Former president Bill Clinton could have avoided impeachment if he had just settled the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him out of court sooner, those involved in the case have revealed.
‘The blue dress would have never been discovered, the lawsuit would have been dropped,’ former Jones advisor, Susan Carpenter says on Sunday’s sixth episode of Fox News’ Scandalous series.
She adds: ‘The Clintons have won many battles, but they lose major wars, and this was one of them.’
When asked by former Deputy Independent Counsel Sol Wisenberg in 1998 to confirm an affidavit denying the Lewinsky affair was ‘utterly false’, Clinton gets into semantics
‘It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement,’ Clinton said with what seems like a smirk on his face while trying to defend a false affidavit
Clinton’s January 1998 deposition, in which he infamously denied having sexual relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, effectively gave special counsel Kenn Starr the perjury and obstruction of justice cases he needed for congress to begin looking into the president’s misconduct.
The Jones lawsuit, where the former Arkansas state employee claimed the then-governor propositioned her, was eventually settled out of court for $850,000, but the damage had already been done.
Starr began his misconduct investigation focusing on alleged abuses surrounded the Whitewater investigation, the firing of White House travel agents, and the alleged misuse of FBI files.
But it was the Lewinsky revelation as he looked into the Jones case that gave Starr a case against Clinton.
Former U.S. attorney, Joseph DiGenova added: ‘The complete strategy by [Clinton’s] legal team to stretch this out and to use the publicity for their own aggrandizement was a terrible mistake. They hurt the president, they made him go through a deposition in essence forcing him to commit a crime.’
It was the Monica Lewinsky revelation as Starr looked into the Paula Jones case that gave the special counsel a case against Clinton. Pictured is a false affidavit where Lewinsky claims ‘there is no sex of any kind, in any manner, shape or form with president Clinton’
Sol Wisenberg said: ‘I guess because the president was not having sex with Ms Lewinsky at the moment that the question was asked by Paula Jones’ attorneys, then it was technically true’
Months after lying under oath, Clinton would become the first sitting U.S. president to testify as the subject of a grand jury investigation.
During his grand jury testimony, Clinton questioned the exact meaning of the word ‘is’ in an attempt to defend a false affidavit in which Lewinsky claimed ‘there is no sex of any kind, in any manner, shape or form with president Clinton’.
When asked by former Deputy Independent Counsel Sol Wisenberg, to confirm the affidavit was ‘utterly false’, the former president gets into semantics.
‘It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement,’ Clinton said with what seems like a smirk on his face.
he Jones lawsuit, where the former Arkansas state employee claimed the then-governor propositioned her, was eventually settled out of court for $850,000
‘The blue dress would have never been discovered, the lawsuit would have been dropped,’ former Jones advisor, Susan Carpenter says on Fox News’ Scandalous
Wisenberg said: ‘I guess because the president was not having sex with Ms Lewinsky at the moment that the question was asked by Paula Jones’ attorneys, then it was technically true.’
Of course, as the world now knows, the president would later admit to the country during a televised address to the affair with Lewinsky, calling it ‘wrong’.
By the end of 1998, Clinton became the second president ever to be impeached before being acquitted by a Senate impeachment trial on February 1999.
Former Minority Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, Julian Epstein said: ‘You realize that what is happening is incredibly important and incredibly historic, and kind of a once in a lifetime thing. It does not mean that any of us enjoyed it, but we knew it was important, and we knew it was important to be handled well.’
The penultimate episode of Scandalous airs Sunday, February 25 at 8pm on Fox News.