Monica Lewinsky ( The Stained Blue Dress that Almost Lost a Presidency)

Monica Lewinsky Is Back

Sixteen years after scandal turned her into a household name, the former White House intern, now 40, has her say in Vanity Fair—and poses for contributing photographer Mark Seliger.

 


Former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, smiles during a photo opportunity in Helsinki, Finland Friday, April 9, 1999.  Lewinsky is on a two-day book tour in Helsinki, to sell her new book. (AP Photo/Soile Kallio)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Monica Lewinsky says there's no question her boss — Bill Clinton — "took advantage" of her when he was president.

But she says their affair was consensual and if there was any abuse involved, it came afterward, when Clinton's inner circle tried to discredit her and the president's opponents used her as a political pawn.
The former White House intern, now 40, writes about her life in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, out this month. In released excerpts, she says she's perhaps the first Internet era scapegoat and wants to speak out on behalf of other victims of online humiliation.
Her willingness to step forward may come at an inopportune time as former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton considers running for president. Republicans have signaled they don't consider her husband's scandal from the late 1990s out of bounds in the realm of 2016-style political dialogue.

Lewinsky, who was 22 when her liaisons with Clinton began in 1995. Clinton's lies about the relationship contributed to his impeachment by the House in 1998; the Senate acquitted him.
Lewinsky writes that she deeply regrets the affair and made a point of staying silent through several presidential campaigns to avoid becoming a distraction. Now, she writes, it's time to stop "tiptoeing around my past — and other people's futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I've decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet."

Monica Lewinsky Photos Of Her Now And Through The Years.

  

Monica Lewinsky is single and nearly 40 (2012).

 

  

Monica Lewinsky at photographer Nigel Parry’s book release party and photo exhibition for ‘Blunt’ held at Milk Gallery
New York City (2006).

 

  

Monica Lewinsky walking through the meat packing district in New York City (2003).

 

  

Monica Lewinsky & friend at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party (1999).

 The Stained Blue Dress
that Almost Lost a Presidency

THE STORY BEHIND THE DRESS

FBI: MEMO ON TAKING OF PRESIDENT'S BLOOD

FBI: RECEIPT OF DRESS AND BLOOD SAMPLE

FBI ANALYSIS OF SEMEN STAIN
The Story Behind the Dress

In November 1997, Monica Lewinsky told her confidant and supposed friend, Linda Tripp, that she had in her possession a blue Gap dress that still bore the semen stain that resulted from her administering oral sex to President Clinton in February of that year.  Tripp called her literary agent, and fellow Clinton-hater, Lucianne Goldberg to report the news that evidence existed in Lewinsky's closet that could prove a sexual relationship between Monica and the President.  Goldberg and Tripp, according to published reports in both Time and Newsweek, discussed stealing the dress and turning it over to investigators .  Goldberg admitted having such a discussion with Tripp, calling it a "Nancy Drew fantasy." In late November, Lewinsky mentioned to Tripp that she intended to have the dress, which she had been saving a souvenir, dry-cleaned for a family event.  Tripp, anxious to preserve the dress to nail the President, discouraged her from doing so.  "I would tell my own daughter," Tripp told her, that she should save the dress "for your own ultimate protection" should she later be accused of lying about the affair with Clinton.  When Lewinsky expressed skepticism that it would ever come to that, Tripp told her that the dress made her look "really fat" and she shouldn't wear it again in public. In late July, 1998, Lewinsky turned the dress over to Kenneth Starr's investigators after signing an immunity agreement.  A blood sample was taken from Clinton on August 3, and on August 17, the FBI reported its conclusion that Clinton was the source of the semen on the dress "to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty." When news of the the existence of the dress surfaced in published reports in early August, politicians and commentators alike agreed that the blue dress proved Clinton lied when he denied a sexual relationship with Lewinsky.  Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called the evidence "very critical."  Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pa) agreed that it would be "the most powerful kind of corroboration" of an affair.  A George Washington law professor, Jonathan Turley, appearing on "Meet the Press" said of the semen stain: "No one will be able to spin him out of that."