Between
15 November 1995 and
7 April 1996, Lewinsky had an intimate relationship with the President. She later testified that the relationship involved
oral sex, but not
sexual intercourse.
Clinton had previously been dogged by allegations of
sexual misconduct, most notably in regard to an alleged long-term relationship with singer and former
Arkansas state employee
Gennifer Flowers, and an encounter with Arkansas state employee
Paula Jones (née Corbin) in a
Little Rock hotel room in which Jones claimed that Clinton exposed himself to her. These events would have occurred during Clinton's time as
Governor of Arkansas. Lewinsky's name surfaced during legal proceedings connected to the latter matter, when Jones's lawyers sought corroborating evidence of Clinton's conduct to substantiate Jones's allegations.
In April 1996 Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. Monica confided in a co-worker named
Linda Tripp about her relationship with the President. Beginning in September 1997, Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations regarding the affair with Clinton. In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an
affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, and attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, Tripp gave the tapes to
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, and these tapes added to his ongoing investigation into the
Whitewater controversy. Starr broadened his investigation to include investigating Lewinsky, Clinton, and others for possible
perjury and
subornation of perjury in the Jones case. Noteworthy for its revelation of Tripp's motivations was her reporting of their conversations to literary agent
Lucianne Goldberg. Tripp also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their affair, and not to dry clean what would later be infamously known as "the blue dress."
Clinton denied having had "a
sexual affair," "sexual relations," or "a sexual relationship" with Lewinsky while under
oath, and on
26 January 1998 claimed "
I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" in a nationally televised White House news conference. The line later became famous for its technical truthfulness but deceptive nature, based on one's definition of "sexual relations."
Clinton also said, "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship" which he defended as truthful on
17 August 1998 hearing, famously arguing "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" (
i.e., he was not, at the time he made that statement, still having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky). Under pressure from Starr, who as Clinton learned had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's
semen stain, as well as testimony from Lewinsky that the President had inserted a
cigar-tube into her
vagina, Clinton admitted that he misled the American people and that he had had "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky. Clinton denied having committed perjury because, in the court's definition <REF NAME="sex-definition">
"Perjury about sexual relations from the Paula Jones deposition" by Steve Kangas. Accessed February 12, 2006</REF>,
oral sex was not "sex"
per se.
In addition, relying upon the definition of "sexual relations" as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by Judge
Susan Webber Wright, who was hearing the Paula Jones case, Clinton claimed that because certain acts were performed on him, not by him, he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally
passive in their encounters. Clinton's lawyer later argued that different people can remember the same events in different ways.
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