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Wonder Boy said:




Bill Clinton

    Throughout 1998, there was a controversy over Clinton's relationship with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton initially denied the affair while testifying in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. The opposing lawyers asked the president about it during his deposition. He stated "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her." Four days later he also said, "There is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship, or any other kind of improper relationship."[6]

    Clinton then appeared on national television on January 26 and stated: "Listen to me, I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." However, after it was revealed that investigators had obtained a semen-stained dress as well as testimony from Lewinsky, Clinton changed tactics and admitted that an improper relationship with Lewinsky had taken place: "Indeed I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."

    Faced with overwhelming evidence, he apologized to the nation, agreed to pay a $25,000 court fine, settled his sexual harassment lawsuit with Paula Jones for $850,000 and was temporarily disbarred, for a period of five years, from practicing law in Arkansas and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was not tried for perjury in a court. However, he did admit to "testifying falsely" in a carefully worded statement as part of a deal to avoid indictment for perjury.



    The Lewinsky scandal
    (Main article: Lewinsky scandal)
    In 1998, as a result of allegations that he had lied during grand jury testimony regarding his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a young female White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. The House held no serious impeachment hearings before the 1998 mid-term elections: Republican candidates rarely mentioned the issue of impeachment, but Democrats generally came out strongly against impeachment. In spite of the allegations against the President, his party picked up seats in the Congress. The Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December 1998 to hold impeachment proceedings.

    Although the House Judiciary Committee hearings were perfunctory and ended in a straight party line vote, the debate on the Floor of the House was lively. The two charges that were passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former Arkansas-state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony.


    Impeachment trial in the Senate
    (Main article: Impeachment of Bill Clinton)
    The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington powerhouse law firm Williams & Connolly.

    On February 12, the Senate concluded a 21-day trial with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with all of the votes to convict being cast by Republicans. On the perjury charge 55 senators voted to acquit, including 10 Republicans, and 45 voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.[68] Clinton, like the only other president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson, served the remainder of his term.





James Traficant

    INDICTMENT

    In 2002, Traficant was indicted on federal corruption charges for taking campaign funds for personal use. Again, he opted to represent himself, insisting that the trial was part of a vendetta against him dating to his 1983 trial. During the trial, Traficant frequently argued with the judge and screamed at prosecutors and witnesses. On April 15, he was convicted of ten felony counts including bribery, racketeering and tax evasion. Once convicted, he was stripped of his right to vote in the House under the chamber's rules. The House Ethics Committee recommended that he be expelled from the House, and on July 25 the House voted 420-1 to expel him. Gary Condit was the lone no vote and there were 9 members who voted 'present'. Traficant was the first representative to be expelled since Michael Myers's expulsion in 1980 as a result of the Abscam scandal.

    After his expulsion, Traficant ran as an independent candidate for another term in the House while incarcerated in a federal prison in White Deer, Pennsylvania. He received 15 % of the vote (27,487 votes) and became one of only a handful of individuals in the history of the United States to run for a federal office from prison. The election was won by one of his former aides, Tim Ryan.

    In March 2004, the Federal Bureau of Prisons moved Traficant to a federal prison near Ray Brook, New York. As of April 2005, the Federal Bureau of Prisons listed Traficant at the Federal Medical Center, Rochester, an administrative facility providing specialized mental health services. Traficant has taken up artwork while in prison [2].





Abscam scandal
    The FBI set up "Abdul Enterprises, Ltd." in 1978 and FBI employees posed as Middle Eastern businessmen in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheik. A house (4407 W. St. NW, Washington, DC), along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey - was used to set up meetings between various public officials and a mysterious Arab sheik named Abdul who wanted:

  • To purchase asylum in the U.S.
  • To involve them in an investment scheme
  • To get help in getting his money out of his country

    Much of the operation was directed by Melvin Weinberg, a convicted con artist who was hired by the FBI for that purpose. It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; up until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.

    On February 2, 1980 reports surfaced that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The media dubbed the operation Abscam after the name of the company.



    Of the thirty-one targeted officials, one senator, Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ), and five members of the House of Representatives (John Jenrette (D-SC), Richard Kelly (R-FL), Raymond Lederer (D-PA), Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D-PA) and Frank Thompson (D-NJ)) were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. Another, John M. Murphy (D-NY), was convicted of a lesser charge. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers had to be expelled and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost due. Five other government officials were convicted, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Angelo Errichetti; members of the Philadelphia City Council; and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.





Gary Condit/Chandra Levy
    In May 2001, Condit became the subject of national news coverage, after the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a Washington, D.C. intern originally from Condit's district. Condit admitted having an affair with Levy. [1]

    While Condit was never an official suspect in the disappearance, Levy's family (and subsequently the national media) suspected that Condit was withholding important information about the intern's disappearance. Suspicion was deepened when Condit tried to avoid answering direct questions during a televised interview with news anchor Connie Chung on August 23, 2001. This followed news reports that Condit had an affair with flight attendant, Anne Marie Smith .[2]

    He faded from the news following 9/11, only to reappear during his announcement to run for an 8th term on December 7.

    Condit lost the primary elections in March 2002 to his former aide, then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, and left Congress at the end of his term in January 2003.

    After an extensive search, Levy's remains were discovered a year after her disappearance by a man hunting for turtles with his dog in a secluded area of Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. In May 2002 a medical examiner officially declared that Levy's death was the result of homicide. The case remains unsolved.



i'm never clear on why a man cheating on his wife and then lying about it is somehow a justification for a man stealing millions from indian tribes and getting favors from political cronies.

Bow ties are coool.