Jury Told Lewinsky Sought Return of Gifts, Sources Say

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, has testified that Monica S. Lewinsky asked her to take back presidential gifts that had been subpoenaed, contradicting Lewinsky’s version of a critical event under investigation, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

Currie told a federal grand jury that she was not instructed by Clinton to retrieve the gifts but instead went to the former White House intern’s Watergate apartment last winter at Lewinsky’s request, according to the sources. Lewinsky has testified that Currie was the one who initiated the contact, other sources have said.

The discrepancy between their reported accounts could be important because independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has focused on the return of the gifts as a key element of his investigation into possible obstruction of justice by the president. If Clinton was involved in the decision to remove the gifts from Lewinsky’s custody in an effort to avoid a subpoena issued to her in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment case, he could be accused of illegally impeding that lawsuit.

The gifts, including a T-shirt and a book of poetry, were being sought by Jones’ lawyers as evidence of a sexual relationship, which both Clinton and Lewinsky denied until recently.

The president and the former intern have testified that they discussed what to do with the gifts in response to a Jones case subpoena, but their interpretations of what he told her differ. Clinton said he told Lewinsky she had to turn over what she had; she heard him say she did not have to give Jones what she did not have in her possession, according to sources informed about their accounts.

Lewinsky also testified that after her conversation with the president, Currie contacted her, saying she understood the young woman had something for her, a sequence of events that seemed to suggest Clinton’s involvement because there may have been no other way for his secretary to know to get in touch with Lewinsky.

Currie has been a key player from the beginning, not only because of the gifts but because she often cleared Lewinsky into the White House and helped her find a job in New York.