TheImpeachmentTrialofPresidentWilliamClintonBy Douglas O. Linder ( 2005 )In 1999 , for only the second time in United States history , the Senate conducted an impeachment trial of a President. The acquittal of William Jefferson Clinton on February 12 came as no great surprise , given the near party-line vote on impeachment charges in the House of Representatives leading to the trial.Despite its predictable outcome , the impeachment trial of President Clinton is well worth studying , both for what it says about the failure of the judiciary and political institutions to respond adequately to an unprecedented situation , and what it tells us about the failures of Bill Clinton , the all-too-human occupant of the nations highest office. The trial also raises fascinating questions about the distinction between public morality and private morality.Background : The Paula Jones Sexual Harassment SuitThe impeachment saga of President Clinton has its origins in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought in Arkansas in May , 1994 by Paula Jones , a former Arkansas state employee. In her suit , Jones alleged that on May 8 , 1991 , while she helped to staff a state-sponsored management conference at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock , a state trooper and member of Governor Clintons security detail , Danny Ferguson , approached her and told her that the Governor would like to meet her in his hotel suite. Minutes later , Jones , seeing this as an opportunity to advance her career , took the elevator to Clintons suite. There , according to her disputed account , Clinton madea series of increasingly aggressive moves , culminating in his dropping his pants exposing an erectionand then asking Jones to “kiss it. Jones claimed that shestood and told the Governor ,“Im not that kind of girl. As she left , Clintonstopped her by the door and said ,“Youre a smart girl , lets keep this betweenourselves.Lawyers for Clinton argued that the Jones suit would distract him from the important tasks of his office and should not be allowed to go forward while he occupied the White House. Clintons immunity claim eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. The Court ruled unanimously in May , 1997 against thePresident , and allowed discovery in the case to proceed. As Federal Appeals Court Judge ( and Reagan appointee ) Richard A. Posner noted in An Affair of State: The Investigation , Impeachment , and Trial of President Clinton , the Courts “inept ,“unpragmatic , and “backward-looking decision in Clinton v Jones , and an earlier decision by the Court upholding the constitutionality of the act authorizing the appointment of independent counsels , had major consequences :“Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky , an affair intrinsically devoid of significance to anyone except Lewinsky , would have remained a secret from the public. The public would not have been worse for not knowing about it. There would have been no impeachment inquiry , no impeachment , no concerns about the motives behind the Presidents military actions against terrorists and rogue states in the summer and fall of 1998 , no spectacle of the United States Senate play-acting at adjudication. The Supreme Courts decisions created a situation that led the President and his defenders into the pattern of cornered-rat behavior that engendered a constitutional storm and that may have embittered American politics , weakened thePresidency , distracted the federal government from essential business , and undermined the rule of law.”As a result of the Supreme Courts action , Judge Susan Weber Wright allowed discovery to proceed in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Judge Wright ruled that lawyers for Jones , in order to help prove her sexual harassment claim , could inquire into any sexual relationships that Clinton might have with subordinates either as Governor of Arkansas or as President of the United States. A critical moment in the cascade of events that would eventually lead to impeachment came on December 5 , 1997 when Joness lawyers submitted a list of women that they would like to depose. Included on the list the name of Monica Lewinsky.The President and Monica LewinskyMonica Lewinsky came to Washington in July 1995 to work as a White House intern at age 21 , newly graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland. In her first few months on the job , the aggressive and sexually experienced Lewinsky met and flirted with the President , but no opportunities for close personal contact arose. In November 1995 , however , Lewinsky was assigned to the West Wing and she soon found herself alone with Clinton. He asked if he could kiss Lewinsky. She quickly consented. Later that evening , the two would have the first of what eventually would be ten sexual encounters over a sixteen-month period. After eight of the encounters had taken place , in April 1996 , Clintons deputy chief of staffmost likely aware of the threat the young intern p