Voting in the House Committee on the Judiciary on articles of impeachment
Accusation
Perjury/grand jury
Votes in favor
21
Votes against
17
Result
Approved
Accusation
Perjury/Jones case
Votes in favor
20
Votes against
18
Result
Approved
Accusation
Obstruction of justice
Votes in favor
21
Votes against
17
Result
Approved
Accusation
Abuse of power
Votes in favor
21
Votes against
17
Result
Approved
Committee forwarded the four proposed articles of impeachment to the full House for consideration
The impeachment inquiry against Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was initiated by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on October 8, 1998, roughly a month after the release of the Starr Report.
The committee ultimately authored and approved four proposed articles of impeachment for consideration by the full House. Subsequently, on December 19, 1998, the full House voted to approve the first and third proposed articles, while rejecting the second and fourth proposed articles, thereby impeaching Bill Clinton.
In 1994, Paula Jones filed a lawsuit accusing Clinton of sexual harassment when he was governor of Arkansas.[2] Clinton attempted to delay a trial until after he left office, but in May 1997 the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Clinton's claim that the Constitution immunized him from civil lawsuits, and shortly thereafter the pre-trial discovery process commenced.[3]
In 1997, the first effort in congress to start an impeachment against Clinton was launched by Republican congressman Bob Barr.[5]
Paula Jones's attorneys wanted to prove Clinton had engaged in a pattern of behavior with women who supported her claims. In late 1997, Linda Tripp began secretly recording conversations with her friend Monica Lewinsky, a former intern and Department of Defense employee. In those recordings, Lewinsky divulged that she had a sexual relationship with Clinton. Tripp shared this information with Jones's lawyers, who added Lewinsky to their witness list in December 1997. According to the Starr Report, a U.S. federal government report written by Ken Starr on his investigation of President Clinton, after Lewinsky appeared on the witness list Clinton began taking steps to conceal their relationship. Some of the steps he took included suggesting to Lewinsky that she file a false affidavit to misdirect the investigation, encouraging her to use cover stories, concealing gifts he had given her, and attempting to help her find gainful employment to try to influence her testimony.[citation needed]
In May 1997, the United States Supreme Court reject Clinton's argument that he, as president, should have immunity from civil case, thus allowing Paula Jones' lawsuit against him to proceed.[4]
In a January 17, 1998 sworn deposition related to the Jones lawsuit against him, Clinton denied having a "sexual relationship", "sexual affair", or "sexual relations" with Lewinsky.[4][6] His lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, stated with Clinton present that Lewinsky's affidavit showed there was no sex in any manner, shape or form between Clinton and Lewinsky. The Starr Report states that the following day, Clinton "coached" his secretary Betty Currie into repeating his denials should she be called to testify.
Bill Clinton makes a presentation that ends with a short commentary on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. The presentation is known for the quote "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." (6:22)
After rumors of the scandal reached the news, Clinton publicly said, on January 26, 1998, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."[4][7] But months later, Clinton admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" and "not appropriate". Lewinsky engaged in oral sex with Clinton several times.[8][9]
The judge in the Jones case later ruled the Lewinsky matter immaterial, and threw out the case on April 1m, 1998 on the grounds that Jones had failed to show any damages. However, Jones appealed this decision.[4][10]
The Starr Report was released to congress on September 9, 1998 and to the public on September 11.[4][11] In the report, Starr argued that there were eleven possible grounds for impeachment of Clinton, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of power. The report also detailed explicit and graphic details of the sexual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky.[4][12]
Early actions by the House Committee on the Judiciary
On September 11, 1998, by a vote of 363-63, the House of Representatives voted for a resolution that would release the Starr Report to the public and authorize a "deliberative review" of it by the House Committee on the Judiciary.[13][14]
On September 18, over the objections of the Democratic members, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted to release the video of Clinton's grand jury testimony, and more the 3,000 pages of the Starr Report's supporting material, including a sexually explicit testimony by Lewinsky.[4][15][16] This content was released on September 21, with the videotape of Clinton's deposition, immediately after its release, being aired by many cable channels across the United States.[4][16]
