dential candidacy on October 3, 1991. Competing in
a crowded race for the 1992 Democratic presidential
election, Clinton was forced to answer allegations
that he had a lengthy sexual affair with Gennifer
Flowers in Arkansas during the 1980’s. Shortly be-
fore the New Hampshire primary and on the eve-
ning of the 1992 Super Bowl game, Bill and Hillary
Rodham Clinton appeared on the televised news
program60 Minutesand denied the affair, despite
Flowers’s widely publicized press conference that in-
cluded taped phone conversations between her and
Clinton.
Nonetheless, Clinton won a strong second-place
finish in New Hampshire and became the presump-
tive Democratic presidential nominee by the spring
of 1992. Throughout Clinton’s presidential cam-
paign, he was plagued by several issues regarding his
credibility, integrity, and patriotism. Clinton’s politi-
cal opponents and critics nicknamed him “Slick
Willie” and referred to his misleading and evasive
statements about marijuana use and avoiding mili-
tary service during the Vietnam War.
The Whitewater Scandal Before his presidency,
Clinton relied on his wife as the primary income
earner in their marriage. Hillary Rodham Clinton
was an attorney at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock,
Arkansas. She was also primarily responsible for the
Clintons’ investment decisions. In this capacity, she
invested in the Whitewater real estate development
in Arkansas with James and Susan McDougal. After
this real estate venture failed, financial impropri-
eties and controversy surrounding it led to investiga-
tions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commis-
sion and the eventual conviction and imprisonment
of the McDougals. James McDougal repeatedly and
publicly claimed that the Clintons were seriously
and illegally involved in the Whitewater scandal.
In July, 1993, Vince Foster, Clinton’s deputy
White House counsel, committed suicide in a fed-
eral park in Virginia. Foster had known Bill Clinton
since childhood and had worked with Hillary
Clinton as an attorney at the Rose Law Firm. Some
critics and opponents of the Clintons suspected that
they ordered Foster to be murdered in order to
cover up an affair between Foster and Hillary and to
eliminate him as an incriminating witness in the
Whitewater case and remove Whitewater-related
documents from Foster’s office. This extreme, con-
troversial theory about Foster’s death was one of
the first anti-Clinton conspiracy theories that made
it increasingly difficult for the American public to
discern reasonable, credible accusations of illegal
behavior by Clinton.
On April 22, 1994, Hillary Clinton held a press
conference and denied any wrongdoing in the
Whitewater investment. Bill Clinton directed Attor-
ney General Janet Reno to appoint a special prose-
cutor to investigate the Whitewater issue. Robert
Fiske then subpoenaed the Clintons for documents
in May, 1994. The Resolution Trust Corporation, a
federal agency, eventually cleared the Clintons of
any wrongdoing.Kenneth Starr Although it was not the most promi-
nent of Clinton’s scandals, the Whitewater scandal
led to the appointment of Kenneth Starr by a judi-
cial panel in August, 1994, as an independent coun-
sel to continue the Whitewater investigation. Starr
was a conservative Republican, a native of Arkansas,
and solicitor general during George H. W. Bush’s
presidency. This responsibility then led to Starr’s in-
vestigation of Paula Jones’s civil suit against Bill
Clinton for sexual harassment. Perceiving contra-
dictions between Clinton’s January, 1998, deposi-
tion and that of Monica Lewinsky, a former White
House intern, in the Jones case, Starr concluded
that Clinton had committed perjury and obstruc-
tion of justice in order to deny and cover up a sexual
affair with Lewinsky.
The Supreme Court ruled in May, 1997, inClinton
v. Jonesthat the U.S. Constitution does not make the
president immune from civil suits involving actions
that occurred before he became president. On No-
vember 13, 1998, Clinton paid Jones $850,000 as an
out-of-court settlement after Jones agreed to end
her appeal. Clinton continued to deny that he had
sexually harassed or propositioned Jones and re-
fused her demand for a public apology.
Information from the Jones case also intensified
the Troopergate scandal. Some Arkansas state troop-
ers stated that when Clinton was governor, he used
them to contact Jones and other women for sexual li-
aisons. One trooper claimed that Clinton offered
him a federal job if he denied knowing anything
about Clinton’s adulterous behavior in Arkansas.
In addition to Troopergate, the Filegate and Travel-
gate scandals, in which the Clintons were respec-
tively accused of improperly using Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) files and firing employeesThe Nineties in America Clinton’s scandals 197