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Bill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, and acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. The charges, perjury, obstruction of justice, and malfeasance in office, arose from the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Paula Jones lawsuit. The trial proceedings were largely partisan, with no Democratic Senators voting for conviction and only five Democratic Representatives voting to impeach. In all, 55 senators voted not guilty, and 45 voted guilty on the perjury charge. The Senate also acquitted on the charge of obstruction, with 50 votes cast as not guilty, and 50 votes as guilty.[1] It was only the second impeachment of a President in American history, following the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868.
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The charges arose from an investigation by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Originally dealing with the failed land deal years earlier known as Whitewater, Starr, with the approval of Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno, conducted a wide ranging investigation of alleged abuses including the firing of White House travel agents, the alleged misuse of FBI files, and Clinton's conduct during the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas government employee, Paula Jones. In the course of the investigation, Linda Tripp provided Starr with taped phone conversations in which Monica Lewinsky, a former White House Intern, discussed having oral sex with Clinton. At the deposition, the judge ordered a precise legal definition of the term "sexual relations" [2] that Clinton claims to have construed to mean only vaginal intercourse. A much-quoted statement from Clinton's grand jury testimony showed him questioning the precise use of the word "is." Clinton said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement".[3] Starr obtained further evidence of Clinton's philandering by seizing the computer hard drive and email records of Monica Lewinsky. Based on his conflicting testimony, Starr concluded that Clinton had committed perjury. Starr published his findings in a lengthy document (the so-called Starr Report), which dealt exclusively with the relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky, replete with lurid details of their encounters. The report and subsequent proceedings provided ample fodder for both political opponents and late-night comedians. Starr, in turn, was criticised for spending $70 million in an investigation that substantiated no wrongdoing other than perjury and obstruction of justice.[4] Critics of Starr also contend that his investigation was highly politicised because it regularly leaked tidbits of information to the press, in violation of legal ethics, and because his report included lengthy pornographic descriptions which were humiliating yet irrelevant to the legal case.[5][6]
After rumors of the scandal reached the news, Clinton publicly stated, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." In his Paula Jones deposition, he swore, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her."[7] Months later, Clinton admitted that his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" and "not appropriate." Lewinsky engaged in oral sex with Clinton on several occasions.[8][9]
The House Judiciary Committee conducted no investigations of its own into Clinton's alleged wrongdoing, and it held no serious impeachment-related hearings before the 1998 mid-term elections. Nevertheless, impeachment was one of the major issues in the election. In November 1998, the Democrats picked up seats in the Congress. (The previous mid-term election, in 1994, had been a major debacle for Clinton's Democratic Party, though the Democrats gained 8 House seats in November 1996.)
While the Republicans still maintained majority control of the United States House of Representatives after the 1998 midterm elections, they would also lose a large number of seats to the Democrats in this election as well.[10] Shortly after the mid-term elections, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who was one of the people leading the impeachment proceedings against Clinton,[11] announced he would resign from Congress as soon as he was able to find somebody to fill his vacant seat;[10] Gingrich fulfilled this pledge and officially resigned from Congress on January 25, 1999.
Impeachment proceedings were initiated during the post-election, "lame duck" session of the outgoing 105th United States Congress. The committee hearings were perfunctory, but the floor debate in the whole House was spirited on both sides. The Speaker-designate, Representative Bob Livingston, chosen by the Republican Party Conference to replace outgoing Speaker Newt Gingrich, announced the end of his candidacy for Speaker and his resignation from Congress from the floor of the house after his own marital infidelity came to light. In the same speech, Livingston also encouraged Clinton to resign. Clinton chose to remain in office and urged Livingston to reconsider his resignation.[12] Contemporaneously, some media reported on house manager Henry Hyde's marital infidelity of several decades prior.
