Bill Clinton's Impeachment: The Meaning of Is and a 50-50 Senate Split

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Bill Clinton's 1998 impeachment grew from two separate legal tracks. In 1994 Paula Jones sued him for sexual harassment over his time as Arkansas governor, and in May 1997 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Clinton v. Jones that a sitting president has no immunity from civil suits over unofficial acts. Separately, independent counsel Robert Fiske, then Ken Starr, investigated the Whitewater real estate deals. In January 1998 Linda Tripp told Starr's office that intern Monica Lewinsky was preparing to lie in the Jones case and that Clinton friend Vernon Jordan was helping her find a job and a lawyer, and Starr won expanded jurisdiction through Attorney General Janet Reno and a federal judicial panel.

Clinton denied the relationship in his Jones deposition and on television, then told the grand jury in August that the truth depended on what the meaning of is is. Physical evidence undercut that defense, and the Starr Report laid out 11 possible grounds for impeachment. Republicans lost five House seats in the 1998 midterms, Newt Gingrich resigned and Bob Livingston quit on the House floor. A lame duck House passed two articles, and in February 1999 the Senate, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist presiding, acquitted Clinton 45 to 55 on perjury and 50 to 50 on obstruction.

• Clinton allegedly reviewed his version of events with secretary Betty Currie the day after his deposition.
• Larry Flynt offered million-dollar bounties for evidence of affairs by conservative lawmakers.
• Senators could not question lawyers aloud and had to submit written questions for Rehnquist to read.
• Judge Susan Webber Wright held Clinton in civil contempt and fined him $90,000, and he later settled with Jones for $850,000.
• In 2020 Ken Starr defended Donald Trump in the Senate and said impeachment should be used sparingly.