In January 1998, news broke of a sex scandal between President Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The event brought new hope to independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s ill-headed investigation on the Whitewater controversy, as he decided to expand his investigation beyond the President’s financial behavior to include his alleged love affair. Upon being questioned, Clinton denied having a relationship with Lewinsky while under oath. However, his questionable testimony, along with signs of evidence-tampering related to the affair, had Starr convinced that the President was lying.
After conclusive evidence of the affair came to light, Clinton apologized to the American public. Following Starr’s extensive report on the investigation on December 18th the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, for perjury and obstruction of justice, making Clinton the second US President to be impeached (Andrew Johnson being the first).
Nevertheless, a month later Clinton was acquitted on both charges, as neither of the two articles of impeachment brought by the House to the Senate garnered a simple majority, much less the two-thirds necessary to convict Clinton and remove him from office. As a result, Clinton was allowed to serve out his two remaining years as President.
