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Timeline |
A Chronology: Key Moments In The Clinton-Lewinsky Saga
June 1995: Monica Lewinsky, 21, comes to the White House as an unpaid intern in the office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.
November 1995: Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton begin a sexual relationship, according to audiotapes secretly recorded later by Linda Tripp.
December 1995: Lewinsky moves into a paid position in the Office of Legislative Affairs, handling letters from members of Congress. She frequently ferries mail to the Oval Office.
April 1996: Then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman transfers Lewinsky to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. Lieberman told The New York Times the move was due to "inappropriate and immature behavior" and inattention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky meets Tripp, a career government worker.
Summer 1996: Lewinsky begins to tell fellow Pentagon employee Linda Tripp of her alleged relationship with Clinton.
August 1997: Tripp encountered Kathleen Willey coming out of Oval Office "disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off." Willey later alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton's lawyer, Bill Bennett said in the article that Linda Tripp is not to be believed.
Fall 1997: Tripp to begin taping conversations in which Lewinsky details her alleged affair with the president.
October 1997: Tripp meets with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, Lucianne & Jonah Goldberg at Jonah's apartment in Washington, according to a Newsweek report. The Goldberg's listen to a tape of Tripp/Lewinsky conversations.
October 1997: Lewinsky interviews with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson for a low level public affairs position.
December 1997: Lewinsky leaves the Pentagon.
Dec. 8: Betty Currie, Clinton's personal secretary, asks presidential pal Vernon Jordan to help Lewinsky find a job in New York.
Dec. 11: Lewinsky meets with Jordan and he refers her to several job leads.
Dec. 17: Lewinsky is subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, who is suing the president on sexual harassment charges.
Dec. 28: Lewinsky makes her final visit to the White House, according to White House logs, and was signed in by Currie. Lewinsky reportedly met privately with Clinton and he allegedly encouraged her to be "evasive" in her answers in the Jones' lawsuit.
Jan. 7, 1998: Lewinsky files an affidavit in the Jones case in which she denies ever having a sexual relationship with President Clinton.
Jan. 9: Tripp delivers the tapes to her lawyer, Jim Moody.
Jan. 12: Linda Tripp contacts the office of Whitewater Independent Counsel Ken Starr to talk about Lewinsky and the tapes she made of their conversations. The tapes allegedly have Lewinsky detailing an affair with Clinton and indicate that Clinton and Clinton friend Vernon Jordan told Lewinsky to lie about the alleged affair under oath.
Jan. 13, 1998: Tripp, wired by FBI agents working with Starr, meets with Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel bar in Pentagon City, Va., and records their conversation.
Jan. 14, 1998: Lewinsky gives Tripp a document headed "Points to make in an affidavit," coaching Tripp on what to tell Jones' lawyers about Kathleen Willey, another former White House staffer. Willey recently had testified about alleged unsolicited sexual advances made by the president in 1993.
Jan. 16, 1998: Starr contacts Attorney General Janet Reno to get permission to expand his probe. Reno agrees and submits the request to a panel of three federal judges. The judges agree to allow Starr to formally investigate the possibility of subornation of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Jones case. Tripp and Lewinsky meet again at the Ritz-Carlton. FBI agents and U.S. attorneys intercede and take Lewinsky to a hotel room, where they question her and offer her immunity. Lewinsky contacts her mother, Marcia Lewis, who travels down from New York City by train. Lewis contacts her ex-husband, who calls attorney William Ginsburg, a family friend. Ginsburg advises her not to accept the immunity deal until he learns more.
Jan. 17, 1998: Ginsburg flies to Washington to represent Lewinsky. Clinton gives his deposition in the Jones lawsuit, in which he denies having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. Newsweek magazine decides not to run a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff on the Lewinsky tapes and the alleged affair.
Jan. 18: Clinton meets with Currie, compares his memory with hers on Lewinsky.
