Why was clinton Impeached?

Question

According to Wikipedia, in the United states Impeachment means:

" In the United States, impeachment can occur both at the
federal and state level. The Constitution defines impeachment at the federal level and limits impeachment to "The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States" who may only be impeached and removed for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Now look into the impeachment of Clinton:

" The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives and his subsequent acquittal on all charges (of perjury and obstruction of justice) in a 21-day Senate trial. "


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment#Impeachable_offenses

What part of having a sexual relationship with interns considered - treason, bribery or high crime ?

You could say misdemeanor, probably right but.. but if a blow J is considered an impeachment offense, would lying for reasons of an invasions/war be as critical or less ?

Sorry downrider dave, I did not have enough characters space to add into the original post because of the quotes.

My questions is the first add. comments.

I chose misdemeanor because it's the only reasonable explanation. He did took an oath and lie about the affair but why is the question/affair being asked in the trial, does it concern the criminal investigation by Kenneth Starr, who was investigating the former President on various other matters including the Whitewater scandal, Filegate, and Travelgate ?

DanW:

Clinton offense and nixon is different in magnitude.

" Investigations conducted by the FBI, Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the press revealed that this burglary was just one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff and those loyal to him. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations.[1] This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in. "

Illegal wiretapping sounds familiar.
If the republicans, have brought more serious charges against the Clintons, I would have look at him differently but impeaching him for lying about a BJ is honestly a joke.

Answer 1

You have it all right there. What's the question. By the way, while this information is pretty spot on....wikipedia is NOT a reliable source for any information. Be careful what you read and NEVER use it as a source. Always find other sources that back up what you read there.

EDIT - It had nothing to do with the sexual affair with Monica Lewinski. He lied about having the affair during a civil trial concerning his sexual harassment of Paula Jones. That led to him being impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice.

High Crimes and misdemeanors can mean pretty much any criminal accusations.

Answer 2

I find it very frustrating that when Nixon was called to task for lying, nobody cared what the lie was about. The President of the United States had lied to the people and they were demanding his head. He did the stand-up thing and resigned for the good of the country, so there wouldn't be ugly impeachment proceedings for months on end.

Clinton came along and suddenly, everybody was splitting hairs and pointing out the subject matter of the lie, not the lie itself. Nobody cared that he had broken the law with his lie. Perjury of that magnitude could get you or I five years in jail, but people didn't even want to impeach Clinton from the Presidency over it. He eventually got impeached, but not removed from office. He did get himself disbarred over it, though.

The double standard between Nixon and Clinton boggles my mind, and what surprises me even further is that people still to this day demonize Nixon and excuse Clinton.

EDIT: If you lost a lawsuit on the basis of your opponent's lies under oath, thereby obstructing justice, you wouldn't care what the details of the lie were. Nixon committed felonies, and Clinton committed felonies too. The difference is, Nixon resigned, while Clinton chose to drag the country through a whole impeachment drama. BOTH committed felonies. What part of that is lost on you?

Answer 3

Read David Shippers book "Sellout" He is the Liberal Chicago lawyer that represented the House Managers in the impeachment. They did not want to impeach Clinton for perjury. They had a secure evidence room that contained the evidence against Clinton and Gore. They wanted to charge them both with felonies. The members of Congress could have gone into this room and viewed the documentation on the charges. Only one member went in and reviewed the evidence. That was Rep. Mary Bono. It was a done deal before it ever got to the Senate. Newt and Lott even said they were not going to look at the evidence.

Answer 4

Perjury


The impeachment of President Bill Clinton arose from a series of events following the filing of a lawsuit on May 6, 1994, by Paula Corbin Jones in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. In her complaint initiating the suit, Ms. Jones alleged violations of her federal civil rights in 1991 by President Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas and she was an Arkansas state employee. According to the allegations, Governor Clinton invited Ms. Jones to his hotel room where he made a crude sexual advance that she rejected

Answer 5

Remember he was acquitted. The claim was he committed perjury and obstruction of justice by denying a legal personal relationship that was not the subject of the investigation. According to US vs Dunnigan (507 US 87,94 (1993)) , perjury must relate to material facts. As the investigation at the time did not in any way relate to Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, the nature of thier relationship was immaterial, and so statements about it could not constitute perjury (and obviously not obstruction of justice).
http://www.perjury.us/statutes.html

The whole thing was politically motivated muck raking at its finest.

Remove/avail- you really need to study what impeachment means. Impeaching an official is equivalent to being indicted by a grand jury. It simply means there is a case to answer.
Clinton was acquitted by the senate. That is why he was not removed - because he was found not guilty on both charges.

Dan W - as per above - the law says it matters what the lie is about. Clinton did not commit a felony no matter how hard you try to argue he did. This is why he was acquitted.

Answer 6

Clinton was impeached for perjury (the crime of lying under oath). He said he did not have sexual relations with Lewinksy, and it was proven otherwise. Republicans in Congress said repeatedly at the time it was not about the sex, it was about the lying, and they were able to gather the votes to impeach him for perjury, but failed to remove him from office (which is a separate vote from the vote to impeach).

Public sentiment was against impeachment the whole time, but Congressional Republicans took an especially big hit in the polls around the time it was exposed that many of the Republicans who were demanding impeachment the loudest had actually been having extramarital affairs of their own (Bob Livingston, Newt Gingrich, etc).

Answer 7

Because congress at the time would rather waste time on crap like this that hunting down the terrorist that attempted to blow up world trade center.

I'm nt a Clinton guy but I think he might have been a bit distracted by this. Still no excuse but maybe an advisor could have convinced him to eliminate the threat.

Make you go hmmmm.

It did coin the term "how about a Monica"

Answer 8

Clinton was impeaced for lying, not for sex. If he had not lied during the investigation and was honest, there would not have been an impeachment proceeding.

Answer 9

Perjury, it really is a crime (at least if you or I did it). Getting a Lewinsky right from the source is just poor judgment but not the reason he was impeached.

Answer 10

He was impeached for lying under oath, not for having sex with Lewinsky.