Bill Clinton's credibility threatened by decades of scandals amid grilling over Epstein ties
Former President Bill Clinton has vigorously denied many of them, allegations of sexual improprieties have punctuated his career and repeatedly made questions about his character the focus of national attention.
His truthfulness is again back in the national spotlight after lawmakers on Friday questioned Clinton about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein — the disgraced financier who died in 2019 while incarcerated on charges of sex trafficking minors.
Clinton has not been implicated in any wrongdoing.
Friday’s questioning, however, is just the most recent entry in a list of questions and controversies that stretches back almost 30 years.
Juanita Broaddrick – 1998
Allegations against Clinton began in 1998 when Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of raping her when he was running for governor of Arkansas in 1978. In the years since, Broaddrick described attempts she believes the Clintons made to keep her from speaking about the incident.
"I was at a fundraiser, but [Hillary Clinton] caught me before I left, and she came up very friendly and said, ‘Bill and I are so appreciative of everything you do.’ And then her voice changed," Broaddrick recalled in an interview with Fox News in 2018.
"It frightened me," she said.
By the time Broaddrick’s allegations became public, the statute of limitations protected Clinton from prosecution for the accusation.
Clinton has denied the claim.
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Kathleen Willey – 1998
In an interview with Fox, Willey called herself a former friend of Clinton and said she supported him when he launched his presidential ambitions.
"We raised an awful lot of money for him," Willey recalled.
Willey explained that her husband had fallen on hard financial times, prompting her to turn to the White House in 1993 in hopes of finding a job. Clinton was the president then.
"He sat down on the sofa. I proceeded to tell him what was going on, and I told him, ‘I need a job.’ He took my coffee cup from me and the next thing I knew he had me backed into a corner, hands all over me, trying to kiss me," Willey said, describing an altercation between the two that took place in a study just outside the Oval Office.
Willey first went public with her allegation in a CBS interview with "60 Minutes" in 1998. Clinton has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Gennifer Flowers – 1992
A former television reporter, Gennifer Flowers claimed that she had a longstanding affair with Clinton from the late 1970’s through 1989.
Years later, she said Clinton’s advances started when she and Clinton met during a reporting assignment.
"He proceeded to come on to me for three months before I decided I wanted to have a relationship with him which at that point was consensual. In today’s standards, it was definitely sexual harassment," Flowers said in an appearance on the Ingraham Angle in 2018.
The story spread to national media as Bill Clinton waged a presidential campaign, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
Clinton, in an interview with 60 Minutes in the fallout of the news, didn’t confirm the allegations from Flowers but said he had "acknowledged causing pain" in his marriage.
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Troopergate – 1993
Shortly after President Bill Clinton assumed office, allegations first reported by The American Spectator magazine began to surface that Clinton had used state troopers as governor to arrange sexual encounters with women.
Among them, Larry Patterson, Roger Perry and Danny Ferguson all claimed Clinton had ordered them to facilitate his encounters.
Time magazine quoted the original American Spectator allegations, stating that the troopers had said "their official duties included facilitating Clinton’s cheating on his wife."
"They were instructed by Clinton to drive him in state vehicles to rendezvous points and guard him during sexual encounters … and to help Clinton cover up his activities by lying to Hillary."
The allegations about the troopers also became a part of independent counsel Ken Starr’s later investigation of separate cases.
Paula Jones
Jones’ case, which eventually led to Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, began while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
"I was asked to work the governor’s quality management conference," Jones recalled in an interview with Sean Hannity in 2016. "His security was hanging out with us, and later that day, he came over and said, ‘The governor would like to meet with you.’"
Jones said she was escorted up to Clinton’s room at a hotel.
"We did some small talk, and then he started kinda getting a little comfortable. He said he liked my curves and then I’m like — I didn’t know what to do. It was him and me in the room," Jones said.
Jones described how the governor then exposed himself to her before she left the room.
"’I’m not that kind of girl,’" Jones remembers telling Clinton.
After Jones launched a sexual harassment lawsuit in 1991, Ken Starr, an independent counsel who was assigned to the case, began an investigation that would uncover not just the details about the Jones incident but also the Monica Lewinsky scandal that finally led to Clinton’s impeachment in the House of Representatives.
Jones herself was awarded an $850,000 settlement as a result of her private suit.
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Monica Lewinsky – 1998
The case that would eventually lead to Clinton’s impeachment first came to the public’s attention when the Drudge Report picked up a story, initially abandoned by Newsweek, that Clinton was having an affair with an intern at the White House.
"She was a frequent visitor to a small study just off the Oval Office, where she claims to have indulged the president's sexual preference. Reports of the relationship spread in White House quarters, and she was moved to a job at the Pentagon, where she worked until last month," the reporting read.
Clinton famously denied the allegations when answering questions under oath from Ken Starr, who, at the time, was investigating Paula Jones' claims.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman," Clinton famously said in an interview at the White House.
Eventually, Clinton’s infidelity was confirmed when a friend of Lewinsky recorded her talking about the affair and turned the tapes over to Starr.
Clinton would be forced to admit that he had misrepresented his boldest of assertions. At least one voter in Houston told NBC the admission left him with more questions.
"What else has he lied about?" a man asked reporters.