Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99

Reading the magazine piece three years later and resolving to clear her name, Ms. Jones filed a federal civil lawsuit in May 1994. She claimed $700,000 in damages for sexual harassment and said what she really wanted was an apology and an admission by Clinton that he had done what she said he had done.

Clinton's lawyer, Robert Bennett, offered a settlement but no apology. Jones refused it. In December 1994, to delay the suit, Bennett invoked presidential immunity. The U.S. District Court agreed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the case to proceed. On May 27, 1997, the Supreme Court upheld that opinion, ruling unanimously that a sitting president has no temporary immunity from a civil lawsuit related to an unofficial act.