Monica Lewinsky graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1995 and joined the White House as an unpaid intern to the Chief of Staff (a senior aide to the US President).
She was 22-years old at the time and is said to have been enamoured of Bill Clinton soon after she came to the White House.
Bill Clinton had been elected as the US President in 1992 and was re-elected in 1996.
Monica Lewinsky attended whatever Bill Clinton’s events she could attend and, as per one of her interviews, at an event she found Clinton taking a special interest in her.
This was in 1995, the year when their alleged sexual relationship started (and it reportedly continued till 1997).
In April 1996, her superiors transferred her from the White House to the Pentagon because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton.
At the Pentagon, Monica became friends with Linda Tripp, whom Monica told about her relationship with Clinton.
Linda Tripp started secretly recording telephone conversations between Monica and Clinton starting in September 1997, on the advice of a literary agent.
This literary agent, Lucciane Goldberg, was already working on several books (none of these got published) about the sexual misconducts of Bill Clinton, from as early as 1991 when he was the Governor of Arkansas.
One of these misconducts had been reported by Paula Jones, a civil servant, who had filed a civil lawsuit against him for sexual harassment in 1994.
Paula’s lawyers were looking for evidence that showed a pattern of Clinton repeatedly becoming sexually involved with state or government employees.
So, they summoned women they suspected Clinton had had affairs with, one of whom was Monica Lewinsky.
Lewinsky denied any physical relationship with Clinton and also attempted to persuade Tripp to lie, who instead gave the recordings to the lawyer.
On January 26, 1998, Clinton stated, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” in a nationally televised White House news conference.
The evidence proved otherwise, and Clinton, who had denied these allegations several times, was impeached for perjury (lying under oath) & obstruction of justice, but was acquitted.
