Inside the Bill Clinton Impeachment Scandal. It Started With an Affair, But It Ended With a Perjury Trap That Shook the World.

Nov 8, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Nov 10, 2025

HOME > LOVE - FANTASY > CRIME & THRILLER

This Article Is Available In

ENGLISH - GERMAN - FRENCH - ITALIAN - SPANISH

THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES MATURE CONTENT

At the heart of the scandal was a relationship defined by a massive power imbalance: the president of the United States and a 22-year-old White House intern. The affair lasted, on and off, for two years. For the intern, Monica Lewinsky, it was a secret, closely-guarded world. But that "golden bubble," as she called it, was about to burst in the most violent way possible, turning a private relationship into a global spectacle. This wasn't just going to be an embarrassing story; it was going to be a political weapon.

The explosion came from an unexpected place: a "friend." A colleague named Linda Tripp, who Lewinsky trusted as a mentor, was secretly recording their private phone calls. We're not talking about a few-minute chat; we're talking over 20 hours of graphic, intimate, and emotional conversations about the affair. Tripp, it turned out, was not a friend at all. She was working with investigators, and she used those tapes to help the FBI set up a sting operation. One minute, Lewinsky was meeting her "friend" at a mall; the next, she was ambushed by federal agents and taken to a hotel room. There, she was threatened with 27 years in prison for perjury and other crimes.

How did a private affair become a 27-year prison-worthy crime? That's the real genius—or terror—of the legal trap. It wasn't about the sex; it was about lying about the sex. It all tied back to a different lawsuit for sexual harassment brought by another woman, Paula Jones. In that case, the president was asked under oath if he'd had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. He said "no." An Independent Counsel, Ken Starr—who was originally investigating a completely different land deal—saw his opening. This was perjury. This was the "high crime" he could use. He just needed proof, and Linda Tripp had just delivered it...