Monica Lewinsky

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Monica Samille Lewinsky

Monica Lewinsky as she appeared on her U.S. Government ID in 1995
Born July 23, 1973 (1973-07-23) (age 34)
San Francisco, California
Education Bachelor's degree in Psychology (Lewis & Clark College)
Master's degree in Social Psychology (London School of Economics)
Occupation White House intern
Entrepreneur

Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom then United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "inappropriate relationship"[1] while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. The tawdry nature of the affair and its resulting repercussions in the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the surrounding scandals of 1997-99 became known as the Lewinsky scandal, "Monicagate" and "Zippergate".[citation needed] The scandal overwhelmed media coverage of other public policy matters and raised questions about Clinton's judgment and character among the public.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Southern California on the west side of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills. She is of Russian Jewish descent. Her father is Dr. Bernhard Lewinsky, an oncologist; her mother, Marcia Lewis, is an author.[2] Her parents are divorced. For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School in Bel-Air.[3] She later attended Beverly Hills High School, but then left and graduated from Pacific Hills School, formerly known as Bel Air Prep, as salutatorian.

She initially attended The Evergreen State College but transferred and graduated with a psychology degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1994. Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at the White House as an intern starting in July 1994, getting a paid job there in November 1994.

[edit] Scandal

Main article: Lewinsky scandal

Between November 1995 and March 1997, Lewinsky had an intimate relationship with President Bill Clinton. She later testified that the relationship involved oral sex in the Oval Office and other sexual contact but that sexual intercourse did not occur.

Clinton had previously been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct, most notably in regard to an alleged long-term relationship with singer and former Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers, and an encounter with Arkansas state employee Paula Jones (née Corbin). These events were alleged to have occurred during Clinton's time as Governor of Arkansas. Lewinsky's name surfaced during legal proceedings connected to the latter matter, when Jones's lawyers sought corroborating evidence of Clinton's conduct to substantiate Jones's allegations.

In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. Lewinsky confided in a co-worker named Linda Tripp about her relationship with the President. Beginning in September 1997, Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations regarding the affair with Clinton. In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, and attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, Tripp gave the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, and these tapes added to his ongoing investigation into the Whitewater controversy. Starr broadened his investigation to include investigating Lewinsky, Clinton, and others for possible perjury and subornation of perjury in the Jones case. Noteworthy for its revelation of Tripp's motivations was her reporting of their conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg. Tripp also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their affair, and not to dry clean what would later be infamously known as "the blue dress."

While under oath, Clinton denied having had "a sexual affair," "sexual relations," or "a sexual relationship" with Lewinsky,[4] and on 26 January 1998 claimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" in a nationally televised White House news conference. The line later became famous for its technical truthfulness but deceptive nature, based on one's definition of "sexual relations."

Clinton also said, "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship"[5] which he defended as truthful on 17 August 1998 hearing because of the use of the present tense, famously arguing "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is"[6] (i.e., he was not, at the time he made that statement, still having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky). Under pressure from Starr, who as Clinton learned had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's semen stain, as well as testimony from Lewinsky that the President had inserted a cigar-tube into her vagina, Clinton admitted that he lied to the American people and that he had had "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky. Clinton denied having committed perjury because, according to Clinton, the legal definition[7] of oral sex was mutually exclusive of "sex" per se. Clinton's insistence on the alleged distinction drew criticism from both political parties.

In addition, relying upon the definition of "sexual relations" as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by Judge Susan Webber Wright, who was hearing the Paula Jones case, Clinton claimed that because certain acts were performed on him, not by him, he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally passive in their encounters. Clinton's lawyer later argued that different people can remember the same events in different ways.

[edit] Outcomes

President Clinton was impeached (brought up on charges) by the House of Representatives and, after a 21-day trial, acquitted by the Senate on all charges brought there: allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice regarding the affair and lying under oath in a civil lawsuit. The Senate vote fell short of the 2/3 majority required for conviction and removal from office under the Constitution. Polls of the American electorate taken at this time showed that up to 70% were against pursuing the allegations. (The New York Times, December 21, 1998).

