Lewinsky Scandal: Clinton's Questionable Legality

The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, and Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern. The sexual relationship began in 1995 and lasted for 18 months. In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice. The catalyst for the impeachment was the Starr Report, which detailed Clinton and Lewinsky's sexual relationship and alleged eleven possible grounds for impeachment, including perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was subsequently acquitted on all charges in a Senate trial and remained in office.

Clinton's impeachment

The impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was a result of a sex scandal involving him and Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern. Their sexual relationship began in 1995 and lasted for 18 months, ending in 1997.

In January 1998, news of the scandal broke, and Clinton denied the affair, stating, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." However, the scandal gained momentum as Lewinsky's co-worker, Linda Tripp, secretly recorded their conversations and delivered the tapes to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who was investigating Clinton on other matters.

Starr's subsequent report, released in September 1998, outlined a sexual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky and included grounds for impeachment, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of power. The report also contained explicit details of the sexual encounters.

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. The impeachment proceedings were highly partisan, with the Republican-controlled House voting along party lines. However, Clinton was subsequently acquitted on all charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999, as the votes fell short of the required two-thirds majority for conviction and removal from office.

The impeachment process had a significant impact on American politics and the public opinion landscape. It led to a decline in Clinton's personal approval ratings, even as his overall performance ratings remained high. The scandal also affected the 2000 presidential election, with some arguing that it deflated enthusiasm among Democratic voters and contributed to Al Gore's loss.

Lewinsky's affidavit

On January 7, 1998, Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit denying a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton. This was in relation to the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against Clinton, in which Lewinsky was asked to testify.

The affidavit was of great legal and political value to Clinton, but it remained locked away in Lewinsky's lawyer's office for nine days. During this time, Lewinsky received a job offer from Revlon, which had been urged by Clinton's friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. Only when the offer was in hand did Lewinsky's lawyer dispatch the affidavit.

On January 12, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr received over 20 hours of tapes of phone conversations between Lewinsky and her friend and Pentagon co-worker, Linda Tripp, which contradicted the affidavit. On January 13, Lewinsky met with Tripp at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City, Virginia, and discussed the relationship, unaware that Tripp was wearing a wire and that FBI agents were listening in.

On January 16, Lewinsky's affidavit was sent to a courthouse in Little Rock, along with a motion to quash her subpoena. The same day, a court of appeals panel gave Starr permission to add the Clinton-Lewinsky allegations to his portfolio to see if Lewinsky had lied under oath.

On January 17, the story broke in the media, with the Drudge Report revealing that Newsweek had been tipped off about the affair but had not yet run a story. Clinton denied the affair in a deposition in the Jones suit, becoming the first sitting US president to give testimony in a civil case in which he was the defendant. On January 21, the story broke in the mainstream press, and on January 26, Clinton publicly denied the report, stating: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Ken Starr's investigation

Ken Starr was the independent counsel investigating Bill Clinton on other matters when the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal broke in January 1998. Starr was initially chosen as independent counsel in 1994 and charged with investigating the Clintons' pre-presidency financial dealings with the Whitewater Land Company.

Starr's investigation into the Clintons' financial dealings was wide-ranging and included the firing of White House travel agents, the alleged misuse of FBI files, and Clinton's conduct while he was a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones.

In January 1998, Linda Tripp—a co-worker of Monica Lewinsky, with whom Clinton was having an affair—discovered that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case, denying a relationship with Clinton. Tripp gave Starr taped phone conversations between herself and Lewinsky, in which Lewinsky discussed having oral sex with the president.

Armed with evidence of Lewinsky's admission of a physical relationship with Clinton, Starr broadened his investigation to include Lewinsky and her possible perjury in the Jones case. In August 1998, Clinton faced a federal grand jury convened by Starr to consider whether the president had committed perjury in his January deposition or otherwise obstructed justice in the Jones case.

On September 9, 1998, Starr delivered his report to the House Judiciary Committee. The report cited 11 possible grounds for impeachment in four categories: perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of power. These allegations all arose from President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

The report included a detailed timeline of Lewinsky's sexual encounters with Clinton during her internship and concluded with a section entitled "Grounds," where Starr provided supporting evidence for each of the 11 grounds for potential impeachment.

Starr's investigation led to the impeachment of Clinton by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998. However, Clinton was subsequently acquitted of all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial.

Clinton's televised denial

On January 26, 1998, President Bill Clinton issued a televised denial of the allegations of a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, stating:

> Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.

Clinton's denial came after news of the scandal broke on January 17 on the Drudge Report, which reported that Newsweek had been tipped off about the affair but had not yet run the story. The story then broke in the mainstream press on January 21 in The Washington Post.

Clinton's denial was not enough to quell the growing clamour for answers from the White House. Pundits debated whether Clinton would address the allegations in his State of the Union Address, but he ultimately chose not to mention them.

On July 28, 1998, Lewinsky received transactional immunity in exchange for grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with Clinton. She also turned over a semen-stained blue dress to investigators, which provided unambiguous circumstantial evidence of the relationship despite Clinton's denials.

On August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted in a taped grand jury testimony that he had engaged in an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening, he gave a nationally televised statement, admitting that the relationship was "not appropriate".

Clinton's acquittal

The impeachment of Bill Clinton was the result of a sexual relationship with a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, which began in 1995 and lasted 18 months. Clinton repeatedly denied the affair, including in a deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. Jones had accused Clinton of exposing himself to her in 1991.

In January 1998, news of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair broke. Clinton denied the reports, famously stating: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." However, evidence of the relationship emerged, including taped conversations and a semen-stained blue dress.

In August 1998, Clinton admitted to an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. He was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 1998 on two counts: perjury and obstruction of justice.

Clinton was acquitted on both counts by the Senate in February 1999. The votes were 45-55 on perjury and 50-50 on obstruction of justice. Neither received the two-thirds majority required for conviction and removal from office.

Clinton remained in office for the rest of his second term.

Frequently asked questions