Upon the passage of H. Res. 611, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives on grounds of perjury to a grand jury (by a 228-206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221-212 vote). Two other articles of impeachment failed — a second count of perjury in the Jones case (by a 205-229 vote) and one accusing Clinton of abuse of power (by a 148-285 vote). Four Republicans opposed all four articles, while five Democrats voted for three of them and 1 Democrat for all four. Upon passage of H. Res. 611, Clinton became the first elected U.S. president and the second U.S. president to be impeached, following Andrew Johnson in 1868. (In 1974, Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency before the House impeachment vote.)
The Senate trial lasted from January 7, 1999, until February 12 and was presided over by Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist. Clinton was defended by Cheryl Mills. Clinton's counsel staff included: Charles Ruff, David E. Kendall, Dale Bumpers, Bruce Lindsey, Nicole Seligman, Lanny A. Breuer and Gregory B. Craig.[13]
Thirteen House Republicans from the Judiciary Committee served as "managers," the equivalent of prosecutors:
No live witnesses were called during the trial, although four witnesses were interviewed on videotape: President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Clinton's friend Vernon Jordan, and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal.
A two-thirds majority, 67 votes, would have been necessary to convict and remove the President from office. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction and 55 against. (Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voted "not proven,"[14] which was considered by the Chief Justice Rehnquist as a vote of "not guilty.") The obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50 for conviction and 50 against.
Republicans: Chafee (Rhode Island), Collins (Maine), Gorton (Washington), Jeffords (Vermont), Shelby (Alabama), Snowe (Maine), Specter (Pennsylvania), Stevens (Alaska), Thompson (Tennessee), and Warner (Virginia).
Democrats: Akaka (Hawaii), Baucus (Montana), Bayh (Indiana), Biden (Delaware), Bingaman (New Mexico), Boxer (California), Breaux (Louisiana), Bryan (Nevada), Byrd (West Virginia), Cleland (Georgia), Conrad (North Dakota), Daschle (South Dakota), Dodd (Connecticut), Dorgan (North Dakota), Durbin (Illinois), Edwards (North Carolina), Feingold (Wisconsin), Feinstein (California), Graham (Florida), Harkin (Iowa), Hollings (South Carolina), Inouye (Hawaii), Johnson (South Dakota), Kennedy (Massachusetts), Kerrey (Nebraska), Kerry (Massachusetts), Kohl (Wisconsin), Landrieu (Louisiana), Lautenberg (New Jersey), Leahy (Vermont), Levin (Michigan), Lieberman (Connecticut), Lincoln (Arkansas), Mikulski (Maryland), Moynihan (New York), Murray (Washington), Reed (Rhode Island), Reid (Nevada), Robb (Virginia), Rockefeller (West Virginia), Sarbanes (Maryland), Schumer (New York), Torricelli (New Jersey), Wellstone (Minnesota), and Wyden (Oregon).
Republicans: Abraham (Michigan), Allard (Colorado), Ashcroft (Missouri), Bennett (Utah), Bond (Missouri), Brownback (Kansas), Bunning (Kentucky), Burns (Montana), Campbell (Colorado), Cochran (Mississippi), Coverdell (Georgia), Craig (Idaho), Crapo (Idaho), DeWine (Ohio), Domenici (New Mexico), Enzi (Wyoming), Fitzgerald (Illinois), Frist (Tennessee), Gramm (Texas), Grams (Minnesota), Grassley (Iowa), Gregg (New Hampshire), Hagel (Nebraska), Hatch (Utah), Helms (North Carolina), Hutchinson (Arkansas), Hutchison (Texas), Inhofe (Oklahoma), Kyl (Arizona), Lott (Mississippi), Lugar (Indiana), Mack (Florida), McCain (Arizona), McConnell (Kentucky), Murkowski (Alaska), Nickles (Oklahoma), Roberts (Kansas), Roth (Delaware), Santorum (Pennsylvania), Sessions (Alabama), Smith (New Hampshire), Smith (Oregon), Thomas (Wyoming), Thurmond (South Carolina), and Voinovich (Ohio).