The committee announced on September 24 that, in an open session on either October 5 or 6, it would consider a resolution that would initiate an impeachment inquiry against Clinton.[16]
On October 2, the committee released 4,610 more pages of supporting material from the Starr investigation, a cache which included transcripts of grand jury testimony and transcripts of the recordings Linda Tripp made of phone calls and conversations she had with Lewinsky.[4][16]
On October 5, in a 21–16 vote, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted to recommend a formal impeachment inquiry.[4][16]
House vote authorizing the inquiry
Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary Henry Hyde and other Republican members of the committee hold a press conference on October 8, 1998
On October 8, 1998, the Republican controlled House of Representatives authorized an inquiry through a bipartisan vote (House Resolution 581) of 258–176, with 31 Democrats joining Republicans.[17][18][19] The resolution authorize the House Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether grounds existed for an impeachment of Clinton.[20]
Before the vote on the bill authorizing the inquiry, a vote was held on a motion that would send the bill back to the House Committee on the Judiciary with recommended revisions. This motion was rejected by a House vote of 236–198. All but ten Democrats had supported the failed motion, along with one Republican (Jay Dickey) and the House's sole independent congressman (Bernie Sanders). One Republican (Deborah Pryce) did not vote.[21][22]
Vote on authorizing the House Committee on the Judiciary to launch an impeachment inquiry[20]
Party
Vote on H. R. 581, Authorizing and directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether sufficient grounds exist for the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States[20]
The table below shows the members of the House Committee on the Judiciary, who conducted the inquiry. The names are divided by party, and ranked by seniority.
Since Ken Starr had already completed an extensive investigation, the House Committee on the Judiciary conducted no investigations of its own into Clinton's alleged wrongdoing and held no serious impeachment-related hearings before the 1998 midterm elections.[citation needed]
Impact of inquiry on midterm elections
Impeachment was one of the major issues in the 1998 midterm elections.[citation needed] In the closing week of campaigning, Republicans changed tactics and began running television ads attacking Democrats for Clinton's sexual affair with Lewinsky.[16]
In the November 1998 House elections, held on November 3, the Democrats picked up five seats in the House,[16] but the Republicans still maintained majority control. The results went against what House SpeakerNewt Gingrich predicted, who, before the election, had been reassured by private polling that Clinton's scandal would result in Republican gains of up to thirty House seats.
Exit polls of the midterm showed that most Americans opposed impeachment. However, neither notably high Democratic or Republican turnout occurred in the midterms, despite speculation that the impeachment process might affect voter turnout.[24]
Post-midterm developments
Shortly after the elections, House speaker Gingrich, who had been one of the leading advocates for impeachment, announced he would resign from Congress as soon as he was able to find somebody to fill his vacant seat.[25][26] Gingrich would ultimately fulfill this pledge, and officially resigned from Congress on January 3, 1999.[27]
On November 9, a house subcommittee heard from legal experts as to whether Clinton's behavior had risen to the level of an impeachable offense.[16]
On November 13, 1998, Clinton agreed to pay a $850,000 settlement to Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit, after four years of litigation. The arrangement did not include an apology from Clinton.[16][29]
On November 19, Ken Starr presented his case against Clinton to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Starr declared that Clinton had repeatedly chosen "deception" and engaged in an "unlawful effort to thwart the judicial process".[4][16] In this session, the Democrats on the committee questioned Starr on his methods of investigation.[16]
On November 28, Clinton delivered written answers to 81 questions that the House Committee on the Judiciary had given him.[30][31] Republicans voiced disappointment and outrage at Clinton's responses, which they criticized as being evasive, incomplete, weak in defense, and legalistic.[16][31]
On a party-line vote held on December 1, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted to expand the scope of their inquiry to include alleged campaign finance abuse, and to approve subpoenas for Attorney GeneralJanet Reno, Director of the FBILouis Freeh and federal prosecutor Charles LaBella.[4][16] However, on December 3, Henry Hyde, the chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, told Republicans that the campaign financing allegations would no longer be a part of the impeachment discussions.[16]
