became the straw that ultimately broke the camel's back. ♪ ♪ >> previously on "scandalous"... >> there was suspicion aides were hiding documents about the clintons' involvement in a failed arkansas land deal called whitewater. >> whitewater only had four business partners -- jim and susan mcdougal, bill and hillary clinton. >> whitewater seemed to be a relatively small issue, but the only way to get it out of the way was to get somebody to come in and investigate, actually, what happened. >> so that's how i began. no, i won't be making any statements. >> the '94 revolution was the voters rendering a verdict. >> he lost not just the senate, but the house. >> i must certainly bear my share of responsibility, and i accept that. >> mrs. paula jones. >> the complaint charges mr. clinton with sexual harassment. >> this suit is about publicity. >> the case was designed by political activists in order to bring down the presidency. >> this case is going all the

way up to the supreme court. ♪ >> there's no manual for this. you're on your own, and you'd have to be half an idiot to take on the sitting president. there's no way you'd win it. in the end, i cast all caution to the wind, and that's where we are. ♪ >> if a short-term spending bill isn't passed by congress and signed by the president, 800,000 federal workers will be sent home. >> the fall of 1995 saw washington, d.c., gripped by a budg showdown witho d sight. house speaker newt gingrich had

added demands into the government funding bill that president clinton refused to accept. by november 14th, with neither side willing to back down, the government ran out of money. >> the government is partially shutting down. >> a lot of people said, "this may work out very well for the republicans. it didn't. the people hated the shutdown. >> the shutdown would have unexpected political costs for speaker newt gingrich and the republican congress. but on pennsylvania avenue, it set in motion a disastrous chain of events which would not become evident for years. a large group of unpaid white house interns filled in for furloughed staff, often working late into the night. amongst that group was 21-year-old monica lewinsky. a recent graduate of lewis & clark college, lewinsky had been raised in southern california by her father, bernard, an oncologist, and her mother marcia, an author. her parents had since divorced. monica was assigned to answer the phone and run errands in white house chief of staff

leon panetta's office. it was here that she encountered the president of the united states and an instant flirtation began. >> young girl, star-struck, you know. you know, bill's a good ole boy. >> the next night, with the white house nearly empty, the president and monica ducked into the office of communications director george stephanopoulos, where they had their first secret sexual encounter. >> bill clinton lived a double life. i once referred to it as "saturday night bill" and "sunday morning president. >> secret service logs would show that it would not be until after midnight that monica exited the white house. the normally quiet city of little rock, arkansas, became the center of a media maelstrom in the spring of 1996. on the morning of march 6th, ken starr's office of the independent counsel began its whitewater prosecutions.

as the press swarmed, jim mcdougal, susan mcdougal, and jim guy tucker, the sitting arkansas governor, went on trial for fraud and conspiracy. >> that was a classic white-collar-crime fraud case. >> the fact that an alternate juror insisted on showing up each day in a "star trek" uniform certainly added to the media circus. >> i always wear my outfit. >> she was later dismissed. the prosecution's star witness was david hale, who had just been sentenced to 28 months in prison for defrauding the small business administration. >> he had some credibility challenges. let's put it that way. >> he was facing a lot of years in prison. you are a rat in a corner, and the only thing you can come up with is giving them somebody they want more than you. >> just after hale was indicted months earlier, he began lengthy secret negotiations with prosecutors. >> at the first official hearing, during the break, asked him if he wanted to go talk. and we went and got in a broom closet. that was the only place we could get away from the media.

>> the broom-closet chat would lead to weeks of talks between hale and hardin and fbi agents at a secret location in the arkansas woods. >> we spent over two weeks before we got comfortable with making the proposal to him. >> the meetings resulted in a plea deal and some bombshell accusations when the time came for him to testify. >> when discussing a $300,000 loan to defendant susan mcdougal, hale said he thought the loan was to partially benefit bill clinton. >> he only knew that jim had once worked for bill clinton, and so he made up this tenuous story. >> hale claimed that then-governor clinton had jogged over in person with a request. >> david hale's testimony was a brava performance. >> bill clinton is his meal ticket to a light sentence. >> this is what these political prosecutors want is mr. clinton. >> the president publicly denied that so-called jogging incident. but we were trying to get to the bottom of the relationship between hillary clinton and

bill clinton and madison guaranty savings and loan. >> a deal was reached allowing president clinton to testify via videotape. the mcdougals traveled to the white house to be there for the deposition. >> the president has maintained, all along, that he has no knowledge of any impropriety. >> it was very significant to have a sitting president of the united states testify for the defense in a criminal trial. >> this is an opportunity for them to throw enough mud pies they hope one will stick on the president or the first lady. >> the trial took a toll on jim mcdougal's already-deteriorating health. >> i would like to clear my name while i still have the strength to make a defense. >> it took the jury eight days to reach a verdict. >> the mcdougals and the governor of the state of arkansas, jim guy tucker, were convicted of various and sundry crimes. >> any way you cut it, this was a victory for the special prosecutor.