Democrats: None.
Republicans: Chafee, Collins, Jeffords, Snowe, Specter
Democrats: Akaka, Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Breaux, Bryan, Byrd, Cleland, Conrad, Daschle, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Edwards, Feingold, Feinstein, Graham, Harkin, Hollings, Inouye, Johnson, Kennedy, Kerrey (NE), Kerry (MA), Kohl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Lincoln, Mikulski, Moynihan, Murray, Reed (RI), Reid (NV), Robb, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Schumer, Torricelli, Wellstone, Wyden
Republicans: Abraham, Allard, Ashcroft(MO), Bennett, Bond, Brownback, Bunning, Burns, Campbell, Cochran, Coverdell, Craig, Crapo, DeWine, Domenici, Enzi, Fitzgerald, Frist(TN), Gorton, Gramm, Grams, Grassley(IA), Gregg, Hagel, Hatch(UT), Helms, Hutchinson (AR), Hutchison (TX), Inhofe, Kyl, Lott(MS), Lugar, Mack, McCain, McConnell, Murkowski, Nickles, Roberts, Roth, Santorum, Sessions(AL), Shelby(AL), Smith (NH), Smith (OR), Stevens, Thomas, Thompson(TN), Thurmond(SC), Voinovich, Warner(VA)
Democrats: None
In April 1999, about two months after being acquitted by the Senate, Clinton was cited by Federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright for civil contempt of court for his "willful failure" to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. For this citation, Clinton was assessed a $90,000 fine, and the matter was referred to the Arkansas Supreme Court to see if disciplinary action would be appropriate.[15]
Regarding Clinton's January 17, 1998, deposition where he was placed under oath, the judge wrote:
"Simply put, the president's deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. (Monica) Lewinsky was intentionally false, and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false...." [15]
In January 2001, on the day before leaving office, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he then chose to resign.[16]
Eventually, the court dismissed the Paula Jones harassment lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages. However, while the dismissal was on appeal, Clinton entered into an out-of-court settlement by agreeing to pay Jones $850,000.[17][18]
Polls conducted during 1998 and early 1999 showed that only about one-third of Americans supported Clinton's impeachment or conviction. However, one year later, when it was clear that House impeachment would not lead to ouster of the President, half of Americans said that they supported impeachment and 42% disapproved of the Senate's decision to keep him in office.[19]
While Clinton's job approval rating rose during the Lewinsky scandal and subsequent impeachment, his poll numbers with regard to questions of honesty, integrity and moral character declined.[20] As a result, "moral character" and "honesty" weighed heavily in the next presidential election. According to The Daily Princetonian, after the 2000 presidential election, "post-election polls found that, in the wake of Clinton-era scandals, the single most significant reason people voted for Bush was for his moral character."[21][22][23] According to an analysis of the election by Stanford University:
According to the America's Future Foundation:
Political commentators, however, have argued that Gore's refusal to have Clinton campaign with him was a bigger liability to Gore than Clinton's scandals.[26][24][27][28][29] The 2000 US Congressional election also saw the Democrats gain more seats in Congress.[30] As a result of this gain, control of the US Senate was split 50-50 between both parties,[31] and Democrats would gain a majority control over the US Senate after Republican Senator Jim Jeffords defected from his party in the spring of 2001 and agreed to caucus with the Democrats.[32] Al Gore reportedly confronted Clinton after the election, and "tried to explain that keeping Clinton under wraps [during the campaign] was a rational response to polls showing swing voters were still mad as hell over the Year of Monica;"[33][34] Clinton, however, was unconvinced by Gore's argument and insisted to Gore that he would have won the election if he had embraced the administration and it's good economic record.[33][34]
Many House managers had varying degrees of success in the years following the trial. Of the 13 house managers, only two, Jim Sensenbrenner and Steve Buyer, still remain in the House, 7 no longer hold political office, one has died, two hold political offices outside of Congress, and one is in the Senate.
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