Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton said Monday he was "mystified and disappointed" by sex allegations made against him by Kathleen Willey and stood by his statement that their White House encounter was innocent. "Nothing improper happened," Clinton said, noting he had already denied making a sexual advance toward Willey, a former political loyalist who had worked first as a volunteer and then as a part-time employee at the White House. "I am mystified and disappointed by this turn of events," he told reporters during an appearance at a high school in suburban Maryland. White House officials launched a public relations offensive to deal with allegations made publicly by Willey, who said in an interview broadcast Sunday that during an encounter in November, 1993 Clinton groped her after she asked for his help in finding a job. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton did not watch the CBS "60 Minutes" program, which attracted millions of viewers. "He doesn't need to ... He was there and he knows what the truth is," he said. Clinton has admitted meeting Willey in the Oval Office and in his private study near it, but insists his actions were misunderstood. He acknowledged hugging her, but contended he was merely trying to comfort a woman distraught over her husband's financial crisis. McCurry refused to accuse Willey of lying in her account, but said: "You have two witnesses in conflict." The sexual scandal engulfing the White House stems from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. As part of Jones' effort, her lawyers obtained sworn statements from other women regarding alleged sexual advances by Clinton -- including Willey and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Willey interview weighed heavily on the minds of White House staffers Monday, returning some of them to the gloom that hovered over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when allegations involving Lewinsky first surfaced in January. In this case, however, Willey said advances made by Clinton were unwelcome. According to one White House official, Willey "is a well-spoken person who definitely put a different face on this than Paula Jones, but at the end of the day, are there more than two people who know what happened? I don't see how it changes anything." A former senior White House official, assessing the latest development, acknowledged that "this one is more disturbing and more difficult than any of the other ones." "It's clearly more disturbing than Monica Lewinsky," the former official said. "Willey is a mature woman and if she's telling the truth, it's an abuse of friendship and it's also predatory. It's clearly taking advantage of a situation." In a sign that the latest accusation may be politically damaging for Clinton, Patricia Ireland, the head of the National Organization for Women, offered her most blistering assessment of the president since the scandal accusations surfaced in recent months. "This is beyond the idea of the likable rogue or the womanizer and really on in to sexual assault, sexual abuse," Ireland said. "It's not verbal harassment, this was an unwanted touching, and I think that's a very serious allegation against the president along with the allegations of covering that up," she said on the NBC "Today" program. Willey's husband, apparently distraught because of legal and financial problems, committed suicide in their hometown of Richmond, Va. the day Willey met with Clinton, although neither of them was aware of it at the time. In pretrial testimony in the Jones lawsuit, which goes to trial May 27, Clinton said he remembered hugging Willey and may have kissed her on the forehead in an effort to console her, but insisted "there was nothing sexual about it." Asked by one of Jones's lawyers whether he put Willey's hand on his penis, the president said: "I emphatically deny it. It did not happen." Willey last week testified before a grand jury investigating allegations that Clinton tried to cover up business, legal and personal indiscretions by seeking to alter the testimony of people who could damage him. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
