Reluctant guests at trial of the President

Monica Lewinsky

WHAT MORE can she say? The siren of the Oval Office has already given hours and hours of testimony, and it might seem that not much more can be learnt about precisely what she did, or where, or how. But the men who are running the Senate impeachment trial want to know more, partly to clear up some discrepancies between her testimony and Mr Clinton's and partly because they believes she will help galvanise the case for impeachment.

One of the key issues in the question of the President's alleged perjury are the differences between her account of their sexual liaisons and his. But to avoid taking the Senate proceedings down a potentially pornographic path she will not be asked about these.

Instead, the questioning will centre on the matter of what the President did or did not tell her to do; the famous gifts she was given by him, and their disposal; and her job hunting. The indications from her meeting with the trial managers at the Mayflower hotel in Washington last weekend are that she will not have much more to reveal.

Vernon Jordan

ONE OF Clinton's inner circle, he is a classic Washington figure: he knows the byways and highways of power as well as anyone in the city. If you have a problem, Mr Jordan can help to sort it out. He works for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, an impeccably pukkah Washington firm of lawyers - not a bad career ascent for a man who started out as a civil- rights lawyer in the 1960s.

That, in essence, is what is suggested by the impeachment trial managers: that Mr Jordan helped sort out the problem of by finding her a job and buying her silence. Not so, Mr Jordan and the White House respond: he did this for many people.

And he was unaware of her role in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit, he has argued, when he made the key decisions. So the question for him is quite simple: what did you know and when did you know it? They will also be interested in conversations that he had with Ms Lewinsky about evidence of her relationship with the President.

Sidney Blumenthal

UNTIL JULY 1997, Mr Blumenthal was a journalist, working for the New Yorker, the New Republic and other glossy publications. He was brought in as a communication strategist to help the White House put over its message, and has increasingly been drawn into its inner-most secrets. A close friend of the President and (especially) the First Lady, he makes no bones about being fiercely partisan in their favour.

He will be quizzed over what the President told him about Ms Lewinsky, knowing Mr Blumenthal would be a witness before the grand jury.

The prosecutors also suspect him of leaking stories about Ms Lewinsky. A large number of unflattering articles appeared shortly after her name surfaced a year ago. Mr Blumenthal denies this.

He has been quizzed by Kenneth Starr, in a prolonged and uncomfortable session where little was achieved. He claimed that many of the conversations between himself and the President and First Lady were covered by executive privilege: a judge disagreed.

Andrew Marshall