Jan. 19, 1998: Lewinsky's name surfaces in an Internet gossip column, the Drudge Report, which mentions rumors that Newsweek had decided to delay publishing a piece on Lewinsky and the alleged affair.
Jan. 21, 1998: Several news organizations report the alleged sexual relationship between Lewinsky and Clinton. Clinton denies the allegations as the scandal erupts.
Jan. 22, 1998: Clinton reiterates his denial of the relationship and says he never urged Lewinsky to lie. Starr issues subpoenas for a number of people, as well as for White House records. Starr also defends the expansion of his initial Whitewater investigation. Jordan holds a press conference to flatly deny he told Lewinsky to lie. Jordan also says that Lewinsky told him that she did not have a sexual relationship with the president.
Jan. 23, 1998: Clinton assures his Cabinet of his innocence. Judge Susan Webber Wright puts off "indefinitely" a deposition Lewinsky was scheduled to give in the Jones lawsuit. Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, and other aides are subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Ginsburg says Lewinsky is being "squeezed" by Starr and is now a target of the Whitewater investigation.
Jan. 24, 1998: Clinton asks former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Harold Ickes and former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to return to the White House to help deal with the controversy. Talks continue between Starr and attorneys for Lewinsky over a possible immunity agreement.
Jan. 25, 1998: Ginsburg says Lewinsky will "tell all" in exchange for immunity. Clinton political adviser James Carville says "a war" will be waged between Clinton supporters and Kenneth Starr over Starr's investigation tactics.
Jan. 26, 1998: Clinton forcefully repeats his denial, saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Ginsburg offers Starr a summary of what Lewinsky is prepared to say to the grand jury in exchange for a grant of immunity from the prosecution.
Jan. 27, 1998: Jones' attorney, John Whitehead, answers Starr's subpoena with several documents, possibly including Clinton's deposition in the Jones suit. Currie testifies before the grand jury. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton says in a broadcast interview that a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is behind the charges against her husband. A Portland, Ore., man, Andy Bleiler, alleges he had a five-year affair with Lewinsky, and his lawyer promises to turn over documents and items to Starr's investigators. Clinton delivers his State of the Union address, making no mention of the scandal.
Jan. 29, 1998: The judge in the Paula Jones lawsuit rules that Monica Lewinsky is "not essential to the core issues" of the Jones case, and has ordered that all evidence related to Lewinsky be excluded from the Jones proceedings.
Jan. 31, 1998: Immunity discussions between Monica Lewinsky's attorney, William Ginsburg, and Ken Starr's office appear stalled. Ginsburg says Lewinsky plans to go to California in the coming week to visit her father.
Feb. 4, 1998: Word comes that Independent Counsel Ken Starr has rejected the latest written statement by Monica Lewinsky's lawyers seeking immunity from prosecution for her. Their on-again, off-again immunity discussions are off.
Feb. 5, 1998: Ken Starr says his inquiry is "moving very quickly and we've made very significant progress."
Feb. 6, 1998: At a news conference, President Bill Clinton says he would never consider resigning because of the accusations against him. "I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust they've placed in me," he says.
Feb. 10, 1998: Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, appears before the grand jury. Ken Starr and his investigators suspect Lewis was aware of her daughter's alleged affair with President Bill Clinton.
Feb. 11, 1998: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton predicts the allegations against her husband "will slowly dissipate over time under the weight of its own insubstantiality." A retired Secret Service uniformed guard, Lewis C. Fox, claims in an interview he saw Monica Lewinsky come to the West Wing on weekends with documents she said were for the president.
Feb. 12, 1998:
Monica Lewinsky returns to Washington from California. Her mother fails to appear for a third day of grand jury testimony; her lawyer says she is emotionally drained and unable to proceed.Feb. 18, 1998: One of President Bill Clinton's closest advisers, Bruce Lindsey, spends the day before the Whitewater grand jury. The hearing is stopped briefly when questions of executive privilege are raised.
