Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99

The world watched on television as Henry Hyde and the 12 other House "managers" of the prosecution opened the trial in the Senate chamber on Thursday, January 7, 1999. U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, attired in a judge's robe of his own design that observers likened to a Gilbert-and-Sullivan operetta costume, presided. Hyde read the two articles of impeachment.

The managers set out to prove a web of deceit woven by the president. After presentations by Hyde and others, Representative Asa Hutchinson detailed how phone calls between Clinton, Lewinsky, and Jordan "became a frenzied and concerted effort to keep the holes plugged in the dike" of obstruction of justice.

The next day, Representative Bill McCollum urged the Senate to call witnesses, including Monica Lewinsky. Senate Democrats argued that the evidence brought in by the House could stand as the official record, without other witnesses. Meanwhile, the major TV networks, which had carried the first day's session, reverted to soap operas and talk shows, and the Senate gallery, jampacked the day before, found one-quarter of its seats empty.

On Saturday, January 9, Representative Steve Buyer reminded the Senate that, in 1997, 182 Americans were convicted of perjury and 144 were convicted of obstruction of justice. "Where is the fairness for these Americans," he asked, "if they stay in jail and the president stays in the Oval Office?"

Representative Lindsey Graham, striding back and forth on the Senate floor as he spoke without notes, asked whether it was worth it to risk political chaos over lies about sex. "If we can do nothing else for this country," he said, "let's say this behavior is unacceptable. Remove him."