January 21: On This Day in World History … briefly
Lewinsky stated that she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. According to her published schedule, First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days.
1998: Clinton denies affair with intern
President Clinton denied all allegations that he had a relationship with a 24-year old former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. He further rejected claims that he had asked her to lie about the affair under oath. The president made the statement after increasing media pressure amid rumours of the 18-month relationship in 1995. Miss Lewinsky made no public statement although she had admitted to the affair on tape and subsequently went into hiding. President Clinton made his denial at a news conference at the White House, saying:
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anyone to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false and I need to get back to work for the American people.”
He then left the room without answering any questions.
Lewinsky was a graduate of Lewis & Clark College. She was hired as an intern at the White House during Bill Clinton’s first term in 1995 and later as an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Some believe that Clinton began a relationship with her while she worked at the White House, details of which she later confided to Linda Tripp, a Defense Department co-worker who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.
In January 1998, Tripp discovered that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case, denying a relationship with Clinton. She delivered tapes to Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters, including the Whitewater scandal, the White House FBI files controversy, and the White House travel office controversy. During the grand jury testimony, Clinton’s responses were carefully worded, and he argued, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is,” with regard to the truthfulness of his statement that “there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship.”
The wide reporting of the scandal led to criticism of the press for over-coverage. The scandal is sometimes referred to as ‘Monicagate’, ‘Lewinskygate’, ‘Tailgate’, ‘Sexgate’ and ‘Zippergate’, following the ‘-gate’ nickname construction that has been popular since the Watergate scandal. The improper relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky was confirmed, but Clinton’s marriage with Hillary Clinton survived the infidelity.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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