Lewinsky scandal

The Monica Lewinsky scandal (informally Monicagate, various {{fn|1}}) was a political sex scandal emerging from a short-term sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives and his acquittal for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial.

Background

In 1995, Monica Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term. She had long admired President Clinton, and fantasized about him romantically. After much flirting, the two became engaged sexually, and secretly performed sexual acts on each other in closed quarters of the White House, including approximately nine incidents of oral sex, more than a dozen incidents of phone sex, and Clinton penetrating Lewinsky vaginally with a cigar which he continued to smoke afterwards.

Related Topics:
Lewis & Clark College - President Clinton - Flirting - White House - Oral sex - Phone sex - Vaginally - Cigar

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As Lewinsky's relationship with the President became more distant and after she had left the White House to work at the Pentagon, Lewinsky confided details of her feelings and the President's behavior to her presumed friend and Defense Department co-worker Linda Tripp. Unbeknownst to Lewinsky, Tripp was recording their telephone conversations and after she discovered in January 1998 that Lewinsky had signed an affidavit denying the relationship in the Paula Jones case she delivered the tapes to Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who was investigating the president on various other matters including the Whitewater scandal, Filegate, and Travelgate.

Related Topics:
Pentagon - Linda Tripp - Affidavit - Paula Jones - Kenneth Starr - Independent counsel - Whitewater scandal - Filegate - Travelgate

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News of the scandal first broke on January 17, 1998 on the Drudge Report website, which reported that Newsweek editors were sitting on a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff exposing the affair. The story broke in the mainstream press on January 21 when it hit the Washington Post. The story swirled for several days and despite swift denials from Clinton, the clamor for answers from the White House grew louder. On January 26, a visibly flustered President Clinton addressed the public in a White House press conference and issued a forceful denial:

Related Topics:
January 17 - 1998 - Drudge Report - Website - Newsweek - Michael Isikoff - January 21 - Washington Post - White House - January 26 - President Clinton - Press conference

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:"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."

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Pundits debated whether or not Clinton would address the allegations in his State of the Union Address. Ultimately, he chose not to, which may have helped his image with the American people through his strategy to appear more "presidential" and above the fray. First Lady Hillary Clinton publicly stood by her husband throughout the scandal. On January 27, in an appearance on NBC's The Today Show she famously said, "The great story here for anybody willing to find it, write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."

Related Topics:
State of the Union Address - First Lady - Hillary Clinton - January 27 - NBC - The Today Show - Vast right-wing conspiracy

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For the next several months and through the summer, pundits and the media endlessly debated whether an affair had occurred and Clinton had lied or obstructed justice, but nothing could be definitively established beyond the taped recordings because Lewinsky was unwilling to discuss the affair or testify about it. After this substantial delay after the public break of the scandal, Lewinsky received transactional immunity on July 28, 1998 in exchange for grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with Clinton. Under oath she admitted that her relationship with Clinton involved oral sex, including oral-anal contact, as documented in the Starr report, which eventually led to President Clinton's impeachment, on the basis of perjury and obstruction of justice regarding the affair. She also turned over a semen stained blue dress (which Tripp had encouraged her to save without dry cleaning) to the Starr investigators thereby providing a smoking gun based on DNA evidence that could prove the relationship despite Clinton's official denials.

Related Topics:
Immunity - July 28 - 1998 - Grand jury - Oath - Oral sex - Oral-anal contact - Starr report - Perjury - Obstruction of justice - Semen - Blue dress - Dry cleaning - DNA

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Clinton finally admitted in taped grand jury testimony on August 17, 1998 that he had had an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting he "misled people" about his relationship with Lewinsky which was "not appropriate".http://www.pbs.org/newshour/lewinsky_address/address.html

Related Topics:
Testimony - August 17 - 1998

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