A Guide to Bill Clinton's 1990s Controversies

From left: Monica Lewinsky and then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.Photo: Getty

As details of Clinton’s behavior played out in televised hearings and athis impeachment trial, Americans got a front-row seat to the secrets and private moments of the most powerful man in the world.

While it seemed like something of an overnight sensation from the moment it broke in theDrudge Report, what became known asthe Clinton-Lewinsky affairhad plenty of lead-up.

Here’s a chronological look at the allegations, controversies and investigations related to Bill, which were chronicled in the 2021 FX limited seriesImpeachment: American Crime Story.

1978: The Clintons make a land purchase in Arkansas

Bill andHillary Clinton, along with their friends Jim and Susan McDougal, bought 230 acres of riverfront land for $203,000 with the intention of selling it as vacation home lots,The New York Timesreported.

The deal was ultimately a bust, and Jim bought a savings and loan association and renamed it Madison Guaranty. He ultimately defrauded both Madison Guaranty and another small-business investment firm, called Capital Management Services, to the tune of $3 million.

According toTheNew York Times, the scheme cost the federal government around $73 million and 15 people were charged for their role in the scandal. (Jim died in prisonin 1998.)

The Clintons, however, were never charged and no wrongdoing was ever proven. They have adamantly maintained they had no involvement.

1992: Allegations about Whitewater dealings begin to surface

Questions about the Whitewater dealings surfaced during Clinton’s 1992 bid for the presidency, with the Justice Department eventually opening an investigation into the matter and an illegal $300,000 loan provided to the McDougals.

The deputy White House counsel, Vince Foster, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Fort Marcy Park off Virginia’s George Washington Parkway.Foster reportedly suffered from depression, seeking treatment one day before his death, yet conspiracy theories soon began swarming (and persisted decades later).

A series of investigations — one of which, according to a 1994Washington Postreport, involved four lawyers, five physicians, seven FBI agents and approximately 125 witnesses — confirmed Foster’s death was a suicide.

January 1994: Special counsel Robert Fiske Jr. launches Whitewater probe

Attorney General Janet Reno appointed New York lawyer Robert Fiske Jr. as special counsel to investigate the Clintons' involvement in the Whitewater land purchase.

January 1994: Paula Jones comes forward with harassment claims against Bill Clinton

Two days before the expiration of a three-year statute of limitations, she filed a sexual harassment suit, seeking $750,000 in damages. Jones' claims served as the impetus for broadening the investigation into Clinton’s pre-presidency financial dealings.

Later,Washington Postreportedthat a state trooper confirmed parts of Jones’ account but alleged that she volunteered her phone number to Clinton and asked to be his girlfriend. The accounts came two years after Clinton had publicly admitted to “marital wrongdoing” in the past.

August 1994: Kenneth Starr takes over Whitewater probe

Kenneth Starr, who served as solicitor general under former PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, took over Fiske’s probe into the Whitewater dealings.Starr’s legal teamincluded future Supreme Court JusticeBrett Kavanaugh, who worked for Starr in the Bush-era Justice Department.

Linda Tripp.Dave Tracy/Getty

Dave Tracy/Getty

Fall 1997: Linda Tripp starts recording conversations with Monica Lewinsky

Linda Tripp, a career civil servant moved from the White House to the Pentagon, began taping conversations she had withMonica Lewinsky, a former White House intern who had just begun working in the Pentagon with her. In the tapes, Lewinsky detailed the affair she had been having with President Clinton since November 1995.

October 1997: Linda Tripp plays the tapes for a reporter and a book agent

In a meeting withNewsweekreporter Michael Isikoff, book agent Lucianne Goldberg and her son, Jonah Goldberg, Tripp played a tape of one of her conversations with Lewinsky.Newsweekultimately opted not to proceed with its story on the then-unsubstantiated affair.

Dec. 17, 1997: Monica Lewinsky is subpoenaed

Dec. 28, 1997: Monica Lewinsky visits the White House

Lewinsky made her final visit to the White House to privately discuss the subpoena with President Clinton. According to a 1998CNN report, Lewinsky later told prosecutors that the president encouraged her to be “evasive” to investigators during the meeting.

Monica Lewinsky.Roberto Borea/AP/Shutterstock

Jan. 7, 1998: Monica Lewinsky files an affidavit denying affair with President Clinton

In an affidavit filed as part of Jones' case, Lewinsky denied ever having had a sexual relationship with President Clinton.

Jan. 12, 1998: Linda Tripp contacts Kenneth Starr

Tripp contacted Starr’s office to discuss the Lewinsky tapes, which detailed both the affair and indicated that Clinton and his friend Vernon Jordan — who had earlier helped Lewinsky find work in New York after leaving Washington, D.C. — may have told the former intern to lie under oath.

Jan. 16, 1998: The probe expands, Linda Tripp meets with Monica Lewinsky at hotel

Around the same time, Tripp, wearing a wire, met Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton. FBI agents interceded and questioned Lewinsky in a hotel room.

Jan. 17, 1998: Bill Clinton gives sworn deposition

In a sworn deposition as part of the Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky — a lie that would later fuel his impeachment.

Monica Lewinsky (center) in May 1998.Bob Riha, Jr./Getty

Jan. 19, 1998: The Druge Report mentions Monica Lewinsky

Lewinsky’s name surfaced publicly for the first time, via the Drudge Report, a nascent conservative news and gossip website. A post on the site mentioned thatNewsweekhad allegedly delayed publishing a piece on the affair between Clinton and Lewinsky.

Jan. 26, 1998: Bill Clinton addresses the nation, denies the affair

In a now-notorious public statement delivered on national television, President Clinton denied the claims of his affair with Lewinsky, saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

July 28, 1998: Monica Lewinsky turns over the blue dress

In exchange for grand jury testimony, Lewinsky received transactional immunity. She turned over a semen-stained blue dress to Starr’s investigators.

Aug. 17, 1998: Bill Clinton testifies before grand jury and addresses the nation

Clinton became the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Counsel as the subject of a grand jury investigation.

Sept. 9, 1998: The Starr Report is referred to Congress

Starr delivered his referral — known as theStarr Report— to Congress, leading to Clinton’s impeachment in the House of Representatives on two counts: perjury and obstruction of justice.

November 1998: Bill Clinton settles with Paula Jones

Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, according to aCNN report, but did not give her an apology or admit guilt, in exchange for her agreement to drop the appeal.

Dec. 19, 1998: President Clinton impeached

President Clinton’s five-week impeachment trial ended in February 1999, and the Senate acquitted him on the two counts.

Neither he nor Hillary was ever criminally accused for their role in the Whitewater land deal that first spurred Starr and his investigators.

Three separate inquiries found insufficient evidence to tie the Clintons to the criminal conduct of others involved in the transaction.

source: people.com