Too many lies are being told. Too many lives are being ruined. And, I--I think it's time for the truth to come out.   --Kathleen Willey to Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes, March 15, 1998, in response to his question about why she decided to go public

Enter, Monica

The public learned Monica Lewinsky's name on January 21 in news reports of Starr's probe. Gecker moved quickly to see whether Willey could capitalize on the news. Michael Viner, president of New Millennium Media, has said Gecker called that day to explore a book deal for Willey. Viner said in an interview that they talked almost every week until Willey appeared on 60 Minutes in March. Viner says Gecker told him Willey's story was about a close, personal, affectionate relationship with the President, a man she would never hurt.

Richard Gooding of Star says Gecker also called him on January 21 and said that if Star wanted Willey's story and personal pictures, his offer would have to be well over $300,000 so that Willey would have money left over after paying her debts. Gooding says he told Gecker that Willey would have to tell "a hell of a story" for that kind of money. On February 6 Gooding says he faxed Gecker an agreement promising to keep her story confidential and suggesting the three of them meet so he could assess her story's value, but he never received a response.

On February 16 Willey amended her deposition in the Jones case, four days after the deadline. During her deposition, a Jones attorney had asked Willey whether she had discussed her testimony with anyone. After clarifying the question, Willey replied that except for her lawyer, "no." In her amendment, Willey said, "Nate Landow discussed my testimony with me." The last-minute change apparently led Starr to begin investigating whether Landow had pressured Willey to change her story. Landow's attorneys have said the allegation is "categorically false."

On February 18 the press reported that Starr had subpoenaed Willey. On March 6, Willey was given the unusual immunity agreement. On March 10 she testified before the grand jury, after making a dramatic entrance in a van with members of Starr's team. On March 15 she presented her explosive story on 60 Minutes, giving the show its highest ratings in three years. Many commentators described her interview as sincere and convincing.

Michael Viner says Gecker called him two days before Willey's television debut and said she hoped doing 60 Minutes would make her a more valuable commodity. Gecker told one reporter that Willey did 60 Minutes to affirm her credibility, and he told USA Today he hoped to get her millions. Viner made it clear in media interviews after the program aired that Gecker had related a substantially different story about Willey's involvement with the President than the one Willey had just told the country. Viner assumed he would be contacted by Starr's investigators to discuss these differences, but says no one ever called.

A comparison of statements Willey made on 60 Minutes with statements she gave in the Jones case and in civil suits in Virginia reveals more than a dozen discrepancies. Many may not seem significant in themselves, but together they suggest she was engaging in repeated evasions or deceptions.For example, in her Jones deposition, Willey said she worked as a legal assistant from about 1984 to 1993. However, in legal documents involving her debts, Willey acknowledged that even though she had received significant sums of money and W-2s from her husband's law practice, she had never worked in a law office and had never been a paralegal.

Asked during her Jones deposition whether she had asked the White House to keep her "in mind concerning possible federal employment," Willey answered, "No." However, letters released by the White House show that she asked Clinton to consider her for various jobs, including an ambassadorship and a position with his re-election campaign. White House records show that after the alleged sexual incident, she called Clinton's office several times asking to meet with him, and she sent him nine friendly letters, the most recent in November 1996. In one letter she said she was his "number one fan." Willey also said in her deposition and on 60 Minutes that she had told Clinton about her family financial crisis the day of the alleged advance. But in a 1995 legal document regarding her debts, she said she "did not talk with anyone at the White House" that day about her financial problems.

Willey told the Jones attorneys she couldn't recall whether she had talked to Tripp about the alleged sexual encounter. But she told Isikoff and 60 Minutes that she had, and Tripp told FBI agents they talked extensively moments after the incident allegedly occurred, again that night and many times in the days that followed.

Willey dismissed Tripp's statements on 60 Minutes. She countered Tripp's comment to Newsweek that she looked "joyful" after her meeting with Clinton by saying she uses humor in tense situations. Willey said Tripp was "very upset, very bitter" after Willey was given a job in the White House Counsel's Office while Tripp was moved to the Pentagon.

Even though Willey had arranged her off-the-record interview that was the basis of the Newsweek story first revealing her allegation, she told Jones's attorneys that she had told her grown daughter she "did not participate" in the article and that it was "just a lot of garbage." After the March 15 60 Minutes interview, questions about Willey's credibility surfaced when the White House released a stack of effusive letters she had sent Clinton. Time reported in its March 30 issue that in 1995 Willey devised a scheme to punish a lover, a soccer coach, for spoiling her Fourth of July plans. Willey reportedly told Shaun Docking that she was pregnant with his twins when she was not, and eventually agreed to an "abortion." The day the procedure was scheduled, Steele has said, Willey feigned an emotional crisis, telling him she could not terminate her "pregnancy." A well-placed source says Willey told Starr's office she had never had a sexual relationship with the coach and acknowledged it only after federal agents interviewed Docking and confronted Willey the first week in September as Starr was preparing his impeachment referral. The source says Willey told investigators she had not been forthcoming because she was embarrassed about the age difference (eighteen years, according to Time) between her and Docking. Willey denied Steele's claim that Willey had asked Steele to tell Docking she had a miscarriage. Willey then offered to take the controversial polygraph.

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