On December 4, Clinton's lawyers requested that the House Committee on the Judiciary allot them three to four days to make a defense presentation.[16] On December 6, they were granted 30 hours stretched over two days to make their defense case before the committee.[16] In a day-long session on December 8, Clinton's legal team and three panels of witnesses testifying on Clinton's behalf argued that Clinton's behavior did not call for impeachment.[16]
On December 11, Clinton released another apology for his actions, declaring himself "profoundly sorry" and willing to accept a censure.[4][16] The same day, the House Committee on the Judiciary agreed to send three articles of impeachment to the full House for consideration. The vote on two articles, grand juryperjury and obstruction of justice, was 21–17, both along party lines. On the other, perjury in the Paula Jones case, the committee voted 20–18, with Republican Lindsey Graham joining with Democrats, in order to give President Clinton "the legal benefit of the doubt".[32] The next day, December 12, the committee voted to send a fourth and final article, for abuse of power, to the full House by a 21–17 vote, again, along party lines.[33]
Subsequent impeachment process developments
Also on December 12, a Democratic proposal to censure Clinton as an alternative to impeaching him was defeated.[16]
On December 15, 1998, a group of eleven moderate House Republicans declared that they would vote to impeach Clinton, which deflated Clinton's hopes that Republicans may lack the votes to successfully impeach him.[16]
Debate on impeachment was delayed from December 17 to December 18 by Republicans after the December 16 onset of the bombing of Iraq.[16] The same day, House Speaker-designate, Representative Bob Livingston (chosen by the Republican Party Conference to replace Gingrich as House Speaker) admitted to his own marital infidelity, but tried to draw a distinction between him and Clinton, by pointing out that his own infidelity was not with a staff member, nor had he ever been asked to testify under oath about his infidelities, unlike Clinton.[16]
On December 18, House debate began.[16] That day, a survey of House members by CNN indicated that at least one of the four proposed articles of impeachment did not have enough votes to be approved.[16]
On December 19, before the House would begin impeachment debate for the day, Livingston announced the end of his candidacy for Speaker and his resignation from Congress from the floor of the House after his own marital infidelity had come to light.[34] In the same speech, Livingston also encouraged Clinton to resign. Clinton chose to remain in office and urged Livingston to reconsider his resignation.[35]
On December 19, after thirteen and a half hours of debate spread over two days, the House of Representatives would narrowly approve two of the four proposed articles of impeachment sent to it by the House Committee on the Judiciary.[4][16]
An impeachment trial was held in the Senate between January 7 and February 12, 1999, concluding with an acquittal after both articles of impeachment failed to receive the requisite two-thirds threshold of “guilty” votes to convict. [36][37]
Kenneth Winston Starr was an American lawyer and judge who as independent counsel authored the Starr Report, which served as the basis of the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, known as the Whitewater controversy, from 1994 to 1998. Starr previously served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989 and as the U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton, the president of the United States, and Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Their sexual relationship began in 1995—when Clinton was 49 years old and Lewinsky was 22 years old—and lasted 18 months, ending in 1997. Clinton ended a televised speech in late January 1998 with the later infamous statement: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial.
The Starr Report, officially the Referral from Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr in Conformity with the Requirement of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595(c), is a United States federal government report by Independent Counsel Ken Starr concerning his investigation of President Bill Clinton. Delivered to the United States Congress on September 9, 1998, the allegations in the report led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Paula Corbin Jones is an American civil servant. A former Arkansas state employee, Jones sued United States President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cited Clinton for sexual harassment at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 8, 1991. Following a series of civil suits and appeals through the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals from May 1994 to January 1996, Clinton v. Jones eventually reached the United States Supreme Court on May 27, 1997. The case was later settled on November 13, 1998.
Barbara Lynn Cubin is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, Wyoming's sole member of that body. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Wyoming.
