Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that shook America

New Delhi: Known by many names like Monicagate, Tailgate, Sexgate and Zippergate, this sex scandal created a political storm in USA that almost cost President Clinton his job.This scandal revolved around an extra-marital relationship of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of USA, with Monica Lewinsky who was a White-House intern.The seeds of this illicit relationship were sown in 1995 when Lewinsky, a student from Lewis & Clark College, was hired as an intern in White House during Clinton's tenure. She developed intimate relationship with Clinton. The scandal became public after Linda Tripp, Lewinsky's friend and a co-worker at the defense department, spilled the beans about this sordid affair . Tripp had recordings of the telephonic conversation in which Lewinsky had confessed her relationship with Clinton. When Tripp learnt that Lewinsky had signed an affidavit and denied any physical relation with Clinton, she handed over the recordings to Kenneth Starr who was investigating Clinton's role in other scandals including the whitewater scandal. There were numerous allegations against Clinton. Lewinsky asserted that she had 9 sexual meetings with Clinton in a span of two years. Surprisingly, Clinton's wife, Hilary Clinton was present in the White House for seven out of those nine days.In 1996, Lewinsky was relocated to Pentagon by her seniors because her closeness with Clinton was becoming an eyesore. Bill Richardson, the then UN Ambassador mentions offering a job to Lewinsky at the United Nations that she eventually declined.Lewinsky shared with Linda Tripp the details of her relationship with Bill Clinton. She was asked by Tripp to preserve all the gifts given by Clinton and not to dry clean the dress that she wore during her sexual encounter with Clinton, which later came to be known as the ``infamous Blue Dress''. Lewinsky's recorded confessions were handed over by Tripp to agent Lucianne Goldberg, who had advised her to record them. He directed Tripp to take the recordings to Kenneth Starr and bring them to the notice of investigators who were investigating Clinton's Paula Jones scandal. The scandal hit the headlines in January 1998 in Washington Post. Clinton, at that time, very confidently denied each and every accusation. He used his oratorical skills to claim his innocence. Addressing a White House press conference, he defended himself and said,"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you!''In his defense in Paula Jones case, Clinton denied any sexual relationship with Lewinsky. But it was Lewinsky's blue dress with Clinton's semen that shattered Clinton's testimony. Kenneth Starr concluded Clinton's statement to be fabricated and erroneous.US House of Representatives issued Articles of Impeachment against President Clinton after which Senate initiated trial proceedings that continued for 21 days. But the trial failed to convict Clinton as all the Democrats in the senate voted for Clinton's acquittal on both the perjury and the obstruction of justice charges. Even Republican party was divided on this issue as 10 Republicans voted for Clinton's acquittal on perjury charges while five Republicans voted for Clinton's acquittal on the obstruction of justice charges. Finally, President Clinton escaped impeachment and was acquitted of all the charges. President Clinton continued in office and successfully completed his full term.