On December 16, 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives’
Committee on the Judiciary released a 265-page report
recommending the impeachment of President Bill Clinton
for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The subsequent impeachment proceedings were the culmination
of a slew of specious scandals involving the president and first
lady Hillary Clinton. The Clintons were suspected of arranging
improper real-estate deals, fundraising violations and cronyism
in involving the firing of White House travel agents. Added to the
mix were stories of Clinton’s extra-marital affairs and a sexual harassment claim filed against him.

House floor debates articles of impeachment.

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875)

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 11 articles of
impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine
of which cite Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act.

The House vote made President Johnson, the 17th President
of the United States of America, the first president to be
impeached in U.S. history.

Newspaper illustration of the impeachment hearing for
President Andrew Johnson.

MIKE GREACIA

On January 7, 1999, the impeachment trial of President Bill
Clinton, formally charged with lying under oath and
obstructing justice, began in the Senate. As instructed
in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Chief
Justice William Rehnquist was sworn in to preside (below),
and the senators were sworn in as jurors. Congress had only
attempted to remove a president on one other occasion:
the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson,
who incurred the Republican Party’s wrath after he proposed
a conservative Reconstruction plan.

SANDY KOZEL

Hitler (seated second from left) poses with members of his
first cabinet in the chancellery.

On February 12, 1999, the five-week impeachment trial of Bill
Clinton come to an end, with the Senate voting to acquit the
president on both articles of impeachment: perjury and
obstruction of justice.