John Luigi Mica is an American businessman, consultant and Republican politician who represented Florida's 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017. He was defeated by Democrat Stephanie Murphy in the November 8, 2016, general election while serving his 12th term in office.
Alcee Lamar Hastings was an American politician and former judge from the state of Florida. He was notable for having been impeached and removed from office as a judge for bribery and perjury.
The White House FBI files controversy of the Clinton Administration, often referred to as Filegate, arose in June 1996 around improper access in 1993 and 1994 to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, director of the White House's Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background reports concerning several hundred individuals without asking permission. The revelations provoked a strong political and press reaction because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top presidential advisors. Under criticism, Livingstone resigned from his position. Allegations were made that senior White House figures, including First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, may have requested and read the files for political purposes, and that the First Lady had authorized the hiring of the underqualified Livingstone.
Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on December 19, 1998, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The House adopted two articles of impeachment against Clinton, with the specific charges against Clinton being lying under oath and obstruction of justice. Two other articles had been considered but were rejected by the House vote.
The 1998 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 3, 1998, to elect U.S. Representatives to serve in the 106th United States Congress. They were part of the midterm elections held during President Bill Clinton's second term. They were a major disappointment for the Republicans, who were expecting to gain seats due to the embarrassment Clinton suffered during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the "six-year itch" effect observed in most second-term midterm elections. However, the Republicans lost five seats to the Democrats, although they retained a narrow majority in the House. A wave of Republican discontent with Speaker Newt Gingrich prompted him to resign shortly after the election; he was replaced by Congressman Dennis Hastert of Illinois.
Linda Ann Smith is a member of the Republican Party who represented Washington's 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 1999 and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1998, losing to incumbent Democrat Patty Murray. After leaving politics, she founded Shared Hope International, a nonprofit organization focused on ending minor sex trafficking. Since its creation, Smith has worked around the world and within the United States on behalf of those who have been victimized through sex trafficking.
David Philip Schippers Jr. was an American lawyer from Chicago, Illinois. He received his bachelor's and law degrees from Loyola University Chicago. His most notable cases include prosecuting Sam Giancana, as well as being the chief investigative counsel during the Clinton impeachment trial.
Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), has been publicly accused of sexual assault and/or sexual misconduct by several women: Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of raping her in 1978; Leslie Millwee accused Clinton of sexually assaulting her in 1980; Paula Jones accused Clinton of exposing himself to her in 1991 as well as sexually harassing her; and Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her without her consent in 1993. The Jones allegations became public in 1994, during Clinton's first term as president, while Willey's and Broaddrick's accusations became public in 1999, toward the end of Clinton's second term. Millwee made her accusations in 2016.
The impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, began in the U.S. Senate on January 7, 1999, and concluded with his acquittal on February 12. After an inquiry between October and December 1998, President Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 19, 1998; the articles of impeachment charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice. It was the second impeachment trial of a U.S. president, preceded by that of Andrew Johnson.
Solomon Louis Wisenberg is an American lawyer, legal analyst, and former Chief of the Financial Institution Fraud Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas. From 1997 to 1999, he served as Associate and Deputy Independent Counsel under Kenneth W. Starr during the Whitewater Investigation & Clinton-Lewinsky Investigations. Wisenberg was a frequent commentator on legal issues related to the investigation of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that resulted in a finding of insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
The first impeachment of Donald Trump began on December 18, 2019, during the 116th United States Congress, when the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump.
During his presidency, Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, saw multiple efforts to impeach him.
In the United States, an impeachment inquiry is an investigation or inquiry which usually occurs before a potential impeachment vote.
References
↑ "President Clinton impeached". history.com. A&E Television Networks. January 13, 2021 [November 24, 2009]. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
↑ Crowley, Candy; Franken, Bob; King, John; Frieden, Terry (October 8, 1998). "House approves impeachment inquiry". CNN. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Gibbs, Nancy; Duffy, Michael (November 16, 1998). "Fall Of The House Of Newt". Time. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2010.(subscription required)
In bold, impeachments leading to conviction. In italics, impeachments or attempts leading to resignation.
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