Click on linked names to read about other key players, or see the full list.

Betty Currie has been the Oval Office's genteel gatekeeper for five years, a meticulous secretary who is unfailingly gracious while sorting out President Clinton's true friends from those who merely claim to be.

It was Currie who asked Clinton's friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. to find Monica Lewinsky a job on December 8, just three days after lawyers for Paula Jones disclosed that they wanted to question Lewinsky about whether she had a sexual relationship with Clinton.

The image of Currie that emerged in independent counsel Kenneth Starr's September 9 report to Congress, drawn largely from her own grand jury testimony, is of a furtive accomplice to Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, arranging the logistics of their rendezvous while taking pains to hide the relationship.

But Clinton's lawyers deny Starr's contention that any of Clinton's interactions with Currie – or Currie's with Lewinsky – constituted an attempt to obstruct justice or influence a witness.

• Caught Between Loyalty and Principle (Oct. 4, 1998)
• Excerpts From Betty Currie Testimony (Oct. 2, 1998)
• Currie Portrayed as a Furtive Accomplice (Sept. 13, 1998)
• Currie, Lewinsky Accounts Differ on Gifts (Aug. 8, 1998)
• Currie Testimony May Prove Pivotal (March 9, 1998)
• Clinton Secretary Caught Between Loyalty, Law (Feb. 18, 1998)
• Summons Thrusts President's Gatekeeper Into View (Jan. 23, 1998)

(Updated October 5, 1998)