US Senators have viewed the videotaped testimony of Ms Monica Lewinsky as Mr Vernon Jordan, the second witness in Presi dent Clinton's impeachment trial, was questioned in another part of the Capitol building.
Some Republican senators were reported as saying after viewing the videotapes yesterday that there was no need also to require Ms Lewinsky to testify in person at the impeachment trial.
A vote may be taken tomorrow when the trial resumes on whether to call Ms Lewinsky or the other two witnesses, Mr Jordan and White House aide Mr Sidney Blumenthal. He will give videotaped testimony today. White House lawyers were so confident that Ms Lewinsky had nothing new to offer after more than 20 interrogations that they did not bother to ask questions at her deposition on Monday.
Instead one of the lawyers, Ms Nicole Seligman, read a one-sentence statement expressing "regret" on behalf of the President for all she has gone through, according to sources described as "familiar" with the questioning. Mr Clinton had also expressed "sorrow" to Ms Lewinsky and her family at a prayer meeting last September.
She spent part of yesterday in her lawyers' office going over the transcript of her testimony to the Republican prosecutors. She is said to be anxious to leave Washington and to get permission from Independent Counsel Mr Ken Starr to give highly paid television interviews and to publicise her forthcoming book.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said after viewing Ms Lewinsky's testimony that he found it "helpful" to see her. He found her "credible". He also said that the American people should be allowed to see her testimony by having it played at the trial.
The questioning of Mr Jordan, who is an influential Washington lawyer and a close friend of Mr Clinton, took place in a secure, windowless room of the Capitol used for top-security briefings of members of Congress.
The questioning was interrupted for about 20 minutes after a fuse blew in one of the tape recorders. It lasted about three hours and it appeared that the White House lawyers again did not bother to ask any questions.
The prosecutors, known as House managers, wanted to question Mr Jordan about discrepancies in his earlier testimony to the grand jury with that of Ms Lewinsky. These concerned her false affidavit denying sex with the President, if he saw gifts she received from Mr Clinton and his efforts to get her a job in New York.
Congressman Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who conducted the questioning for the prosecutors, said later they would consider whether to put down motions about calling witnesses or playing their testimony at the resumed trial. Meanwhile Republicans and Democrats are separately discussing how Mr Clinton can be censured for his behaviour if, as expected, he will not be convicted of perjury or obstruction of justice when the votes are taken, probably at the end of next week.
The Republicans are keen to have a vote on "fact-finding" which would record that the President misled the American people and the grand jury when he denied having sexual relations with Ms Lewinsky. The resolution would also rebuke him for obstructing the Paula Jones sexual harassment action against him which has been settled out of court.
The White House and the Democrats strongly oppose the "fact-finding" proposal, arguing that it is unconstitutional and an attempt to find the President guilty of the impeachment charges without the required two-thirds majority.
Instead, the Democrats are trying to draft a milder motion of censure which could be voted after the President is acquitted of the perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
Today Mr Blumenthal, the White House communications adviser, will be questioned about his grand jury testimony which shows Mr Clinton in a bad light. A former journalist for the Washington Post, he told the grand jury that the day after the Monica Lewinsky story broke in the media, the President told him that she was a stalker who had tried to force sex on him.