Hillary Clinton imposed a blanket of secrecy on her movements at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and told aides they would be fired if she was seen, it is claimed. Mrs Clinton said that she wanted nobody to know when she was going to the pool apart from one usher who was to guide her there. There she would spend three and a half hours sitting on her own reading looking ‘heartbroken’, according to a new book. A new book has claimed that Hillary Clinton imposed a blanket of secrecy on her movements during the Monica Lewinsky scandal . The vivid account is written by Kate Andersen Brower, a former White House correspondent for Bloomberg News in ‘The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House.’ She tells how in the summer of 1998, a few days before Mr Clinton would admit to sex with former White House intern Miss Lewinsky, usher Worthington White was approached by Mrs Clinton. She told him that she wanted to go to the pool but that only he could see her - no other aides and no Secret Service. Mr White said that he told Mrs Clinton’s lead Secret Service agent: ‘If anybody sees her, or she sees anybody, I’m going to get fired, I know it. And you probably will too’. By the pool Mrs Clinton would spend three and a half hours sitting on her own reading looking ‘heartbroken, it is claimed . Mrs Clinton’s wish was granted and she took an elevator to the pool, spent the afternoon there and came back the same way, . Miss Brower writes that Mrs Clinton ‘turned to White, took his hands and squeezed them, looked him in the eye, and thanked him.’ The book also recounts how the Clintons did not trust the old fashioned White House telephone system and felt too many people could listen in - so had it completely rewired . Miss Brower writes: ‘They had all the White House phones changed over to interior circuitry so that if the first lady was in the bedroom and the president was in the study, she could ring him from room to room without going through the operator’. Such upheaval did not go down well with staff and according to James W.F. ‘Skip’ Allen, an usher from 1979 to 2004, the Clintons were ‘about the most paranoid people I’d ever seen in my life’. The disclosure sheds new light on the row over Mrs Clinton’s use of a private email account and her own personal server whilst Secretary of State. It could harm her chances in the race for the Presidency in 2016 - she is expected to announce her candidacy this month. A new poll has found that Mrs Clinton’s approval ratings have slipped since the scandal broke and she is two points behind former Florida governor Jeb Bush, her likely opponent. Bill Clinton admitted in the summer of 1998 that he was having sex with former White House intern Miss Lewinsky (pictured)
Former first lady told White House usher she wanted to see him alone .
New book makes claims she spent hours reading and looking 'heartbroken'
President Bill Clinton admitted to affair with Monica Lewinsky that year .
Account is by former White House correspondent for Bloomberg News .