Feb. 19, 1998: Ken Starr's chronology shows presidential friend Vernon Jordan began seeking a private-sector job for Monica Lewinsky within 72 hours of her being listed as a potential witness in the Paula Jones civil rights lawsuit against President Bill Clinton.
Feb. 20, 1998: Lewinsky attorney Bill Ginsburg says the former intern met with Vernon Jordan much earlier than was being reported.
Feb. 23, 1998: There is more legal wrangling over when Marcia Lewis, Lewinsky's mother, will resume her grand jury testimony. Her lawyer, Billy Martin, says she is "going through hell."
Feb. 25, 1998: White House lawyers are preparing legal briefs to defend the administration's position that executive privilege should shield several of President Bill Clinton's top aides from certain questions in the Lewinsky investigation.
Feb. 26, 1998: White House senior communications aide Sidney Blumenthal testifies before the grand jury, answering questions about any role he may have played in spreading negative information about investigators in Independent Counsel Ken Starr's office. Fourteen Democrats in the House write Attorney General Janet Reno complaining about subpoenas issued by Starr. A non-profit group that studies women in the workplace says it will contribute $10,000 as seed money for a legal defense fund for Lewinsky.
Feb. 27, 1998: White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal refused to answer some of the questions posed before the grand jury, citing the controversy over whether the independent counsel can force aides to testify about conversations they had with the president.
March 3, 1998: Vernon Jordan Jr. testifies before the grand jury.
March 5, 1998: Lawyers for Monica Lewinsky battle with Ken Starr over whether Lewinsky has a binding immunity agreement.
March 9, 1998: U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright rejects a request by Ms. Jones' attorneys to include evidence of a Monica Lewinsky affair during a Jones trial.
March 10, 1998: Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer who accused the president of fondling her, testifies before the grand jury for four hours.
March 11, 1998: The grand jury spends the day listening to audio recordings, which sources say are tapes made by Linda Tripp of her conversations with Monica Lewinsky.
March 16, 1998: Clinton says "nothing improper" happened when he was alone with Kathleen Willey, responding to her accusations aired in an interview on "60 Minutes" the previous night. The White House releases letters Willey sent to the president, signed "Fondly, Kathleen" in an effort to cast doubt on her story.
March 17, 1998: The White House charges that Kathleen Willey tried to sell her story to a book publisher for $300,000. Willey's attorney denies the charges. A friend of Lewinsky and the presidential diarist give grand jury testimony.
March 18, 1998: Julie Steele's affidavit is released. In it she says she lied when she claimed Kathleen Willey had come to her house the night of the encounter and told her about it.
March 20, 1998: President Clinton decides to formally invoke executive privilege.
March 25, 1998: Marcia Lewis, Monica Lewinsky's mother, fails to persuade a federal judge to excuse her from a third day of testimony. Starr subpoenas records from Kramerbooks & Afterwords on Monica Lewinsky's purchases at the store. One of her purchases was reportedly Nicholson Baker's "Vox," a novel about phone sex. Jodie Torkelson testifies.
March 26, 1998: White House operatives Marsha Scott and Nancy Hernreich testify again before the grand jury.
April 1, 1998: Judge Susan Webber Wright dismisses the Paula Jones case.
April 7, 1998: Presidential diarist Janis Kearney testifies before the grand jury. Harolyn Cardozo, daughter of multimillionaire fund-raiser and Clinton pal Nate Landow and a former White House intern, testifies before the grand jury. She is questioned on Kathleen Willey's accusations of unwanted sexual advances made by the president.
April 9, 1998: A second White House steward is called to testify before the grand jury in a supposed effort to learn of meetings between the president and Monica Lewinsky.
April 14, 1998: Kenneth Starr files a sealed motion in U.S. District Court to compel testimony of uniformed Secret Service agents, according to the Wall Street Journal.
April 16, 1998: Ken Starr withdraws from consideration for the deanship at Pepperdine University Law School. Starr said an end to the Whitewater investigation "was not yet in sight." Bernard Lewinsky lashes out at Kenneth Starr, calling the treatment of his daughter "unconscionable." He also asks for help in paying the former intern's legal bills.
