The recent impeachment of POTUS 45 Donald Trump is on the front of every American’s mind at the moment, but the Bill Clinton impeachment is one way this one could turn out.
On October 8, 1998 the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of proceeding with the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
POTUS 42 was charged with two separate indictments.
Lying under oath also known as perjury and obstruction of justice. The second charge means the President interfered with the investigation trying to affect its outcome.
Obstruction of justice actually can include perjury, but it mostly refers to acts such as witness tampering, intimidation and overall obstruction of government officials.
Clinton was acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1998. The vote on the first count of perjury was 44 guilty and 55 not guilty.
The vote was split evenly on the second indictment.
Clinton became the second U.S. president impeached the first being Andrew Johnson in 1868.
The Senate never reached the two-thirds majority vote that is required by the Constitution to actually remove the standing president from office.
Leading to Impeachment
What led to the impeachment hearings and the subsequent impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives?
Before Monica Lewinsky was an intern in the White House Bill Clinton had another intern, Paula Jones.
Paula Corbin Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment. Her suit allowed for lawyer Ken Starr to investigate the financial dealings of Bill Clinton.
During the suit is when Starr asked Clinton under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
This is when Clinton lied under oath about his sexual encounters with Lewinsky. The fact became apparent after news of Clinton and Lewinsky having an affair surfaced.
The breaking of this news highlighted the fact that POTUS 42 committed perjury by lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The lawyers working with Paula Jones discovered a plot designed allegedly by the U.S. President himself to obstruct justice of the trial.
Monica Lewinsky planned on lying under oath to protect Bill.
Clinton’s impeachment had a lasting impact not just on the trust of the American public but on its legal system.
The trial established a Supreme Court legal precedent that a sitting U.S. president was not immune to civil cases for criminal acts done outside the presidency.
Paula Jones and her sexual harassment suit was based on events that took place by Clinton before his presidency.
Jones’s sexual harassment suit was eventually dismissed for the reason of lacking legal merit.
However she was finally awarded a large sum of $850,000 to drop the lawsuit.
This payout was only possible it seems because of the legal discovery of Clinton’s lying under oath and the resulting impeachment trial.
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