SHORT PROFILE: Bill Clinton due to testify in Epstein congressional probe a day after his wife Hillary

Record ID: 2361071

  • Title: SHORT PROFILE: Bill Clinton due to testify in Epstein congressional probe a day after his wife Hillary
  • Date: 26th February 2026
  • Summary: History was made in Washington D.C. on January 7, 1997 when the United States Senate began the impeachment trial of Clinton. WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JANUARY 7, 1999) (SENATE TV) VARIOUS OF SENATORS SWEARING OATH TO SERVE AS JURORS IN CLINTON IMPEACHMENT TRIAL The United States Senate acquitted Clinton on February 12, 1999 on two articles of impeachment, leaving hi
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: CLINTON DEMOCRATS HILLARY HUMANITARIAN WORK LEWINSKY NAFTA PRESIDENT SCANDALS
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00E010126012026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Democrat Bill Clinton came to the White House by defeating an incumbent president, Republican George H.W. Bush, and served from 1993 to 2001 during a period of acute partisanship in Washington.
    Clinton endured bruising political battles with Republicans and was impeached in 1998 by the House of Representatives over his affair with a young White House intern, but remained in office when the Senate acquitted him.
    The former Arkansas governor who swept into the White House by claiming the mainstream center of U.S. politics, was a lightning rod for Republican critics and an energetic and gifted campaigner who maintained his popularity with Democrats even after leaving office.
    A political natural, the silver-haired Clinton embraced Republican positions on issues like welfare reform and held office during a period of rapid growth in technology, the rise of the internet and economic globalization.
    He also led an active U.S. foreign policy, playing peacemaker in Northern Ireland and the Middle East and injecting the U.S. military into global hot spots including Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo.
    But Clinton suffered numerous policy setbacks in office, most notably on his ambitious plans for healthcare reform, and was mired in controversy and Republican-led investigations almost from the start.
    The crush of investigations culminated in the scandal involving his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a young White House intern. The revelations regarding the affair set off a bitter partisan battle between his supporters and critics who demanded that he resign.
    "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Bill Clinton told reporters at the White House in January 1998 as he steadfastly denied the affair for months to his wife, Hillary Clinton, and the world.
    On Dec. 19, 1998, the Republican-led House voted to approve articles of impeachment accusing Clinton of perjury for misleading a grand jury about the nature of his relationship with Lewinsky and obstruction of justice for inducing others to lie to cover up the affair.
    Clinton remained in office because the Senate on Feb. 12, 1999, voted against removing him from office after a dramatic five-week trial that left even his fellow Democrats demoralized.
    Hillary Clinton later wrote that while furious over the affair she decided she still loved him. They went through counselling and remained together.
    While Clinton did not serve in the military and was derided as a Vietnam War draft dodger by critics, he was unafraid to project U.S. military might as president. He sent forces to Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti and the Gulf and directed the U.N. bombing campaign in Kosovo.
    He worked hard at developing personal relationships with world leaders and helped broker an interim Middle East peace accord with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 that led to seven years of negotiation and a lessening of conflict in the region.
    Clinton took to the celebrity speaking circuit and set up his own foundation to tackle poverty, health and education after he left office. He also adapted to the role of political husband after leaving office, when his wife Hillary was elected senator from New York in 2000.
    Clinton joined with the elder Bush in a public campaign to raise money for survivors of the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami in Asia that killed more than 300,000 people.
    He was named U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti in May 2009 and spearheaded international fundraising for Haiti after devastating January 2010 7.0 earthquake, setting up the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund with former president George W. Bush.
    Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV on Aug. 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Blythe, died three months before his birth. He later took the surname of his stepfather, Roger Clinton.
    In high school, Clinton played the saxophone and was a big fan of Elvis Presley.
    He worked his way through Georgetown University in Washington, and later won a coveted Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School where he also met his wife.
    (Production: Eva Weininger)
  • Copyright Holder: SENATE TV (USA)
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