April 18, 1998: U.S. News & World Report says retired Secret Service office Louis Fox testified before the grand jury that during a visit by Lewinsky to the White House in the fall of 1995, Clinton told him, "Close the door. She'll be in here for a while."
April 21, 1998: Former President George Bush weighs in, challenging Ken Starr's attempt to get Secret Service officers to testify before the grand jury.
April 28, 1998: Nancy Hernreich, director of Oval Office operations, testifies for the sixth time in the Lewinsky investigation.
April 29, 1998: A federal judge rules that Monica Lewinsky does not have an immunity agreement with Ken Starr.
April 30, 1998: In his first news conference since the Lewinsky scandal broke, the president lashes out at Independent Counsel Ken Starr charging that he heads a "hard, well-financed, vigorous effort" to undercut the president. Clinton repeatedly declines to elaborate on his relationship with Lewinsky.
May 5, 1998: Federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson rules against President Clinton's claim of executive privilege. Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan testifies for a third time before the grand jury.
May 6, 1998: Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall, accuses Starr's office of "flagrant leaks," citing a Fox News report that claimed information on Clinton's executive-privilege decision came from the independent counsel's office.
May 8, 1998: Ken Starr and David Kendall quarrel over leaks of grand jury information. Betty Currie testifies before the grand jury for the third time.
May 13, 1998: Ken Starr seeks contempt charges against David Kendall, the president's personal attorney. Starr accuses Kendall of leaking grand jury testimony.
May 14, 1998: Starr argues in federal court that there are no legal grounds for Secret Service agents who guard the president to refuse to testify before the grand jury. Betty Currie, the president's personal secretary, returns for her fourth appearance before the grand jury testimony.
May 21, 1998: Walter Kaye, a retired insurance executive and prominent Democratic contributor, testifies before the grand jury.
May 22, 1998: Federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ruled that the Secret Service must testify before the grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky controversy.
May 27, 1998: Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, Bill Ginsburg writes an angry "open letter" to Ken Starr which was published in "California Lawyer." "Congratulations, Mr. Starr! As a result of your callous disregard for cherished constitutional rights, you may have succeeded in unmasking a sexual relationship between two consenting adults." It is reported that death threats were made against Linda Tripp when the Lewinsky scandal first broke in January and she was moved to a safe house.
May 28, 1998: Ken Starr asks the Supreme Court to expedite their ruling on executive privilege. Monica Lewinsky gives handwriting and fingerprints samples to the FBI at Ken Starr's request.
June 1, 1998: Clinton's defense team decides to drop the appeal on the executive privilege ruling. But his lawyers will continue to argue for attorney-client privilege to prevent close friend and aide Bruce Lindsey from answering all of Ken Starr's questions.
June 2, 1998: The outspoken Bill Ginsburg is replaced as Monica Lewinsky's lawyer with a team of experienced Washington litigators, Jacob Stein and Plato Cacheris. The split was said to be by "mutual agreement."
June 4, 1998: The Supreme Court denies Ken Starr's request to expedite a ruling on attorney-client privilege and the Secret Service's "protective function privilege." With claims of executive privilege dropped, White House aide Sidney Blumenthal testifies before the grand jury.
June 5, 1998: Appeals court fast tracks attorney-client privilege dispute. Federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson rules that while Monica Lewinsky's book purchases did have a bearing on her case, only Kramer Books -- and not Barnes & Noble -- would be required to hand over records of her purchases.
June 8, 1998: The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Ken Starr's attempts to access notes take by the lawyer of late White House deputy counsel Vince Foster nine days after the meeting in question. Foster's lawyer, James Hamilton argued the notes are covered by attorney-client privilege, but Starr's office said the privilege doesn't always extends past death.
June 9, 1998: Presidential friend Vernon Jordan testifies before Ken Starr's grand jury for the fifth time. Lewinsky's new lawyers say they are upset by her photo layout in Vanity Fair magazine.
