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The Lewinsky scandal was an American political sex scandal emerging in 1998, from a sexual relationship between 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House employee, 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 impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial. In 1995, Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term, and was later an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. While working at the White House she began a personal relationship with Clinton, the details of which she later confided to her friend and Defense Department co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone conversations. When Tripp discovered in January 1998 that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying a relationship with Clinton, she delivered the tapes to Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters, including the Whitewater scandal, the White House FBI files controversy, and the White House travel office controversy. During the grand jury testimony Clinton's responses were carefully worded, and he argued, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is", in regards to the truthfulness of his statement that "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship."〔(President Bill Clinton ), ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'', 21 January 1998.〕 The wide reporting of the scandal led to criticism of the press for over-coverage. The scandal is sometimes referred to as "Monicagate",〔Rich, Frank. ("Journal; Monicagate Year Two" ), ''The New York Times'', 16 December 1998.〕 Lewinskygate",〔Rich, Frank. ("Journal; Days of the Locust" ), ''The New York Times'', February 25, 1998.〕 "Tailgate",〔Hennenberger, Melinda. ("The President Under Fire" ), ''The New York Times'', January 29, 1998.〕 "Sexgate",〔James Barron with Hoban, Phoebe. ("Dueling Soaps" ), ''The New York Times'', January 28, 1998.〕 and "Zippergate",〔 following the "-gate" nickname construction that has been popular since the Watergate scandal. ==Allegations of sexual contact== Lewinsky claimed to have had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. According to her published schedule, First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days. In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon, because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton.〔Jeff Leen (January 24, 1998). ("Lewinsky: Two Coasts, Two Lives, Many Images" ), ''The Washington Post''.〕 According to his autobiography, then-United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Lewinsky for a job on his staff at the UN. Richardson did so, and offered her a position, which she declined. ''The American Spectator'' alleged that Richardson knew more about the Lewinsky affair than he declared to the grand jury. Lewinsky confided in Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton. Tripp persuaded Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her, and not to dry clean a semen-stained blue dress. Tripp reported their conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, who advised her to secretly record them,〔''US News and World Report'', "The Monica Lewinsky Tapes", 2 February 1998, v.124 n.4 p.23.〕 which Tripp began doing in September 1997. Goldberg also urged Tripp to take the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and bring them to the attention of people working on the Paula Jones case. In the fall of 1997, Goldberg began speaking to reporters (notably Michael Isikoff of ''Newsweek'') about the tapes. In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, she attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case. Instead, Tripp gave the tapes to Starr who was investigating the Whitewater controversy and other matters. Now armed with evidence of Lewinsky's admission of a physical relationship with Clinton, he broadened the investigation to include Lewinsky and her possible perjury in the Jones case. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lewinsky scandal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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