President Bill Clinton carries the dubious distinction of being one among the three presidents of the United States who have faced impeachment proceedings. Bill Clinton, the forty second president of the United States assumed office in 1992 for his first term and was subsequently re-elected in 1996. Before vying for the presidency in 1992, President Clinton had served as a governor of the state of Arkansas in 1978 when aged thirty two; he was the youngest governor in the United States. This background information is particularly important as it was some of the ‘crimes’ that he allegedly committed while governor that would later haunt him and eventually mutate to impeachment proceedings against him.
Many pundits argue that President Clinton was the one President who has been the subject of most investigations in the United States. It is in the course of one of these investigations that information which ultimately led to impeachment proceedings against him was unearthed. It was while one of these investigations, (the Whitewater Investigation) was ongoing that a young woman by the name of Paula Jones appeared and alleged that some time back in 1991 when Clinton still served as the Governor of Arkansas, he sexually harassed her by asking her to engage in improper sexual conduct with him. These allegations eventually snowballed into a full trial in the now famous or perhaps infamous Clinton v Jones case. It is instructive to note that it was while the allegations by Jones were still flying around that President Clinton allegedly began an illicit affair with Monica Lewinsky, then a 22 year old White House Intern.
During the course of the Jones trial, her lawyers sought to probe any sexual misconduct by the president involving other women. It was around this time that Paula Jones’ lawyers had received information about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and they subsequently subpoenaed her. The source of information to Jones’ lawyers that ultimately enabled them to subpoena Lewinsky was one Linda Tripp, a lady whom Lewinsky had confided in when she (Lewinsky) was transferred from the White House to the Pentagon as a result of concerns that she was becoming too close to the president. As a result of the Supreme Court decision which had waived Clinton’s immunity from prosecution, he was subsequently lined up to testify in the case. When giving his testimony under oath, President Clinton denied any allegation of having ever been sexually involved with Monica Lewinsky. Indeed, he even went as far as to state that he had never been alone with her in a room. However, this testimony was ultimately found to be false when after being granted immunity, Monica availed the infamous semen stained blue dress. A DNA analysis subsequently revealed that the semen belonged to Bill Clinton. This was irrefutable evidence that Clinton actually had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky and that most importantly; he had committed the crime of perjury by lying while under oath. In light of these new developments, Clinton appeared on national television and actually admitted to having had improper sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky; in essence admitting that he had lied under oath when testifying in court. This marked the onset of claims for impeachment of President Clinton on account of committing the crime of perjury.
The impeachment proceedings were duly instituted in the House of Representatives and by a majority, the House voted to impeach the president after finding him culpable in two of the four articles which he had been charged with. These were committing perjury in the Paula Jones case and obstructing the cause of justice. The next stop in the impeachment conveyor belt was at the Senate. It was at the Senate that Clinton’s Presidency was salvaged as no two thirds majority was raised which is constitutional requirement for conviction of a sitting president in impeachment proceedings. It is also important to highlight that during the course of the trial, President Clinton reached an out of court settlement with Paula Jones by agreeing to pay her a sum of money in compensation.
There are a number of lessons which emanate from Clinton’s impeachment trial. Key among these is the importance of being fully honest with one’s lawyers. Indeed, had Clinton been fully honest with his lawyers about his past sexual relations, there was a real likelihood that the Paula Jones would have been settled out of court and thus he would have avoided the impeachment proceedings altogether. Another key lesson that was clearly evident in the trial was that in impeachment trials, politics always play a big role in determining the final outcome. Both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, voting was largely along party lines. The impeachment trial also revealed that impeachment proceedings are not necessarily national disasters which have far reaching implications. If anything, at the time of the trial, the United States continued to record positive economic growth. As was illustrated during George Bush’s presidency, the trial did not weaken the U.S Presidency. Nevertheless, opinion is still divided as to whether the impeachment trial cost the 2000 Democratic Presidential candidate, Al Gore the presidency. There are those who argue that it cost him the presidency while others posit that it was of played no role in his loss at the ballot.
Linder included the Clinton impeachment trial in his website arguably because it is a case which drew all the three organs of government; the Legislature through the Senate and House of Representatives, the Judiciary through the Supreme Court and the trial court and the Executive as it involved the presidency. The case illustrates the twists and turns that always accompany what may be termed as ‘political trials’. But most importantly, it is case which shows that the United States has institutions which are working and will not desist from discharging their mandate even the persons involved hold significant public offices.
Works Cited
Linder, Douglas. Famous Trials. 2005. 19 November 2013. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/clinton/clintonhome.html>.
Posner, Richard A. An Affair of State: the investigation, impeachment, and trial of President Clinton. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2009.
