THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS: Through 1997

Events in the investigation into whether President Clinton had a sexual relationship with a White House intern, then pressured her to lie about it:

Summer 1995: Monica Lewinsky begins work as an unpaid intern in the office of then-White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.

Fall 1995: Lewinsky moves to a paid position handling correspondence in the Office of Legislative Affairs, where she handles letters from members of Congress. At times, according to a source, she is responsible for delivering correspondence to the Oval Office.

April 1996: Lewinsky moves to the Defense Department, where she works as secretary to spokesman Kenneth Bacon.

Summer 1997: Lewinsky first has concerns she might be called to testify in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual-harassment case.

Summer 1997: Linda Tripp, a Lewinsky friend, tells Newsweek that another former worker, Kathleen E. Willey, told her Clinton had made sexual advances toward Willey in the White House. A Clinton lawyer responds by questioning Tripp’s intentions, which reportedly angers her. She decides to begin taping conversations in which Lewsinsky allegedly discusses an affair with Clinton. At some point, tapes made over the subsequent months also reportedly include Lewsinsky describing attempts by the president and his close friend, Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan, to have her deny the relationship in sworn statements in the Jones case.

October 1997: Lewinsky is offered a job by Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations; she turns it down.

Dec. 17, 1997: Lewinsky gets subpoena in Jones case.

Dec. 26, 1997: Lewinsky leaves her Defense Department job, anticipating that she will have a job in New York.