The Impeachment of President William Clinton:
A Chronology



May 8, 1991
William Clinton, Governor of Arkansas, has an encounter with Paula Jones in a Little Rock hotel room.
November 3, 1992
Clinton is elected President of the United States.
May 6, 1994
Paula Jones sues Clinton for sexual harrassment.  Her suit asks for $700,000 in damages.
August 9, 1994
Judge Kenneth Starr is appointed Independent Counsel to investigate a real estate deal called Whitewater.
July 1995
Monica Lewinsky, age 21, begins her job as a White House intern.
November 15, 1995
President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky begin a sexual relationship.
April 5, 1996
A Deputy Chief of Staff to the President transfers Lewinsky to the Pentagon. 
May 1996
Clinton tells Lewinsky that he is ending their sexual relationship.
November 5, 1996
Clinton, running against Republican Robert Dole, is re-elected president.
March 29, 1997 Clinton and Lewinsky have their last sexual encounter.
May 24, 1997
On a day Lewinsky later referred to as "Dump Day," Clinton again tells her in the Oval Office that their sexual relationship is over, but that he hopes that they can remain friends.
May 27, 1997 The U. S. Supreme Court, in Jones v Clinton, rules that the Constitution does not bar the Jones suit from proceeding with discovery.
October 3, 1997 At the suggestion of her literary agent, Lucianne Goldberg, Linda Tripp begins secretly taping phone conversations with her "friend", Monica Lewinsky.
October 11, 1997
Clinton calls Lewinsky at her home at 2:30 A.M. and, during an emotional conversation, promised her that he will help find her a job in New York City.  He asks Vernon Jordan to help with the job search.
November 3, 1997 Lewinsky is offered a job with the U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, but she turns down the job.  Vernon Jordan, acting at the request of the President's personal secretary, Betty Currie (and with the knowledge of the President), assists Lewinsky in finding employment in the private sector.
November 12, 1997
Paula Jones is deposed by Clinton's lawyers.
Late November 1997
In a phone conversation with Lewinsky, Tripp learns that Monica has in her possession a blue dress with Clinton's semen stain.   Tripp discourages Lewinsky's plans to have the dress cleaned.  Tripp asks to be subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, and (probably) informs lawyers for Jones about Lewinsky's sexual relationship with the President.
December 5, 1997
Clinton learns that Lewinsky's name appears on a list of witnesses that attorneys for Paula Jones plan to depose.
December 11, 1997
Vernon Jordan calls an executive at Revlon in New York to help secure a job for Lewinsky.
December 28, 1997
Bettie Currie collects the gifts given to the President from Lewinsky, and hides them under her bed.
December 31, 1997
Lewinsky and Vernon Jordan have breakfast.  According to Lewinsky, Jordan asks her to destroy drafts of notes she had sent to the President.
January 7, 1998
Lewinsky signs an affidavit concerning her relationship with the President, for eventual submission to lawyers for Jones.
January 12, 1998
Starr's office receives information that Lewinsky was prepared to lie under oath about her involvement with the President in the Jones case.
January 13, 1998
Lewinsky accepts the job offer from Revlon.
January 16, 1998
Kenneth Starr is authorized to investigate the Lewinsky matter.  FBI agents seize Lewinsky in a food court and take her to a hotel room, where she is threatened by six Office of Independent Counsel prosecutors with federal charges (the prosecutors even suggest that they could charge her mother) unless she agreed to wear a body wire for conversations with Clinton, Currie, and Jordan.  Prosecutors effectively prevent her from calling her lawyer, who still would have had time to stop the filing of her false affidavit in the Jones case.  She is finally released at 12:23 am, after being held for 11 hours.
January 17, 1998
Clinton is deposed in the Jones case.  He denies having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. 
January 18, 1998
Clinton meets with Currie and discusses his deposition.
July 28, 1998
Lewinsky agrees to cooperate with the Independent Counsel.
August 17, 1998
Clinton appears via closed-circuit television before a grand jury.  He admits his relationship with Lewinsky was sexual and later appears on national television to say he "misled people" and to lash out at Kenneth Starr.
September 9, 1998
The Starr Report on the Lewinsky matter is submitted to Congress.
September 11, 1998
The Starr Report is released to the public and posted on the Internet.
September 21, 1998
Clinton's grand jury videotape is televised.
October 4, 1998
Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, offers up to $1 million for "documentary evidence of illicit sexual relations" with members of Congress.
October 5, 1998
The Judiciary Committee of the House votes, 21 to 16 along party lines, to recommend an impeachment inquiry.
October 8, 1998
The House of Representatives votes, 258 to 176,  to conduct an impeachment inquiry.
November 3, 1998
In mid-term elections, Democrats do surprisingly well.
Nov. 9-Dec. 10, 1998
The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on impeachment.
November 17, 1998
The Judiciary Committee releases 22 hours of taped conversations between Lewinsky and Linda Tripp.
November 27, 1998
Clinton submits answers to 81 question posed to him by the Judiciary Committee.
December 11-12, 1998
The House Judiciary Committee approves four articles of impeachment, relating to perjury before the grand jury, obstruction of justice, perjury in a civil deposition, and abuse of power.
December 19, 1998
The House impeaches President Clinton, approving two of four articles of impeachment.  Bob Livingston resigns.  Vice-President Gore and House Democrats join Clinton in a show of support on the South Lawn of the White House.
January 7, 1999
The impeachment trial formally opens in the Senate.  Chief Justice Rehnquist is sworn in as the presiding judge.  The charges are read.
January 12, 1999
Clinton settles the Paula Jones suit for $850,000.
January 14, 1999
Opening statements are delivered by five of the House Managers of the prosecution.
January 15, 1999
Opening statements by the Managers continue and the Chief Justice issues his first ruling, upholding an objection by Senator Harkin to the Managers' use of the word "jurors" in referring to the Senators.
January 19, 1999
Opening statements by the defense team begin hours before President Clinton delivers his State of the Union address.
January 21, 1999
A speech by former Senator Dale Bumpers wraps up the opening arguments for the President.
January 22, 1999
The Senate begins a two-day question and answer period.  Starr's office seeks a court order requiring Lewinsky to meet with the House Managers.
January 23, 1999
Ordered to meet with the Managers, Lewinsky is mobbed by media when she returns to Washington.
January 24, 1999
Lewinsky meets with three House Managers in a Washington hotel room.
January 25, 1999
The Managers decide to produce just three witnesses for the trial, Lewinsky, Jordan, and Sidney Blumenthal.
January 27, 1999
The Senate rejects a Democratic proposal to dismiss the case on a 56 to 44 vote, with one Democrat (Feingold of Wisconsin) voting with the Republicans.
February 1, 1999
Monica Lewinksy is deposed on videotape by House Manager Ed Bryant.
February 2, 1999
Vernon Jordan is deposed on videotape by House Manager Asa Hutchinson.
February 4, 1999
The Senate votes not to have live witnesses on the Senate floor, but to allow presentations of the videotaped testimony of three witnesses.
February 6, 1999
The Senate watches videotaped testimony from Lewinsky, Jordan, and Blumenthal.
February 8, 1999
Closing arguments in the impeachment trial are presented by both sides.
February 9, 1999
Deliberations by the 100 Senators begin behind closed doors.
February 12, 1999
The trial ends.  The Senate acquits the President, voting 45 to 55 for conviction on the perjury count and 50 to 50 for conviction on the obstruction of justice count.

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