Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was quoted as saying in an upcoming book that former President Bill Clinton lied under oath when describing their romantic encounters, Politico reported on its Web site, Thursday.
Ken Gormley, the author of the new book "The Death of American Virtue," due out in February, also claims Clinton had an extramarital affair with Susan McDougal, one of the few people who served prison time because of the Whitewater investigation.
In his 769-page book, Gormley provides a detailed, scholarly retelling of the epic saga of grand jury depositions, fevered partisans and a single stained blue dress that once transfixed a nation.
The book is the result of interviews with key players, including Clinton himself, Lewinsky and independent counsel Ken Starr.
In the years since their bitter battle, both Clinton and independent counsel Starr have predicted they'd be vindicated in the history books.
Now "the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal" is about to arrive ― and neither man can be completely happy about how he is portrayed.
Lewinsky told Gormley, a Duquesne University law professor, that she believes Clinton lied during his grand jury testimony. "There was no leeway [there] on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully," she reportedly wrote to Gormley.
After numerous interviews and his own review of relevant documents, Gormley wrote in his book that he is certain "some intimate involvement did occur" between Clinton and McDougal.
In his discussions with Gormley, Clinton reportedly said he continues to feel aggrieved over the Lewinsky scandal and its aftermath.
He did, however, defend himself against his adversaries, calling Henry Hyde, the head of the House impeachment team, a "bitter right-winger" and "hypocrite."
The book represents an attempt by a law professor and prominent legal pundit to document the tumultuous criminal investigation that explored Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, nearly ended his presidency and ultimately boomeranged to Starr, staining the professional reputation of one of America's foremost constitutional scholars.
Among the book's most attention-grabbing claims is the confirmation of a long-rumored romantic affair between Clinton and McDougal, an woman from Arkansas who spent 18 months in jail for refusing to answer questions from Starr's prosecutors before a grand jury and later received a presidential pardon from Clinton. Gormley writes he is now certain "some intimate involvement did occur," though he will not say precisely how he knows it to be true.
"I feel very, very comfortable with that conclusion after having conducted extensive interviews and seen documents that were not generally accessible to the public," Gormley told Politico.
While Gormley says his evidence confirms the long-standing suspicions of Starr's prosecutors that McDougal had a secret extramarital affair with Clinton, the author says he does not believe that the entanglement, which took place years earlier, had anything to do with her refusal to testify about Bill and Hillary Clinton's involvement with the Whitewater land deal or with the president's decision to pardon her in 2001.
McDougal has previously denied having an affair with Bill Clinton. Efforts to contact her for this article were unsuccessful.