Troopergate

Identification An investigation and scandal based on allegations, ultimately proved false, that Bill Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, asked Arkansas state troopers to arrange sexual liaisons for him

This scandalous attack on U.S. president Bill Clinton had wide repercussions for the Clinton presidency and U.S. politics throughout the 1990’s.

“Troopergate” is a media-generated term for a set of allegations made by two former Arkansas state troopers, Larry Patterson and Roger Perry, that Bill Clinton had asked them to arrange sexual liaisons for him while he was Arkansas’s governor and that they had complied. David Brock reported these allegations in the conservative journal American Spectator in 1993.

Included in Brock’s account was the name of a woman, Paula, who was the subject of one alleged incident. Subsequently, this woman was identified as Paula Jones, who brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. Clinton claimed that such a suit could not be brought against him during his tenure as president. On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that Jones could pursue her case against Clinton while he was still in office. During subsequent depositions, Clinton denied sexually harassing Jones and also denied having sexual relations (within the meaning of a controversial and arguably ambiguous definition) with former White house intern Monica Lewinsky.

Federal judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that the Paula Jones lawsuit should be summarily dismissed on the grounds that Jones could not show that she had suffered any damages as the result of the alleged harassment. Jones threatened to appeal, but Clinton settled with Jones in November, 1998, for $850,000 in exchange for her not pursuing her appeal. Clinton refused to give a public apology.

However, Kenneth Starr, who had been pursuing a separate investigation into allegations of financial improprieties in a real estate deal known as Whitewater, convinced Attorney General Janet Reno that the Paula Jones lawsuit and the Monica Lewinsky allegations were relevant to his Whitewater investigation. Based on this additional authorization, Starr pursued perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Clinton for falsely denying that he had had sexual relations with Lewinsky, which ultimately resulted in Clinton’s impeachment by Republicans, who had a majority in the House of Representatives and passed impeachment charges along essentially a party-line vote. However, in the subsequent trial in the Senate, Clinton was not convicted even by a majority of the senators (conviction required a two-thirds majority), and he was not removed from office.

The allegations by Patterson and Perry contributed to a lengthy investigation with far-reaching consequences. Initially, the belief was that these two former state troopers had related their story entirely because of their interest in good government. Later, a conservative activist reported that he had paid Patterson and Perry $6,700 apiece for their stories after they were published. Part of this money was alleged to have come out of $200,000 that conservative evangelical religious leader Jerry Falwell had paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government. While these payments were made without David Brock’s knowledge, Brock subsequently publicly apologized to the Clintons for his role in publishing the initial Troopergate story, which he admitted was based on an “anti-Clinton crusade” rather than an effort at serious journalism.

Impact

These politically motivated allegations consumed a great deal of media attention and White House effort before they were determined to be false. They were often confused with other allegations made before and after Clinton’s impeachment trial.

Bibliography

Brock, David. Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative. New York: Crown, 2002. Brock, a reporter for the American Spectator, triggered the events that led to Clinton’s impeachment trial. Brock was a crucial actor in the “Arkansas project” that attempted to find any allegation, true or not, with which to smear the Clintons, until he became convinced that the cause he was espousing was essentially based on lies.

Clinton, Bill. My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. Clinton’s skill as a communicator comes through clearly in his autobiography. Contains valuable insights despite being a self-serving document.

Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Living History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Hillary Clinton’s autobiography, while not quite as engaging as her husband’s, is still filled with valuable insights into the scandals that rocked the Clinton administration.

Gergen, David. Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership: Nixon to Clinton. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. A political adviser to a number of U.S. presidents, Gergen combines his personal access with penetrating analysis of Bill Clinton and the politics and scandals of his era.

Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Maraniss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter who has written a biography analyzing Clinton’s talents and flaws.

Morris, Dick. Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in Nineties. New York: Random House, 1997. As a pollster and political analyst for Clinton as governor and as president, Morris was in Clinton’s inner circle and acutely aware of many of the details of the Clinton scandals, which he shares in his critical but useful book.

Stephanopoulos, George. All Too Human: A Political Education. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999. As a former White House aide, Stephanopoulos had access to the Clinton inner circle, which he used to paint a sincere but sometimes unflattering portrait of both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Toobin, Jeffrey. A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President. New York: Random House, 1999. Toobin’s book is well researched, analytical, ably written, and offers fresh insights to the scandals associated with the Clinton presidency.