President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House
On this day · 19 December 1998
After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House impeached Clinton on December 19, 1998 — only the second president to face that fate.
On December 19, 1998, after roughly 13 1/2 hours of debate spread over two days, the U.S. House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The charges: lying under oath to a federal grand jury, and obstructing justice.
The articles grew out of Clinton’s sworn denials about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, testimony given during a separate sexual-harassment lawsuit. With the votes, Clinton became only the second president ever impeached, following Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Impeachment by the House is an accusation, not a conviction — that question moves to the Senate.
And there the matter unwound. In February 1999, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds needed to remove him, acquitting Clinton on both counts. He served out the rest of his term, vowing to keep working. The episode remains one of the most consequential constitutional showdowns of the late twentieth century.
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