>> one juror made one of the best quotes i have ever seen. "we fought hard for the defendants's freedom, but theen" meaning we had a paper trail. >> it's not surprising that some republicans are attempting to make partisan political gain out of the jury verdict. >> jim mcdougal, facing 18 convictions and 80 years in prison, said he hoped it would have gone the other way. >> we will simply take up the next stage of the fight. >> susan is accepting of this verdict. she does not approve of it. she maintains her innocence. >> they had to convict us, 'cause they could see that we were not going to cooperate with them. >> i don't take any pride in this. this was a human tragedy all the way around. i lament the fact that there was fraud. susan mcdougal personally profited and used bank funds for her own personal purposes. what now? we move forward. >> with the mcdougals now convicted, ken starr and the independent counsel's office ramped up the pressure to

cooperate. >> typically, after somebody's convicted, we would go to their attorneys saying, "if they will talk, we won't prosecute them on anything else," et cetera. and, at that point, a lot of times, people will cooperate. >> i intend to kick mr. starr's republican butt up between his shoulders. >> not the mcdougals. >> bill clinton never did anything illegal that i know of, period. he never asked me to do anything illegal. i have no knowledge of his ever asking anyone else to do anything illegal. >> but by august, as jim mcdougal stared down the barrel of a very lengthy prison sentence, he suddenly changed his tune and his testimony. >> he agreed to cooperate with us. >> he wouldn't be charged with anything else, and he would tell everything he knew about all the subjects we were looking at. >> including, of course, the involvement of the clintons in the whitewater land deal and other transactions. >> he said, "starr is gonna come to my sentencing hearing," and he is going to say, like saul on

the road to damascus, "i have had this blinding light and i want to bear my soul of this truth." >> good morning. >> "and he is going to make sure i get a good deal." he was a saved man. he was no longer depressed. he was no longer scared. >> but, at that moment, susan's relationship with jim changed. >> i knew the clintons hadn't done anything, and so it was hard to look at him, because jim mcdougal is someone that i just thought had a really good character about him. >> for weeks, jim tried to convince susan to change her story also. >> he said, "they've shown me the timeline and they helped me construct the stories. you don't know how good they are at this." >> judge starr believed that she had important evidence that would be very useful to the investigation. >> but she refused and would not cooperate with ken starr or his deputies. >> i detested him.

i did not believe this was american justice and i felt powerless. >> she stood criminally convicted, in a federal court, of a felony. so i said, "now please cooperate." >> susan mcdougal thought that they were out get the clintons, and so she didn't want to answer any questions. >> i was angry that they had made jim mcdougal a sniveling coward. and so i was not going to talk to them. >> before her sentencing, jim tried one last time. >> he said, "if you don't make this deal, i will never speak to you again." and i said, "i cannot do that. i am so sorry." and he hung up on me. i'm so sorry. >> that was the last time susan and jim mcdougal would ever speak. on august 19, 1996, susan was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary. and after sentencing hearing, she was slapped with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury.

>> one of the prosecutors came over and threw a subpoena on the desk and said, "we've got you now." >> good morning. >> in early september 1996, president clinton ordered air strikes, after iraqi forces overran the kurdish city of erbil in northern iraq. >> our missiles sent the following message to saddam hussein -- "when you abuse your own people or threaten your neighbors, you must pay a price." >> as the missiles rained down half a world away, susan mcdougal was in little rock, arkansas, preparing to appear before a grand jury. on the morning of september 4th, ken starr's prosecutors had three questions for her. >> "did you discuss your loan from david hale with william jefferson clinton?" >> each of the three questions mentioned bill clinton. >> "to your knowledge, did william jefferson clinton testify truthfully before your

trial?" so you can see that those are the questions that they're interested in. to susan, the questions made things crystal-clear. >> this has only to do with bill clinton. >> the judge ordered her to testify, saying, "here's an order of immunity. nothing you say can be used against you." and she said, "i'm not doing it." >> it was a matter of principle. i did not testify before the grand jury, because i did not trust the prosecutors. >> and she goes into contempt. >> which simply means, "you will be confined until such time as you're willing to testify." >> we put it this way -- "you've got the key to your own jail cell." >> susan is standing here not unlike the young men in front of the tanks in tiananmen square, that if she didn't do their bidding, they would try to crush her. >> we wanted to get to the truth, and we were failing to get her cooperation. >> i was really angry and defiant at that point because of all that had happened.

>> susan was held in civil contempt and handed an additional 18 months in jail. >> susan mcdougal obviously had some loyalty. she was willing to put her own liberty at risk in order not to testify. >> on september 9, 1996, she was transported to faulkner county jail in conway, arkansas, 1 of 7 penitentiaries where she would spend the next two years. >> you could hear the chains... [ imitates chains rattling ] ...walking for these long hallways. and they open the door, and it's like a cacophony of voices. "susan! hey, susan! look over here!" and that was kind of the beginning of my whole new life. with advil's fast relief, you'll ask, "what pulled muscle?" "what headache?" nothing works faster to make pain a distant memory. advil liqui-gels and advil liqui-gels minis. what pain?

