A retired Secret Service agent has come forward to say that President Clinton and Ms Monica Lewinsky met several times alone in the Oval Office. The President has reportedly sworn in an affidavit that he was never alone with her except briefly when she might have dropped off documents.
But with the pressure increasing on the President as Ms Lewinsky's mother testifies to a grand jury and Monica prepares to do so, Mrs Hillary Clinton has again stepped into the breach to dampen things down.
She told reporters at a function in the White House yesterday that her husband will be vindicated but it will take time. "I don't think this will evaporate, but I anticipate it will slowly dissipate over time reaching to insubstantiality."
Mrs Clinton said the President was now very focussed on the Iraq crisis and referred to his record ratings in the polls. "Americans are smart, fair-minded, savvy people. They see things for what they are and they realise that day in and day out life is better as we go into the next century."
At the same time, there must be a feeling in the White House that independent counsel, Mr Kenneth Starr, is slowly but surely amassing a formidable case against Mr Clinton's sworn affidavit and later public statements that he never had a sexual relationship with Ms Lewinsky. Mr Starr is finding it harder, however, to accuse the President of urging Ms Lewinsky to commit perjury about their alleged affair and this is what is holding up her appearance before the grand jury which has been put off for a second time.
Her mother, author Marcia Lewis, who spent a second day testifying yesterday was distressed when she left the court. She is to continue testifying today. According to tapes recorded by Ms Linda Tripp, a former colleague of Ms Lewinsky, the latter had confided to her mother that she was having an affair with Mr Clinton.
The former agent, Mr Lewis C. Fox, has told the Washington Post he was uncertain of the exact date when Ms Lewinsky visited the Oval Office but he believed it was a Saturday afternoon in September, October or November 1995. She arrived with papers for the President and he instructed the agent to allow her enter the office.
He is the first person to say publicly that Ms Lewinsky was alone with Mr Clinton in the Oval Office.
In other interviews Mr Fox said she "frequently" visited the White House on weekends with documents. But he also said with all the coming and going it would be difficult to imagine how the President would have a chance to conduct an affair in the White House.
The White House was reluctant to comment on the former agent's statements. Press Secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said it would be unusual for a Secret Service agent, rather than a White Office staff member, to be ushering someone into the Oval Office.