The Affair Scandal Behind The Impeachment Of US President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton's Wife (doc. Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - In the history of the presidency of the United States (US), many presidents have been impeached. One that is quite phenomenal is the case of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

It took at least 14 hours for the United States Parliament (US) to debate and approve the two articles of impeachment that were accused of US President Bill Clinton. Until finally Bill Clinton was asked to leave his post.

The story of Clinton's impeachment begins with his affair scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. It was later discovered that Lewinsky, who is still 21 years old, had been in an illicit relationship with Clinton for a span of one and a half years.

Even when Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon, in April 1996. Lewinsky always talked about his closeness to Clinton. Until 1997, Lewinsky's colleague Linda Tripp felt the young woman from California was too close to the President.

Tripp then told the story to a writing agent named Lucianne Goldberg. Goldberg advised Tripp to secretly record Lewinsky's confession, in which the beautiful woman then gave Tripp details of the story about her affair.

Citing the History page, Saturday, December 19, the story of the affair began to "heat up" when the allegations of Lewinsky sexual harassment by Clinton were revealed. At that time, the print media Newsweek published a statement by Tripp who claimed to have met another woman who came out of Clinton's office with a flushed face and messy lipstick in 1993.

Days after the story broke, Clinton publicly denied the allegations at a White House media briefing. Accompanied by his wife Hillary, Clinton said, "I have no sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Clinton through his attorney at that time denied the news related to his scandal by saying, "Linda Tripp cannot be trusted." This is the second allegation of harassment against Clinton after Paula Jones previously admitted to being treated indecently when Clinton was Governor of Arkansas.

The situation got worse for Clinton when Tripp handed over the tape to Kenneth Star, the Independent Council at the Department of Justice in exchange for impunity in early 1998. Tripp also said there was other evidence in the form of a dress with Clinton's semen on it.

Starr then submitted a report on the results of his investigation to the DPR. Starr also outlines a case to impeach Clinton for 11 reasons, including perjury and abuse of power.

Tit for tat, the DPR approved Bill Clinton's impeachment inquiry. On December 11 of the same year, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment with the chief US Supreme Court judge being sworn in to preside and senators sworn in on jury.

On December 19, the DPR finally impeached Clinton from office. A total of 45 votes from Democrats and 10 votes from Republicans voted not guilty on charges of perjury.

Meanwhile, on charges of obstructing justice, the Senate vote was split between 50-50. After the trial was over, President Clinton said he was deeply sorry for the burdens he had placed on Congress and the US people.