Monica Lewinsky twisted the truth and was obsessed with sex, a lawyer for a former lover - her married former high school drama instructor - said Wednesday.
Terry Giles made his comments a day after his client Andy Bleiler, 32, revealed the affair at a news conference with his wife, Kathy.Bleiler worked in the drama department at Beverly Hills (Calif.) High School, which Lewinsky attended. He said their affair started in 1992, a year after Lewinsky graduated from another high school and a year after he was married, and continued until last spring.
In an interview with CNN Wednesday, Giles said Lewinsky was "a young lady obsessed with sex who went to Washington, D.C., with an agenda." He said she had a "tendency sometimes to twist facts in order to enhance her own self-importance."
Lewinsky told Bleiler she was having oral sex with a "high-ranking White House official," Giles said at Tuesday's news conference with Bleiler. Lewinsky told Bleiler she was "frustrated and agitated" that oral sex was all the official wanted to have, Giles said.
The president has denied allegations that he had sex with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and then told her to lie about it.
At the news conference, Giles portrayed Lewinsky as a manipulative liar who refused to break off her affair with Bleiler and wormed her way into the family's confidence.
Lewinsky's lawyer, William Ginsburg, confirmed his 24-year-old client had an affair with Bleiler but dismissed its importance.
Bleiler said the affair continued during the two years Lewinsky attended Lewis & Clark College here and after she graduated in 1995 and left for Washington.
Bleiler, now a theater technician at the Vancouver (Wash.) School of Arts and Academics, said the relationship ended last April after his wife found out about it. That happened when she learned Lewinsky had bragged about the affair to college acquaintances.
The attorney added that Lewinsky confided in the couple long after she went to work at the White House. He said she never mentioned Clinton specifically but referred to the White House official as "the creep."
After starting at the White House as an unpaid intern, Lewinsky moved to a paid White House position handling mail, then went to the Pentagon in April 1996. She left in December.
Lewinsky sent the Bleilers some documents and photographs, Giles said, that they were to turn over to Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's office Wednesday.
They did not specify what the documents and photographs were but said none of the photos were of Clinton and Lewinsky.
Meanwhile, a grand jury investigation was accelerating Wednesday even as Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to quiet the crisis regarding the president's alleged relationship with Lewinsky. "Nobody can expect the president to say anything more publicly," Hillary Clinton said.
Clinton's former chief of staff, Leon Panetta, arrived at the U.S. Courthouse where a grand jury has begun hearing testimony on whether the president had an affair with Lewinsky and asked her to lie about it.
Hillary Clinton told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the president was getting on with the nation's business and "because there's an investigation going on nobody can expect the president to say anything more publicly."
Prosecutors are still weighing whether to give Lewinsky immunity from possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges in exchange for her testifying about her relationship with the president.
Lewinsky started her internship by working in Panetta's office. Panetta has said in the past week that he never knew Lewinsky but that he recognized her photo when he saw it in the newspaper. He also has said he was not aware of any improper relationship between the president and an intern.
On Tuesday, prosecutors brought the president's personal secretary before the federal grand jury while vigorously disputing Hillary Clinton's accusation they were allied with right-wingers to get her husband.
On Wednesday, the first lady repeatedly expressed assurances that the full truth will come out eventually, and she said she was confident the matter will "fade into oblivion."