Paula Jones' civil lawsuit against President Clinton, the matter in which President Clinton originally provided testimony that gave rise to his impeachment, was ultimately dismissed. To end the appeal that followed, Paula Jones was paid $850,000 in an out of court settlement.[citation needed] President Clinton was suspended from the practice of law by the State of Arkansas for five years.

In the scandal's immediate aftermath, Congress chose not to extend the legislation that empowered the driving force behind the investigation of the Lewinsky matter, the office of Independent Counsel.[citation needed]

[edit] After the scandal

The affair led to a period of pop culture celebrity for Lewinsky as a younger-generation focus of a political storm. Around early 1999, Lewinsky reportedly said "I'm well-known for something that isn't great to be well-known for."[8][9]

By her own account, Lewinsky survived the intense media attention by knitting. Soon after the scandal she started a business selling her own brand of handbags online, but she closed it in 2004. In 2000 she appeared on The Tom Green Show in which the host took her to his parents' home in Ottawa in search of fabric for her new business. Lewinsky made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May 8, 1999 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live, a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior sixteen months. She was also the host of the short-lived reality television dating program called Mr. Personality in 2003.

After Clinton's autobiography My Life appeared in 2004, Lewinsky said in an interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail:

He could have made it right with the book, but he hasn't. He is a revisionist of history. He has lied. (...) I really didn't expect him to go into detail about our relationship (...) But if he had and he'd done it honestly, I wouldn't have minded.... I did, though, at least expect him to correct the false statements he made when he was trying to protect the Presidency. Instead, he talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking. I was the buffet and he just couldn't resist the dessert. (...) This was a mutual relationship, mutual on all levels, right from the way it started and all the way through. ... I don't accept that he had to completely desecrate my character.[10]

In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a master's degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics[11] where she had been studying since September 2005.[12] Her thesis was titled “In Search of the Impartial Juror: An exploration of the third person effect and pre-trial publicity.”

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Clinton Admits to Lewinsky Relationship, Challenges Starr to End Personal 'Prying'" - CNN.com
  2. ^ Ten American showbiz celebrities of Russian descent - Pravda.Ru
  3. ^ At Pacific Hills School (formerly Bel-Air Prep), she won the "Outstanding Junior of the Year" award. "That Girl" by Leonard Gill, March 15, 1999. Memphis Flyer book review. Accessed December 18, 2006.
  4. ^ Starr Report: Nature of President Clinton's Relationship with Monica Lewinsky Accessed December 18, 2006.
  5. ^ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: President Bill Clinton January 21, 1998
  6. ^ Videotaped Testimony of William Jefferson Clinton Before the Grand Jury Empaneled for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr August 17, 1998
  7. ^ "Perjury about sexual relations from the Paula Jones deposition" by Steve Kangas. Accessed February 12, 2006
  8. ^ Ms. Magazine published a series of articles by writer Susan Jane Gilman, sexologist Susie Bright, and author-host Abiola Abrams arguing from three generations of women whether Monica Lewinsky's behavior had any meaning for feminism. Monica Abrams
  9. ^ "For Lewinsky, fame the same as notoriety" by Leonard Pitts, April 20, 2000. Miami Herald. Accessed December 18, 2006.
  10. ^ "Lewinsky: Clinton lies about relationship in his new book" Associated Press, June 25, 2006. USA Today. Accessed December 18, 2006.
  11. ^ "Monica Lewinsky Earns Master's Degree in London" December 21, 2006. Accessed December 27, 2006
  12. ^ "Weekly media coverage (26 August-8 September 2005): Other News" September 8, 2005. London School of Economics. Accessed December 27, 2006

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Lewinsky, Monica Samille
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American woman involved in President Bill Clinton's sex scandals
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco, California
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH