Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99

On Capitol Hill, after two more days and 16 hours of questions from both Republicans and Democrats, the Senate closed its doors to the public and went into debate. Meanwhile, the House managers interviewed Monica Lewinsky for two hours but, according to her lawyer, learned nothing that was not already on the record. On Wednesday, January 27, after considering 15 potential witnesses and deciding not to risk the political consequences of lengthening so unpopular a trial, the managers said they would call for depositions from only three: Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan, and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, to whom the president had first denied having the affair with Lewinsky.

On Monday, February 1, Monica Lewinsky was interviewed for six hours by three Democratic and three Republican senators. Lewinsky reiterated her testimony that, while she and the president had discussed cover stories in the Jones case, he had not asked her to lie.

A three-hour interrogation of Vernon Jordan garnered only his insistence that his effort to help find Lewinsky a job was not an attempt to buy her silence. Blumenthal told the senators that he now realized the president had lied in telling him Lewinsky had stalked him and demanded sex and that he had rebuffed her.

Clips of the videotaped testimonies were shown to the Senate on Friday, February 5, with full transcripts.

Closing arguments on both sides reiterated the evidence. The prosecutors urged the senators to put their political courage up front and "let justice roll down" on Clinton. Defense attorneys reminded them that they were participants in a case of partisan politics and retribution.