The Clinton Affair

Democrats retake the White House after twelve years of Republican control, but the scandals that plagued Bill Clinton during the campaign follow him to Washington. After the suicide of White House Counsel Vince Foster, President Clinton attempts to put them to rest by calling for an Independent Counsel to investigate wrongdoing. In the wake of reports that Clinton tasked State Troopers to arrange trysts when he was Governor, Paula Jones files a sexual harassment lawsuit against him and Republicans seize the opportunity to use scandal as a weapon against the Clintons. As the Independent Counsel investigation expands, the president begins a relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky that threatens to undo his political career.

Republicans take control of the House for the first time in 40 years, led by a new breed of politician, Newt Gingrich. Gingrich’s uncompromising partisanship defines the “Republican Revolution” and steers the country towards a government shutdown. President Clinton’s flirtation with Monica Lewinsky escalates and culminates in an intimate encounter during the government shutdown. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court takes up the allegations of sexual harassment Paula Jones has pitted against the president as the Independent Counsel indicts a growing circle of his associates. With the 1996 Presidential Election heating up, Monica is transferred out of the White House to the Pentagon.

Monica Lewinsky confides the details of her relationship with President Clinton to coworker, Linda Tripp, who surreptitiously records their private conversations and shares them with a conservative provocateur, Lucianne Goldberg. The Jones lawsuit is given a green light by the Supreme Court, which opens the door for her lawyers to find other women who claim harassment by the president. The Independent Counsel demands the First Lady testify before a Grand Jury. Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff learns about the President’s affair from Linda Tripp.

With President Clinton’s deposition in the Paula Jones case less than a week away, Linda Tripp contacts Starr’s team to tell them the President and Monica plan to lie under oath. Starr and the FBI wire Linda Tripp for a private meeting with Monica Lewinsky. Two days later Lewinsky is detained by FBI agents at the Pentagon Mall and interrogated for nearly 12 hours by prosecutors from the Office of Independent Counsel who try to convince her to cooperate with their investigation or face possible jail time.

The president is taken by surprise during his deposition in the Paula Jones case as her lawyers reveal their detailed knowledge of his relationship with Lewinsky. Those details slowly leak and then flood the mainstream media. The president issues a stern denial, and a war over the truth is waged.