Now we get to the icky, wash your hands after reading, impeachment.  While President Clinton was, for the most part, a very good president, his personal life has always been questionable.  When he came into office, we were just at the start of what has become a strong right wing propaganda-litigation machine.

When Clinton came into office, there were two scandals — one related to alleged sexual harassment and one related to a business development that failed (Whitewater).  The investigation into Whitewater resulted in the appointment of an independent counsel under the post-Watergate independent counsel law in which the independent counsel answered to the courts (the way that a lot of special prosecutors do in state court) rather than the Attorney General.  Ultimately, the investigation into Whitewater did not find any evidence warranting any action against President Clinton.  The independent counsel claimed that President Clinton committed perjury during that investigation and referred that issue for possible impeachment to the House, but that referral went nowhere.

Meanwhile, the United Supreme Court allowed the sexual harassment case to proceed (at least with the pre-trial discovery phase).  During that discovery, President Clinton was deposed (i.e. sworn testimony taken by the attorneys in the case out-of-court).  During that deposition process, questions were asked about his sexual activities with other women including an intern working in the White House.  The independent counsel (who had already gotten his investigation expanded to include other controversies that arose during Clinton’s first five years in office) received the authority from the court to investigate whether Clinton and his attorneys were planning to suborn perjury in the civil case.   (It is unclear whether the potential false statements would have been perjury because it is unclear if those statements were relevant or material to the issue of whether President Clinton had sexually harassed the plaintiff in the case.)  Kenneth Starr (the independent counsel) asked President Clinton to give grand jury testimony.  Unlike the current president, President Clinton agreed (rather than fighting the subpoena) and gave testimony about his relationship with the intern that was misleading at best. Continue Reading...