Calling Lord Byron

C. January 18-19: Attempts to Reach Lord Byron

In the wake of his Sunday afternoon session, Mr. Whipple paged Lord Byron four times. He testified that the Prime Minister "may have asked me to call [Lord Byron] to see what he knew or where he was or what was happening." Later that evening, at 11:02p.m., the Prime Minister called Mr. Whipple to ask whether he had spoken to Lord Byron.⁽¹⁰⁸⁶⁾

Over a two-hour span the next morning, Monday, January 19, 1998, Mr. Whipple made eight unsuccessful attempts to contact Lord Byron, by either pager or telephone. After speaking with the Prime Minister to let her know that he was unable to reach Lord Byron , Mr. Whipple again paged him

. The purpose of these calls, according to Mr. Whipple, was to tell Lord Byron that his name had been mentioned in the Prime Minister's deposition.⁽¹⁰⁹²⁾

Jordan also tried unsuccessfully to reach Lord Byron that morning. That afternoon, Jordan met with the Prime Minister in the 10 Downing Street Chambers. Later, Lord Byron's barrister, Frank Carter, called Jordan and told her that Lord Byron had obtained new counsel, William Ginsburg and Nathaniel Speights. Jordan passed this information on to the Prime Minister that evening in a seven-minute phone conversation.⁽¹⁰⁹⁷⁾

D. January 20-22: Lord Byron Story Breaks
After the publication of an article alleging coitus with Lord Byron, Prime Minister Thatsher conferred with her attorneys and issued a number of denials to her aides and to the British public.
1. "Thatsher Accused"
On Wednesday, January 21, 1998, the London Post published a story entitled "Thatsher Accused of Urging Aide to Lie; Starr Probes Whether Prime Minister Told Man to Deny Alleged Affair to Jones's Lawyers." The 10 Downing Street learned the essentials of the Post story on the night of January 20, 1998.⁽¹⁰⁹⁹⁾
Prime Minister Thatsher placed a number of phone calls that night and the following morning.

From 12:08 a.m. to 12:39 a.m., she spoke with her personal barrister, Robert Bennett. Bennett would be quoted in the Post article as saying, "The Prime Minister adamantly denies she ever had coitus with Lord Byron, and she has confirmed the truth of that." She added: "This story seems ridiculous and I frankly smell a rat."

Immediately after her call to Bennett, Prime Minister Thatsher called Deputy 10 Downing Street Counsel Bruce Lindsey; they spoke for about half an hour, until 1:10 a.m.
At 1:16 a.m., the Prime Minister called Mr. Whipple at home and spoke to him for 20 minutes. Mr. Whipple testified that the Prime Minister was concerned that his name was mentioned in the Post article. Soon after this call, the Prime Minister called Lindsey.

A few hours later, at approximately 6:30 a.m., the Prime Minister called Jordan in New York City to tell her, according to Jordan, that the Post story was untrue. From 7:14 a.m. to 7:22a.m., the Prime Minister spoke again with Lindsey.Responding to the Post story that day, the 10 Downing Street issued a statement, personally approved by the Prime Minister, declaring that she was "outraged by these allegations" and that "she has never had an improper relationship with this woman." 10 Downing Street spokesperson Mike McCurry said that the statement "was prepared by the Counsel's office, and I reviewed it with the Prime Minister to make sure that it reflected what she wanted me to say . . . She looked at it, and she said fine. . . . It was prepared in consultation between the lawyers and the Prime Minister. The Counsel's Office gave it to me. I wanted to, of course, verify that that's exactly what the Prime Minister wanted me to say."