BY The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky engaged in sexual activities during at least two occasions while the president took phone calls from members of Congress, according to the independent counsel's report released Friday.
One of the congressman says he does not recollect talking to the president at all during that period. Another said he had "no idea" that any sexual activity was taking place during the conversation. The first incident, according to the report, was also the first sexual encounter between the president and Ms. Lewinsky and occurred on the second day of a government shutdown, Nov. 15, 1995.
Ms. Lewinsky testified that on that night, she and Clinton ended up alone in an area just off his private study, according to the report. The two kissed and Clinton began fondling her, Ms. Lewinsky told prosecutors.
"I believe he took a phone call ... and so we moved from the hallway into the back office," she testified. While he continued talking, her attentions became more sexual, Ms. Lewinsky said.
White House records show the president talked that night to two congressman -- former Rep. Jim Chapman, D-Texas, and Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. -- during that time.
Tanner's spokesman, Jeffrey Fleming, said his boss was "obviously ... a little surprised" by the report. "I think he's still digesting it, to be blunt," Flemming said.
Tanner said his records for Nov. 15 indicate he was working on welfare reform and the balanced budget conference report and he recalled having a couple of telephone conversations with Clinton that fall on those issues.
"I don't have a record of the call taking place or any specific recollection of a conversation with the president on that night," he said in a statement. "However, the House was in session on Nov. 15th until after 11 p.m., according to The Congressional Record, so I would have been in the office at 9:30 p.m. to receive a call from the White House."
Chapman, who retired from the House in 1996, did not recall talking to Clinton that night.
"While I talked to the president a number of times and most of those conversations were memorable, I do not remember one during this time frame at all," he said Friday. "I have absolutely no recollection of it."
After checking his records for that day, Chapman concluded, "I am 100 percent sure I did not call him."
According to the report, the former White House intern also engaged in sexual activities with Clinton while he was talking on the phone with Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., during the evening of Nov. 17, 1995.
The report said Ms. Lewinsky had come to the Oval Office to deliver pizza to Clinton.
While she and Clinton were engaged in intimate touching in a nearby hallway, the report said, the president's secretary "approached the door leading to the hallway" and told Clinton he had a telephone call.
"Ms. Lewinsky remembered that the caller was a member of Congress with a nickname," the report said. White House telephone records found that Clinton had taken a call from Callahan during Ms. Lewinsky's visit.
Callahan said he did not recall the specific conversation. "I can say unequivocally and without hesitation that I had no knowledge I was sharing the president's time or attention with anyone else," he told reporters in Mobile, Ala. "I do not have any recollection of any inappropriate behavior or comments coming from the president during my conversation."
