Clinton Had Twice the Trouble of Trump
Whatever you think about President Donald Trump’s troubles leading to impeachment this week (with a trial still to come), former President Bill Clinton’s troubles were at least twice as long!
How quick we forget! But, to put a starting date on Clinton’s more-than-five-year saga with Independent Counsel Ken Starr, it started when Attorney General Janet Reno got the ball rolling on January 12, 1994 by naming him to the post.
Starr was a veritable Inspector Javert dogging Clinton’s Jean Valjean year after year.
Of course, there were some who said Trump should be thrown out of office on the evening of the inaugural address, but things really didn’t get hot for him until May of 2017, when Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election.
In Clinton’s case, Whitewater became a side issue as Paula Jones filed her sexual assault suit against him on May 2, 1994, and matters became much more interesting than just financial monkey business.
By July, Congress said it was looking into Whitewater, but it was months later when Monica Lewinsky entered the scene (May, 1995), and still ages later when the FBI wired Linda Tripp to uncover details of the young intern’s relationship with Clinton (Jan. 1998).
Mind you, this is, in fact, four years after Reno had approved an Independent Counsel!
Remember, Starr got a grand jury in January of 1998; several months later he received DNA from Clinton and by early September, Starr filed a report on possible impeachment charges. Just days later, Clinton’s testimony to the grand jury was released and within a month, the House voted to begin an impeachment inquiry.
Surely you remember that the House voted to impeach in mid-December 21 years ago, and the Senate acquitted on Lincoln’s birthday, 1999.
The Clinton story would be trudgingly long if there weren’t salacious details to jog the memory. And the Trump impeachment? What will Americans think of it, just 20 years from now?
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