Lewinsky, Paula Jones and impeachment

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky had a sexual relationship that began in November 1995, during a government shutdown, when she was a 22-year-old White House intern. It continued, on and off, into 1997. [1]

When the story broke in January 1998, Clinton wagged a finger at the cameras: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Seven months later, after testifying to a grand jury, he told the country the relationship was “not appropriate” and said: “I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.” [2][3]

In 2018 Lewinsky wrote that she had long described it as consensual but had come to see the gulf in power between a president and an intern differently. She did not say she had been assaulted. She wrote that the gap in power between a president and an intern might make the question of consent beside the point. [4]

Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee, said that in May 1991 then-Governor Clinton had her brought to a Little Rock hotel room and made an unwanted sexual advance. Clinton denied it. She sued in 1994. [1][4]

Clinton argued a sitting president should not have to defend a private lawsuit until he left office. In 1997 the Supreme Court ruled 9–0 against him. That decision let the case go forward, and it is how Lewinsky’s name ended up on a witness list. [1]

In April 1998 Judge Wright threw out Jones’s case, finding it legally insufficient. While Jones appealed, the two sides settled in November 1998 for $850,000, with no apology or admission. A dismissal is not a finding that nothing happened. A settlement is not an admission that it did. [2][3]

In April 1999 Judge Susan Webber Wright held Clinton in civil contempt of court. She found that his January 1998 deposition answers about Lewinsky were “intentionally false” and that he had violated her discovery orders. He was ordered to pay Jones’s added legal costs, about $90,000. [1]

On 19 January 2001, his last full day as president, Clinton reached an agreement with the Arkansas Supreme Court’s disciplinary committee. He accepted a five-year suspension of his law license and a $25,000 fine, and acknowledged that he “knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers” about Lewinsky in the Jones case. He said in a statement that he had tried “to walk a line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely” and had failed. The independent counsel’s investigation ended without criminal charges. [2][3]

So both popular shortcuts are wrong. “He was never found to have lied” is false: a judge found it and he admitted misleading answers. “He was convicted of perjury” is also false: there was no criminal charge. [1][2]

On 19 December 1998 the House impeached Clinton on two articles: lying to the grand jury (228–206) and obstruction of justice (221–212). Two other articles failed. The charges were about lying and obstruction, not about the affair itself. [1]

The Senate trial ended on 12 February 1999. On perjury, 45 senators voted guilty and 55 not guilty. On obstruction the vote was 50–50. Removal needed 67. Every Democrat voted to acquit on both; some Republicans joined them. [2][3]

Clinton was the second president impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868. Acquittal means the Senate did not remove him. It is not a ruling that he told the truth. [4]