June 10, 1998: Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes appears before the grand jury to testify about his involvement, if any, in the release of information from Linda Tripp's personnel records.
June 15, 1998: Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey files an appeal of federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson's decision to deny him attorney-client privilege in the Lewinsky case.
June 15, 1998: The publication of an article in the new magazine of media criticism, Brill's Content, alleging that Ken Starr leaked information to the media leads Judge Holloway to hold a private meeting with lawyers for both sides of the case to investigate the charges. The magazine's editor and creator, Steven Brill, said Starr admitted to the leaks in a 90-minute interview.
June 16, 1998: Ken Starr releases a 19-page attack on Brill's article, calling the editor "reckless" and "irresponsible" for printing what he called a misinterpretation of their interview.
June 18, 1998: Sources tell CNN that three FBI agents have testified in secret affidavits that a plan to wire Monica Lewinsky and monitor her conversations did exist. The secret testimony refutes Ken Starr's published denial of the plan, but does not specify that the conversations Starr's prosecution wished to tape were with the president or Vernon Jordan.
June 22, 1998: CNN learns that Ken Starr may be willing to make an immunity deal without requiring that Monica Lewinsky plead guilty to some charge against her if they decide that she is cooperating fully with the prosecution.
June 22, 1998: Kramer Books and lawyers for Monica Lewinsky strike a deal in which records of Lewinsky's purchases are submitted to Ken Starr's office by her lawyers and not the book store, thereby allowing the book store to maintain it stood up for the First Amendment.
June 25, 1998: White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal testifies before Ken Starr's grand jury for the third time. Blumenthal complains that Starr's inquiry focused on what the White House was saying about his prosecution rather than Blumenthal's conversations with the president.
June 25, 1998: The Supreme Court rules 6-3 that attorney-client privilege extends beyond the grave, exempting Vince Foster's conversations with his lawyers from being called as evidence in Ken Starr's presidential investigations.
June 26, 1998: Ken Starr presents arguments to a federal appeals court requesting that Secret Service personnel be required to testify in the Lewinsky case. Linda Tripp is called to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday, June 30.
June 29, 1998: Attorneys for Dale Young confirm that the Lewinsky family friend testified before the grand jury that Monica Lewinsky spoke to her of an intimate relationship between herself and President Clinton. According to Young's testimony, Lewinsky confided in her in 1996, detailing the limitations and rules Clinton had placed upon their relationship.
June 30, 1998: Linda Tripp appears before the grand jury for her first day of testimony, accompanied by her children. She says that she did not trick Monica Lewinsky when she taped conversations with her former friend.
July 1, 1998: Linda Tripp makes her second appearance before the grand jury, during which the Lewinsky tapes may have been played.
July 5, 1998: Starr announces that he will not release an interim report on his investigation to the House of Representatives.
July 7, 1998: The U.S. Court of Appeals rules that Secret Service agents must testify before the grand jury, upholding Judge Norma Holloway Johnson's earlier decision.
July 7, 1998: Linda Tripp returns for her third day of testimony before the grand jury, as the Maryland state's attorney opens investigations into Tripp's taping of her conversations with Monica Lewinsky. The investigation is aimed at deciding whether Tripp had broken Maryland state laws that require both parties in a conversation to consent to be taped.
July 9, 1998: Monica Lewinsky announces she is prepared to cooperate in the Maryland investigation into the legality of Linda Tripp's tapes of phone conversations as Tripp appears before the grand jury for the fourth time.
July 14, 1998: Ken Starr subpoenas Larry Cockell, head of the president's security detail. The Justice Department, backed by the Secret Service, requests a full panel appeal of the Secret Service testimony decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals.
July 16, 1998: The U.S. Court of Appeals refuses a full panel review of the Secret Service decision, sending the appeal to the Supreme Court. Earlier in the day, the court issued a temporary stay on the Secret Service testimony.
