“Paula Jones Case"
William Jefferson Clinton, known as Bill Clinton, was the 42nd president of the United States of America and remained in that position for two terms, covering the period from 1993 to 2001. Clinton's second term was turbulent as the former president was the target of civil action in court on charges of sexual harassment against a young woman named PaulaJones. Clinton would have made a sexual proposal to the young woman in a hotel in the city of little rock. The refusal of the young woman, who was a state employee, would have cost her her career.
The fact would have occurred in 1991, when Clinton was still governor of the state of Arkansas, but it only came to light when Jones started the lawsuit against the president in 1994. This process is now being considered by the judge Susan Webber Wright from 1997. During the appraisal, the judge judged that there was not enough evidence to take the case forward, deciding to archive it, on April 2, 1998.
“Monica Lewinsky case"
One of the expected evidence in the Paula Jones lawsuit was the testimony of a Clinton intern, who worked at the White House, called
Monica Lewinsky. There was speculation, by the magazine Newsweek,of a supposed extramarital relationship (Clinton was married to Hilary, to whom he remains married to this day) between the then president of the Republic and Monica, then 23 years old. Monica was called to testify in court in the Paula Jones case but denied the speculation. Clinton also testified in court and denied having had sexual relations with both Paula and Monica.The fact is that, months later, a secretary, a friend of Monica, Beautifultripp, delivered to the prosecutor Kenneth Starr recorded tapes of conversations in which the former intern confessed to Linda herself the relationship with the then president. In the confessions it was clear that, in fact, similar to the story told by Jones, Monica would have involved with the president a few times and that Clinton would have told Monica to lie, under court, in the case Paula Jones.
A new lawsuit was filed against Clinton. Investigations were able to find complete evidence of Monica's confessions.
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Confession of guilt and prosecution impeachment
Starr delivered a report to the House of Representatives with all the evidence. In light of the facts, Clinton confessed that he had relations with Monica. So, two crimes formed the basis for the president's impeachment process: 1) the crime of perjury, that is, false testimony before justice; and 2)obstruction of justice, as the president tried to prevent the investigation from continuing. But in addition to these two crimes, there were nine more going to court, which were not considered by the congressmen.
On December 19, 1998, the case was voted on in the House of Representatives. 228 deputies voted for impeachment, taking into account the charge of perjury, and 206 voted against the same charge. 221 deputies voted for impeachment, in the case of the obstruction of justice charge, and 212, against. As the process was voted by a simple majority (that is, half of the plenary plus 1), O impeachment was approved in the Chamber and went on to be tried in the Senate.
Senate acquittal
The Senate vote took place on February 12, 1999. As in the House of Representatives, crimes were voted on separately, but the approval of the removal from office was not done by a simple majority, but by 2/3 of the senators (that is, 2/3 of 100). The crime of perjury was denied by 45 senators, while 55 wanted the president's conviction. Therefore, there was no 2/3. The second crime, obstruction of justice, had 50 votes in favor and 50 against. Clinton, therefore, was acquitted of the two charges in the Senate, being able to return to his activities as president and complete his term, which lasted until the beginning of the year 2001.
Bill Clinton was the second president in US history to be impeached and acquitted in the Senate. The first was AndrewJohnson, in 1868.
*Image credits: Shutterstock and Joseph Sohm
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes