Writing Homework Help

1)Consider the ethics investigation of Bill Clinton regarding his perjury during the Monica Lewinski scandal. Was President Clinton in violation of the law? Did he breach his ethical obligations? Explain.

***Use the GCU Library for sources (https://library.gcu.edu/ )

The DQ response must be at least 200 words and should have at least one reference in APA format

2) Write a 100-word response to each student in first person as if you were writing it to the students. Talk about how you agree with their ideas and add your own thoughts. Make sure it’s respectful.

Student 1) Bill Clinton was a great president, however he got entrapped by his fleshly desires and in a way it hurts the values of the Constitution which is based on Christian principles. If someone is assuming such important position, it must be considered the embarrassment it can be for the White House as well as his family. It is something that the public will never forget, which in fact it is now a masters graduate level question to be analyzed and considered an example of lack of ethics in such an important governmental position with eyes from all over the world judging not only the president, but the American culture as well.

So, yes I think he violated to a certain extent ethical obligations by having an affair with a secretary inside the White House, completely unnecessary. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, both regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky which involved sexual encounters; However, the president’s lawyers said his behavior was morally reprehensible, but not impeachable, because whatever wrongs the president had committed against his family were not matters of public concern because they did not threaten the national interests that the president is sworn to uphold (Bill of Rights Institute, n.d).

The fact that the former democratic president lied under oath about the nature of his relationship with Lewinsky is what actually put him on the spotlight since lying under oath is considered a crime, especially from a president in charge. Tiersma, (2004), shows that in order to commit perjury, a person must have taken an oath to testify truthfully, also, federal law requires that the person willfully and contrary to such oath state or subscribe any material matter in which he does not believe to be true, in other words, giving a false statement under oath.

Reference

The impeachment of Bill Clinton. (n.d.). Bill of Rights Institute. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/e-lessons/the-im…

Tiersma, P. (2004). Did Clinton Lie? Defining Sexual Relations. Chicago Kent Law Review. Permalink:https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewconten…

Student 2) Monica Lewinsky’s in June of 1995 was a new college graduate working on an unpaid internship at Washington, DC, and appointed within the office of President Bill Clinton. Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, with the help of a family connection, helped qualify Lewinski for the White House position.

Jan. 12. 1996, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, was investigating “Whitewater,” a scandal-plagued Arkansas real-estate venture with which the Clintons had been involved, suddenly receives more than 20 hours of tapes of phone conversations that seem to contradict a confession. The tapes come from Linda Tripp, who had become close friends with Lewinsky in 1996 while the two worked in the Pentagon’s public affairs office, and to whom Lewinsky had confided about President Clinton. At the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City, Va., the next day (Jan.13, 1996), Lewinsky dishes more about the relationship to Tripp, who has been secretly wired by FBI agents, per Starr’s orders. Three days later, on January 16, 1996, a court of appeals panel authorizes a green light for Kenneth Starr to add the Clinton-Lewinsky allegations to his portfolio (Whitewater scandal) to see if Linda Tripp lied under oath.

The Big White Lie

On January 17, 1996, Matt Drudge’s, “The Drudge Report,” accounts that Newsweek had been informed about President Clinton’s affair with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky but had yet to run a story about it. On the same day, President Bill Clinton denies the affair in a deposition (sworn testimony) in the Paula Jones lawsuit — Jan. 7, 1996: Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit (affirmation) stating that she never had a sexual relationship with former President Bill Clinton, at the request of attorneys representing Paula Jones, which accused President Clinton of sexual harassment in 1994, claiming she suffered emotional damage after Clinton exposed himself to her in an Arkansas hotel room in May of 1991. The deposition earns him the dubious distinction of being the first sitting U.S. President to give testimony in a civil case in which he is the defendant.

On January 21, 1996, the “Drudge Report” publishes allegations that Monica Lewinsky discreetly retained a “garment with Clinton’s dried semen.” Ordinary news outlets pick up Drudge’s report over the course of one week, and FBI tests revealed no DNA matches (evidence) were found on Lewinsky’s clothes.

HERE IT COMES AT THE END OF THE MONTH

On Jan. 26, 1996: President Clinton denies the report on television, uttering what would become one of the most memorable lines of the scandal: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

Congress on September 9, 1996, receives two copies of Kenneth Starr’s 445-page report on the investigation (Whitewater, Jones, Lewinski), and supporting evidence, which takes up 36 boxes. In the report, he details the findings of his four-year, $52 million investigations, only mentioning the Whitewater land deal a handful of times. The report cites 11 impeachable offenses.

Oct. 5, 1996, the House judiciary committee votes along party lines to recommend an impeachment inquiry. A few days later on Oct. 8, 1996, The House of Representatives votes to begin an open-end impeachment inquiry, allowing the House Judiciary Committee to draw up charges based on Kenneth Starr’s report allegations. Thirty-one Democrats vote in favor of opening the inquiry and Bill Clinton is a Democrat. On Nov. 5, 1996, the House Judiciary Committee asks Clinton 81 written questions about the independent counsel’s report. Questions ranged from “Do you admit or deny that you are the chief law-enforcement officer of the United States of America?” to a precise accounting of whether he gave particular gifts to Lewinsky. Finally, on Nov. 13, 1996, President Bill Clinton settles the appealed sexual harassment suit with Paula Jones out of court, paying her $850,000 and admitting nothing.

On December 11, 1996: The House Judiciary Committee votes to recommend impeachment. They approve two articles of impeachment pertaining to perjury — one for lying to a grand jury and another for his testimony in response to questions about his relationship with Lewinsky — and one about obstruction of justice. Of December. 12, 1996, President Clinton says he will not resign, and again denies lying under oath. That same day, the House Judiciary Committee approves the fourth article of impeachment, alleging falsehoods in his answers to the 81 questions the committee had asked. They also reject a resolution to censure his “reprehensible conduct,” supported by Democrats; such a measure would have allowed Congress to express disapproval without resorting to impeachment.

THE IMPEACHMENT

Dec. 19, 1996: The House of Representatives votes to impeach President Clinton on two of the four articles of impeachment (the charge of perjury in his Aug. 17 federal grand jury testimony, and charge that he “prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice.”) Clinton vows to remain in office until “the last hour of the last day of my term.” A Gallup poll finds record-high approval of how he handles his job as president. And on Jan. 27, 1999: The Senate rejects a motion to dismiss impeachment charges. On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate finishes the impeachment trial, acquitting Clinton on both charges. The votes come in at 55-45 on perjury and 50-50 on obstruction of justice. Republicans block a Democratic move to censure President Clinton. By TIME’s MAGAZINE count, 2,345 minutes of the CBS, NBC, and ABC evening newscasts between Jan. 22, 1998, and Feb. 12, 1999, had been devoted to the scandal (Waxman, Olivia & Fabry, Merrill, 2018).

Regards to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the findings with the Grand Jury according to “perjury and obstruction of justice”, President Clinton ethically violated the law for lying (perjury). However, prior to his presidency, and on May 1991, regards to Paula Jones, President Clinton was not actively serving as President of the United States, therefore, of being accused with ‘sexual harassment from Paula Jones, thus would not present as liable for any wrongdoing by the Senate or Grand jury confronting before his presidency.

Reference

Waxman, Olivia & Fabry, Merrill, 2018. From an Anonymous Tip to an Impeachment: A Timeline of Key Moments in the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal. Published by Time. https://time.com/5120561/bill-clinton-monica-lewin…