1998 – Impeachment of Pres. Clinton

Pres. Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives and subsequently acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice, arising from the Lewinsky scandal. After a 21-day trial, the Senate vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction and removal from office under the Constitution. The impeachment proceedings were largely party-line, with no Democratic Senators voting for conviction and only three Democratic Representatives voting for impeachment.

In all, 55 senators voted “not guilty,” and 45 voted “guilty” on the charge of perjury. The Senate also acquitted on the obstruction charge with 50 votes cast each way. While the impeachment process dominated American politics for the better part of the year and took up much of the energy of the Clinton administration as it ran its course, it also failed to win the president’s opponents much of the political advantage that they sought. Opinion polls throughout the trial illustrated that the public opposed impeaching the president by margins of 65–70 percent and may have contributed to the subsequent loss of seats suffered by the Republican party in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate.

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