Clinton email shows Jewish law cited as possible Lewinsky defense
Newly released document shows Jewish studies professor arguing during scandal that adultery is only between married parties
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
An email citing Jewish law as the basis for a possible defense for president Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair was released Friday by the National Archives.
“According to classical Jewish law, President Clinton did not commit adultery; adultery is defined as a married man having intercourse with a married woman, and Monica Lewinsky is single,” the message sent to Clinton’s domestic policy advisor read, detailing a Dartmouth College Jewish studies professor’s defense of the president, according to the New York Post.
The email, sent on January 27, 1999, ultimately reached White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal.
“At worst, President Clinton is guilty of the common sin of onanism, a sin that probably afflicts the consciences of most Jewish men at one time or another,” the missive continued.
“From the perspective of Jewish history, we have to ask how Jews can condemn President Clinton’s behavior as immoral, when we exalt King David?” Professor Susannah Heschel, the daughter of theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, wrote. “King David had Batsheva’s husband, Uriah, murdered. While David was condemned and punished, he was never thrown off the throne of Israel. On the contrary, he is exalted in our Jewish memory as the unifier of Israel.”
The email is part of a batch of records that might shed light on painful chapters in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life as she ponders another bid for the presidency.
The papers include lists of talking points, questions prepared for media interviews and efforts to defend the president against impeachment, part of 10,000 pages of records being released from the Clinton administration.
According to one of the documents, top Clinton administration officials, who had started to refer to Lewinsky as ‘the stalker’ in 1996 due to her being around the Oval Office much more than was necessary, were instructed to find her a new job.
Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon, where she met Linda Tripp, a civil servant who recorded conversations with Lewinsky about Clinton, and the whole affair soon unraveled.
Clinton was impeached in 1998 but stayed on to serve the rest of his second term. He was acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the Senate in February 1999.
In addition to the 1990s-era events, the papers touch on Elena Kagan, now a Supreme Court justice, who as a White House counsel defended Bill Clinton in the lawsuit brought by ex-Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. Clinton’s testimony for the Jones lawsuit, in which he denied a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, led to his impeachment.
Many records involving Lewinsky are redacted, but one document sheds light on her job: Lewinsky sent an official request to hang a picture of Clinton, signing a telecommunications bill, in a White House legislative affairs office. Behind the scenes, Clinton officials were adamant that they were not trying to discredit Lewinsky.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that the White House was directing or involved in any campaign against her,” Blumenthal wrote in a January 1999 memo.
In May, Lewinsky wrote a revealing essay about the affair for Vanity Fair.
“I am determined to have a different ending to my story,” she asserted. “I’ve decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past.”
“It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” she wrote.
Hillary Clinton’s influence in the White House is also expected to be explored in the papers, from her role on Clinton’s unsuccessful health care overhaul plan to her 2000 Senate campaign in New York. Bill Clinton left office in January 2001.
With these documents the National Archives will have released about 30,000 pages of papers since February. Both the Obama White House and the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, have signed off on their release.
Past installments have offered an unvarnished look at Bill Clinton’s two terms, detailing his unsuccessful attempt to change the health care system, Republicans’ sweeping victories in the 1994 midterm elections and the shaping of his wife’s public image.
Hillary Clinton, who went on to serve as a senator from New York and as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, now is a powerful advocate for Democrats in the midterm elections and the leading Democratic prospect for president in 2016. The possibility of a presidential campaign has heightened interest in the documents by media organizations, political opposition researchers and historians.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.