Flashback: Clinton deposed in Epstein case nearly 29 years to the day after ‘blue dress’ scandal
Former President Bill Clinton is sitting Friday for a deposition over the Epstein scandal nearly 29 years to the date of an infamous encounter with an intern that sparked a famous public denial.
On February 28, 1997 — 29 years from Saturday — Clinton allegedly had his "blue dress" encounter with then-intern Monica Lewinsky at the White House.
The official report from independent counsel Kenneth Starr to Congress lists the date in its section laying out "Physical Evidence."
"Physical conclusively establishes that the president and Ms. Lewinsky had a sexual relationship," the referral from Starr to the House of Representatives reads.
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"After reaching an immunity and cooperation agreement with the Office of the Independent Counsel on July 28, 1998, Ms. Lewinsky turned over a navy blue dress that she said she had worn during a sexual encounter with the President on February 28, 1997."
Starr’s report went on to say that when Lewinsky next pulled the blue dress from her closet she "surmised that the stains" then appearing on it "were the president’s semen."
That discovery led Starr’s office to request a blood sample from Clinton, which he provided to a physician in the White House Map Room on August 3, 1998, in the presence of an FBI agent and one of Starr’s attorneys.
Two subsequent tests concluded the president’s DNA was found on the dress and that "genetic markers" on the semen were characteristic of 1 out of 7.87 trillion Caucasian males.
When Clinton was deposed in the Paula Jones matter, he was asked whether he had sexual contact with Lewinsky, which he denied. The February 28 encounter, however, was later used by Starr to argue that Clinton had lied under oath.
Clinton publicly denied the affair at the end of an unrelated January 26, 1998, press conference:
"I want to say one thing to the American people: I’m going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton said.
"I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people."
Clinton was later impeached by the House, but the Senate voted against removing him from office.
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A painting depicting Clinton wearing Lewinsky’s blue dress and sitting in a provocative pose was recorded on page EFTA00000862 of the Justice Department’s Epstein Files cache.
The painting was originally reported in 2019 to have been photographed inside Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. It was not commissioned by Clinton and is not a White House image. Clinton himself also denied knowledge of the unique work.
Also on February 28 — this time in 1989 — federal authorities effectively shut down the financial firm that ultimately led to the Whitewater investigation. On February 28, 1989, federal authorities placed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, owned by Clinton ally Jim McDougal, into conservatorship. The entity became the genesis of Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation, which later expanded to include the Lewinsky matter. While scrutinizing Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connection to the real estate dealings beginning in 1994 — for which they were both exonerated — Starr ultimately uncovered a presidential affair with an intern and the public deceit that followed.
What resulted in Clinton’s 1998 impeachment began more than a decade earlier, as Starr examined real estate transactions in a resort community project called Whitewater Estates in the Ozarks that involved a company formed by the future first couple and their politically-connected friends Jim and Susan McDougal.
The Clintons and McDougals wanted to sell lots for vacation homes, but in 1979, interest rates rose to nearly 20%, leaving potential buyers wary, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Jim McDougal eventually took control of a rural bank later renamed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.
Starr ultimately investigated whether loans from Madison were improperly connected to Whitewater, and whether or what political influence benefitted McDougals financial dealings.
The Clintons were both investigated but never charged in connection with the bank or Whitewater, but the McDougals were, along with Clinton’s gubernatorial successor, Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.
The Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.