a mistake made in dictation.
Back to story.
Note 19
The
remainder of the document is cast in the first rather than the second person.
And, in this paragraph--though not in the following ones--the tone becomes more
chatty. This might suggest that Tripp herself is writing the TP in her own
words. However, if Tripp were creating a bogus document for purposes of
entrapment, it would not seem in her interest to recast second-person
paragraphs from earlier in the document in such a way that they are potentially
confusing.
Back to story.
Note 20
This
apparent reference to Lewinsky is the only substantive addition to the second
part of the document. It seems unlikely that Lewinsky would refer to herself as
a "big liar" who was "stalking" the president. However, Lewinsky had recently
given sworn testimony in the Jones case that flatly contradicted her lengthy
taped conversations with Tripp, in which she had talked about her affair with
Clinton. So it is possible that she decided it was better to label herself a
liar in this context than to face perjury charges. The word "huge," which
appears here, is used by Tripp three times in the transcript of her taped
conversations with Lewinsky reported in Newsweek . This point is made by
Skip Fox and Jack Gillis, two academics at the University of Southwestern
Louisiana whose analysis of the TP may be found here.
Back to story.
Note 21
Narcissistic phrasing that allegedly sounds very much like Lewinsky.
Back to story.
Note 22
No effort
is made to fill in the blanks. This suggests Tripp is not attempting to
construct a first draft in her own words following the earlier
instructions.
Back to story.
Note 23
In the
Washington Post version of the TP--given here--a second-person version
of this sentence does not appear in the first section of the document. In ABC's
version of the document, it appears in both places. Both the Post and
ABC claim to have copies of the original TP. In itself, the discrepancy has no
apparent significance, although it has been pointed to by theorists who contend
that the TP was leaked through more than one source.
Back to story.
