Top 10 Facts about The Monica Lewinsky Affair (1998-99)

Top 10 Facts about The Monica Lewinsky Affair (1998-99)

The Monica Lewinsky affair also commonly known as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal in 1998 that involved former U.S President Bill Clinton and an intern known as Monica Lewinsky. Their sexual relationship lasted three years from 1995 to 1997. The scandal was a controversial affair that led to the president being charged with perjury and later his impeachment by the United States House of Representatives

Therefore this article will explore some facts about the scandal that cost the president his political career.  Even though he was acquitted of the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, the scandal had a detrimental effect on his political career. Furthermore, the scandal continues to be referenced in American politics several years after the scandal happened and is thus critical to equip the reader with the knowledge of the scandal.

1. Monica Lewinsky came from a wealthy background

Monica Lewinsky with Bill Clinton by Clinton White House-Wikimedia

Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in a wealthy family and raised in the affluent neighbourhoods of Beverly Hills and Brentwood. Being born into a well-connected and wealthy family, she went to Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Monica Lewinsky was hired during President Clinton’s first term as an intern at the White House in 1995. It is believed that she started her personal relationship with the president during her internship in the White House.

2. Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit saying that she did not have a sexual relationship with the president

On 7^th January, Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit stating that she had never had a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton.  She did this at the request of attorneys who were representing Paula Jones. Paula has accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment in 1994. Paula claimed that she had experienced emotional damage after the president exposed himself to her in Arkansas in 1991.

Therefore, after getting a tip about the Lewinsky affair with the president, the conservative legal group that had volunteered to represent Jones approached her with hopes that they could get her to help them argue that Clinton had a pattern of workplace harassment.

3. Tapes were released that contradicted the affidavit

A picture of independent counsel Kenneth Starr by Rebbeca Roth-Wikimedia

Independent counsel known as Kenneth Starr who had been investigating another scandal that involved the Clintons known as the Whitewater scandal received more than 20 hours of phone conversations which had been taped that seemed to contradict the affidavit that Monica Lewinsky had provided.

These tapes of phone conversations came from. Linda Tripp had become a close friend to Monica Lewinsky while she worked at the public affairs office at the Pentagon. Monica Lewinsky had confided in Tripp who shared the conversations she had secretly recorded with the Independent Counsel.

4. Lewinsky unknowingly provided more information to the FBI

While at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City, Monica Lewinsky spent time with Linda Tripp and she confided more about her relationship with the president to her. Unknown to her, Linda Tripp had been wired by the FBI following Starr’s orders as they wanted to get more information about the affair.

Therefore, Monica Lewinsky provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation with more information without her knowledge as she did not expect the woman who had become her confidant to have told law enforcement about her relationship with the president.

5. Bill Clinton denied having an affair with Monica Lewinsky

A picture of Bill Clinton by the Clinton White House-Wikimedia

The same day that Newsweek had been tipped off about Clinton’s affair with an intern in the Whitehouse, President Clinton denied any involvement with Monica Lewinsky.  The president did this in the Jones suit before the newspaper had a chance to run the story.

The deposition in the Jones suit was a blow to his career in that it earned him a dubious distinction where he was the first sitting president to provide testimony in a civil case where he is the defendant.

6. The Drudge published that there was a cloth with Clinton’s dried semen

On 21^st January, Drudge published allegations that Monica had kept a cloth that contained the president’s dried semen. Mainstream media picked up on the story and it ran throughout the week but the FBI found no DNA evidence on Lewinsky’s clothes.

The president further went and denied the report on television saying what became one of the memorable lines in the scandal ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky’.

7. The president’s wife, Hillary Clinton dismissed the claims of an affair

A picture of Hillary by Gage Skidmore-Wikimedia

While on the Today Show, the president’s wife Hillary Rodham Clinton dismissed the claims that her husband had an affair with Monica Lewinsky and further stated that the allegations were a conspiracy that had been made since his husband decided to run for the presidency.

On the same day that the first lady had defended her husband, Andy Bleiler, who had a five-year-long affair with Monica Lewinsky went public saying that she had told him that she had oral sex with the president.

8. A retired secret service agent admitted that she saw the president and Monica Lewinsky alone together

While the trial was continuing, a retired secret service agent became the first person to come out and publicly admit that he saw Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky alone together according to the Washington Post.

This was after Lewinsky’s mother had appeared before the grand jury as she was suspected of encouraging her daughter to lie in the affidavit she had produced.

9. Other people came out to say that the president had harassed them

After the president’s affair with an intern had been made public, other women came out to say that the president had touched them inappropriately.  Kathleen Willey who was a campaigner and donor to the Clintons in 1992 told 60 Minutes that the president groped her in 1993 while in the Oval office. A former Miss America and a flight attendant also claimed that they had been groped by Bill Clinton.

10. Clinton’s impeachment was on moral grounds

Even though the president lied that he did not have an affair with Monica Lewinsky, many of the Republicans that supported the impeachment did so on moral grounds. This is ironic in that many of the congressmen who wanted him impeached had been exposed to have had affairs while they were married.