A high-ranking government official has sexual relations in the workplace on multiple occasions. An article of fabric is stained. The official is asked about what happened and lies during an official investigation. But thanks to a whistleblower, the truth comes out. The official, caught in flagrante delicto, apologizes and insists it will never happen again. Sound familiar?
The saga of President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky is well known to everyone over the age of 35. (I remember downloading the Starr Report over my 56k modem when I was 14 years old.) Lewinsky, an intern, had ten sexual encounters with Clinton in the White House. Most of the meetings occurred in the Oval Office, though some occurred in the room President Trump currently uses to display MAGA swag. Lewinsky never had sexual intercourse with Clinton, but they did have oral sex. Clinton touched Lewinsky's genitals and used a cigar in an inappropriate fashion. Betty Currie, the secretary who sat outside the Oval Office, maintained her plausible deniability, and would leave the area when Lewinsky was in there. Clinton infamously stained Lewinsky's blue dress from the GAP with his fluids.
Soon, the allegations leaked out. Initially, Bill Clinton lied. In an infamous January 1998 press conference, he said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." But Linda Tripp had secretly recorded conversations with Lewinsky, and provided them to Independent Counsel Ken Starr. Only after the truth came out did Clinton change his tune. He insisted, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." President Clinton was impeached for obstruction of justice and perjury for giving false testimony in the Lewinsky investigation. Ultimately, Clinton was acquitted. After his acquittal, he was held in civil contempt by Judge Susan Webber Wright for misleading testimony before the grand jury. Clinton surrendered his Arkansas law license for five years.
