Filed at 6:49 p.m. EST
By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- House prosecutors made a last-ditch effort Monday to make an issue of presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal's truthfulnesss, but affidavits they tried to introduce at the impeachment trial may open the door for a criminal investigation elsewhere.
The Justice Department or prosecutor Kenneth Starr's office could wind up delving into Blumenthal's Senate testimony last week, in which he denied feeding the news media President Clinton's false account from January 1998 about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Over the weekend, journalist Christopher Hitchens and his wife signed affidavits stating that Blumenthal told them that the former White House intern was a stalker. Journalist Scott Armstrong signed an affidavit Monday saying he was told by Hitchens and his wife, Carol Blue, about their conversation with Blumenthal and the ``stalker'' comment. Regarding the possibility of a criminal probe of Blumenthal, Starr spokesman Charles Bakaly declined to comment and Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said there's been no formal referral from Congress.
One of Starr's independent counsel predecessors, prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, won a guilty plea from retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord for making a false statement in a congressional deposition.
Secord lied in telling investigators on Capitol Hill he had not been aware any money from his business dealings in the Iran-Contra affair going to White House aide Oliver North. Secord used some of the Iran-Contra proceeds to pay for a $13,800 security fence at North's home.
House managers pressed the Senate to subpoena the three journalists.
``The president may have engaged in an intimidation campaign'' against Ms. Lewinsky in January 1998 and Blumenthal ``may have testified falsely before the Senate,'' House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde wrote the Senate majority and minority leaders.
According to Blumenthal, he was told by the president in January 1998 that Ms. Lewinsky said her peers referred to her as ``the stalker'' and Clinton said he'd rebuffed a sexual demand she made on him.
Last week, Blumenthal told the Senate that ``I never told any of my colleagues about what the president told me. ... I didn't mention it to my friends, I didn't mention it to my family, besides my wife. ... And I certainly never mentioned it to any reporter.''
Blumenthal told the Senate that ``I talked about Monica Lewinsky with all sorts of people, my mother, my friends, about what was in the news stories every day ... but when it came to talking about her personally, I drew a line.''
In a statement Sunday, Blumenthal said that he was never a source for any story about Monica Lewinsky's personal life and that ``I did not reveal what the president told me to any reporter.''
Blumenthal said that ``as I testified to the Senate, I talked every day about the stories in the news concerning Miss Lewinsky to my friends and family, just as everyone else is doing.''
There was an apparent inconsistency in the affidavits.
Hitchens said the conversation with Blumenthal occurred March 19, 1998. Armstrong said his conversation with Hitchens and his wife occurred ``on or about March 18.'' In an interview, Hitchens said the credit card receipt is dated March 19, but that an appointment calendar showed the luncheon with Blumenthal occurred March 17. Hitchens said further investigation would pin down the date and that in any event, Blumenthal has not contest that it occurred, simply that Blumenthal does not remember what was said.