Monica Lewinsky

Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman who was thrust into the public limelight after having a sexual affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton. Their affair was conducted while Lewinsky was working as an intern at the White House in the mid-1990s. The affair's repercussions for President Clinton are often referred to as the Lewinsky scandal.

Life

Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, and grew up in Southern California on the west side of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills. Her father comes from a family of German Jewish immigrants, while her mother's family were Jewish immigrants from Russia. She graduated with a Psychology degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1995, and afterwards moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked at the White House during Clinton's first term.

Related Topics:
San Francisco - Southern California - Los Angeles - Beverly Hills - German - Jewish - Russia - Psychology - Lewis & Clark College - Portland, Oregon - 1995 - Washington, D.C.

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While at the White House she had a short-term sexual relationship with the President. Clinton and Lewinsky both denied that the relationship involved sexual intercourse. The news of this affair, and the resulting investigation, and impeachment, became known as the Lewinsky scandal.

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Confidant Linda Tripp was secretly recording her telephone conversations with Lewinsky regarding the affair with Clinton. Later, Tripp would give the tapes to Kenneth Starr (independent prosecutor), and these would divert him from an investigation of the Whitewater scandal.

Related Topics:
Linda Tripp - Kenneth Starr - Whitewater scandal

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Lewinsky admitted that her relationship with Clinton involved oral sex in the Oval Office. This was documented in the Starr report, which eventually led to President Clinton's impeachment on the allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice regarding the affair. Clinton had previously been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct, most notably in regard to a relationship with singer and former Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers and an encounter with Arkansas state employee Paula Jones (née Corbin) in a Little Rock hotel room in which Jones claimed that Clinton had exposed himself to her. These affairs occurred during Clinton's term as Arkansas governor. Lewinsky's name actually surfaced during legal procedings connected to the latter matter, when Jones' lawyers sought corroborating evidence of Clinton's conduct to substantiate Jones' allegations.

Related Topics:
Oral sex - Oval Office - Impeachment - Perjury - Obstruction of justice - Sexual misconduct - Arkansas - Gennifer Flowers - Paula Jones - Little Rock - Governor

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Clinton denied having sexual intercourse with Lewinsky while under oath in an unrelated trial. In a nationally televised clip from a White House news conference, Clinton later claimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." The line later became a punchline for its technical verity but deceptive nature, based on one's definition of "sexual relations." In addition, he stated "There is no sexual relationship" with Lewinsky, a statement which he later said was truthful depending on one's definition of "is." Under pressure from Starr on August 19, 1998, who Clinton learned had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's semen stain, Clinton admitted that he misled the American people, and that he had had an "inappropriate" relationship with Lewinsky. Clinton denied having committed perjury because oral sex was not a sexual relation.

Related Topics:
August 19 - 1998 - Semen - Oral sex

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Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but not convicted in the Senate, so he was not removed from office. Interestingly, Clinton saw his job approval ratings among the American people increase during and after the scandal.

Related Topics:
House of Representatives - Senate

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The affair, and its sordid details, led to a period of cultural celebrity for Lewinsky; as an unlikely sex symbol, and as a younger-generation nexus of a political storm that was both lighthearted, and extremely serious at the same time. Some mild use of the name "Lewinsky" still exists as a term for oral sex, though Lewinsky references and jokes have long cooled in the public interest. Many feminists considered the extensive attention to Lewinsky to be indication of widespread sexism. For her actions Lewinsky was extraordinarily famous during the last two years of the 1990s.

Related Topics:
Sex symbol - Sexism

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By her own account, Lewinsky survived the intense media attention by knitting. She now runs her own business, selling her own brand of handbags. She was also the host of the short-lived reality television dating program called Mr. Personality (2003). Lewinsky currently lives in New York City.

Related Topics:
Reality television - Mr. Personality - 2003 - New York City

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