July 17, 1998: Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist denies an extension of the temporary stay on Secret Service testimony. The subpoenaed Secret Service agents appeared before the grand jury, although only three of them testify. Larry Cockell, who is not one of the agents to testify, spends the afternoon waiting.
July 21, 1998: The U.S. Court of Appeals holds a hearing on alleged leaks of grand jury information to the media by Ken Starr's office. The hearings center on Judge Norma Holloway Johnson's secret sanctions against Starr and his subsequent appeal. The sanctions would require Starr to turn over documents and other evidence related to the alleged leaks.
July 22, 1998: Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, testifies before the grand jury, in what is most likely her final appearance.
July 23, 1998: Larry Cockell, President Clinton's lead Secret Service agent, testifies.
July 25, 1998: Word emerges that Independent Counsel Ken Starr has served President Clinton with a subpoena that calls for his testimony before the Lewinsky grand jury next week. Negotiations are underway on the scope, timing and format of Clinton's testimony.
July 27, 1998: Monica Lewinsky meets with Starr's prosecutors in New York, in a sign an immunity agreement could be near. She tells them she had a sexual relationship with President Clinton, but refuses to say that Clinton told her to lie about it, according to sources close to the investigation.
July 27, 1998: The U.S. Court of Appeals rules that attorney-client privilege does not protect presidential confidant Bruce Lindsey from answering all questions put to him before the Lewinsky grand jury.
July 28, 1998: In a dramatic breakthrough, lawyers for Lewinsky and Starr work out a full immunity agreement covering both Lewinsky and her parents, Marcia Lewis and Dr. Bernard Lewinsky.
July 29, 1998: President Bill Clinton agrees to testify voluntarily and Starr's office withdraws the subpoena. Clinton's testimony is set for Aug. 17 at the White House.
July 30, 1998: Sources say that as part of her immunity agreement, Lewinsky has handed over to prosecutors a dark blue dress that she alleges may contain physical evidence of a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton. The dress is turned over to the FBI lab for testing.
Aug. 6, 1998: Monica Lewinsky appears before the grand jury to begin her testimony.
Aug. 7, 1998: A federal appeals court lets an investigation of alleged news leaks from Ken Starr's office continue.
Aug. 11, 1998: Hollywood producer and Clinton friend Harry Thomason testifies before the grand jury.
Aug. 17, 1998: President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. After the questioning at the White House is finished, Clinton goes on national TV to admit he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Aug. 18, 1998: Former Clinton political advisor Dick Morris testifies before the grand jury.
Aug. 19, 1998: Word that Starr has requested and received a sample of Clinton's DNA becomes public.
Aug. 20, 1998: Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury for a second time.
September 9, 1998: Independent Counsel Ken Starr submits his report and 18 boxes of supporting documents to the House of Representatives.
September 11, 1998: The House of Representative votes to receive the Starr report. The House Judiciary Committee takes possession of the 18 boxes of materials and promptly releases the first 445 pages to the public.
September 18, 1998: Over Democrats' objections, the House Judiciary Committee agrees to release President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony and more than 3,000 pages of supporting material from the Starr report, including sexually explicit testimony from Monica Lewinsky.
September 21, 1998: The Judiciary Committee releases and many television networks immediately broadcast more than four hours of President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony. Along with the videotape, the Judiciary Committee also releases the appendix to the Starr's report which includes 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including a photograph of Lewinsky's semen-stained dress.
September 24, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee announces the committee will consider a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in an open session on October 5 or October 6.
October 2, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee releases another 4,610 pages of supporting material from Ken Starr's investigation, including transcripts of grand jury testimony and transcripts of the Linda Tripp-Monica Lewinsky tapes.
October 5, 1998: On a 21-16 vote, the House Judiciary Committee recommends a full impeachment inquiry.
October 8, 1998: The House of Representatives authorizes a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry of President Clinton on a 258-176 vote. Thirty-one Democrats join Republicans in supporting the investigation.
Source: CNN-ALL POLITICS: INVESTIGATING THE PRESIDENT