Nearly 21 years to the day before President Trump’s impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, another president was almost removed for conduct unbecoming the Oval Office.
In December 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying to a grand jury about his relationship with a White House intern. That intern, Monica Lewinsky, rose to international fame after Clinton’s semen was found on her blue dress during an investigation led by independent counsel Ken Starr.
According to Lewinsky’s testimony, she engaged in sexual activities with Clinton nine times between November 1995 and March 1997. In September 1997, co-worker Linda Tripp recorded private conversations in which Lewinsky opened up about the affair. Their conversations were later handed over to Starr, who was leading an investigation into the real estate dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
On Jan. 26, 1998, Clinton denied the relationship by uttering the famous line, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Lewinsky was later afforded “transactional immunity” for perjury in exchange for admitting to the affair.
A biography, Monica’s Story, was released in 1999, and Lewinsky appeared on ABC’s 20/20 with Barbara Walters. She received more than $1 million from the two deals, although she was swamped with legal bills at the time.
In the years since the scandal that rocked D.C., Lewinsky has remained a well-known figure in American politics. Additionally, she designed handmade bags sold by her company, the Real Monica, Inc., worked as an American culture correspondent for Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and was awarded a master’s in psychology from the London School of Economics.
Lewinsky joined the #MeToo movement with a single tweet in late 2017. Just months later, she wrote an essay arguing that while her relationship with Clinton was consensual, the age gap between the two and their positions in the White House created an unfair power dynamic to Clinton’s advantage.
During a TED Talk event in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 2015, she joked, “I am probably the only person over 40 who does not want to be 22 again” after telling the story of a younger man attempting to hit on her by saying he’d “make [her] feel 22 again.”
Lewinsky is currently a contributor at Vanity Fair, is serving as a producer on FX’s Impeachment: American Crime Story, and continues to speak about the affair that shook the nation.