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>> the state of the union is strong. >> by the time 1996 rolled around, the economy was doing well. the president had rallied from the early stumbles of his administration. >> the midterm defeat of two years earlier had been a slap in the face to president clinton, delivered by the american voters. but he'd been down that road before. >> as governor, in arkansas, he had veered left, and the voters had dealt him a rebuke. he adapted. >> bill clinton took that defeat in 1994 and he pivoted. he hired dick morris. he tried to re-establish himself

in the voter's mind as a new democrat. >> with morris, clinton knew what he was getting -- a sharp political mind who had helped with his political comeback in arkansas. >> right after the election, he met with the democratic leaders. and they, in effect, told him, "you stay in the pocket, and we'll protect you." you know how football quarterbacks stay in the pocket with their blockers surrounding them? >> but bill clinton's political talents presented a uniq opportunity. >> he loved being politician. i mean, he loved going around, meeting people, smiling. and he loved making a difference. if he died and went to heaven, he'd ask god to let him come back as a politician. >> he's gifted and an extraordinarily natural politician, in a very good sense. he's able to bring people together. he's able to learn. >> he's a very smart guy with a very wide-ranging interest in policy -- not all of it liberal policy. >> i said, "the only way you can survive the republican attacks is to give them what they want, and what they want is not averse to what you want." >> he, later, famously, in a

state of the union address, said, "the era of big government is over." >> we know big government does not have all the answers. >> which was quite a startling thing for a democratic president to say. >> and suddenly de-fang the republican attack. that technique i called triangulation. take the best of the left and the right and combine it as your policy. >> with triangulation, clinton would seek a balance of conservative and liberal policies while acting as a defender to the fringes of both sides. >> i was a republican majority leader. he was a democrat president. but we found a way to work together. >> he pushed and agreed to welfare reform, he decided he endorsed a balanced budget, and he signed the defense of marriage act. so he moved to the middle. >> we cut taxes. we balanced the budget. we had a surplus. we made it work. >> with the re-election battle in full swing, bill clinton had changed the public perception of both himself and his republican opponents. >> he skillfully outmaneuvered newt gingrich on the government

shutdown. republicans got the blame for the shutdown, and that helped him contrast himself as somebody who was less extreme than the republicans. >> he was in a much stronger prosecution than one would have imagined, having witnessed the first two years of his administration. [ crowd chants "four more years!" ] >> people said, "yeah, i'm doing great. i have a job. my pay is going up." you know, people were happy. [ cheers and applause ] >> on election night, bill clinton would become the first democratic president to be re-elected since fdr. he carried 31 states in an electoral college landslide. >> today, the american people have spoken. >> amid the economic optimism and campaign craziness in washington that fall, one longtime federal employee was toiling away in the basement of the pentagon. linda tripp had begun her work in government under president george h.w. bush. >> i had had a career with the civil service that spanned over 27 years and always had

top-secret clearances. >> linda tripp stayed for a while under president clinton. >> she was a very skillful assistant in the white house counsel's office in the early days of the clinton administration. >> it was sad to see the bushes go, but this was a president coming in of my generation. there was an excitement there and a sense of optimism. >> b the rlity was far different, and tripp had quickly become dillusied with the inner workings of the clinton white house. >> i didn't know what i was supposed to do with the information i was seeing. so many distressing things were happening, and it was nothing at all the way it was being presented to the country. and i struggled with what to do about it. >> linda tripp was the last person to see vince foster alive. >> by the time vince died, in july of '93, so many of the scandals for which hillary held

sole responsibility had already happened, yet he was the scapegoat. he wasn't able to fix her messes. >> linda tripp had since moved to the pentagon's public affairs office. and in early april, she was joined by another white house transplant named monica lewinsky. >> we were stymied as to how a young girl just out of college was given a position that had always gone to a seasoned professional. monica had no background, no experience, so it was a puzzle to virtually everyone in the office. >> linda tripp and monica lewinsky were friends, and they were close. >> that's a huge fallacy. it wasn't a friendship. and i don't want to say i felt like her mother. i wasn't her mother, on any level, obviously. but her mother was absent, and i had never met a needier person in my entire life. >> linda tripp and

monica lewinsky would have lunches together, they'd have meetings together, and they would commiserate with each other about various things that were going on in their lives. >> i knew she had been someone's pet rock. i didn't know whose at the time. but i knew it had to be someone of significance or she never would have landed at that desk. >> at this time, monica lewinsky was trying to continue a relationship with the president, but the president was less interested. >> monica staked all her emotional energy on the fact that as soon as the elections were over, she'd be back in the white house, and they could have their 10-minute interludes and everything would be great. he never intended to do that. >> as tripp would soon learn, monica lewinsky had a lot going on in her life. >> i think monica was in love with the president. >> i knew well before she admitted it, because all the

signs were there. he was, in fact, the object of her affections. i just had a hard time believing even he would be that reckless. >> she told her friend all the up and downs of the complicated secret relationship and how they had gone to great lengths to ensure it remained undetected by other white house staffers. >> there are different ways to get in and out of the oval office -- either through a door which is to the right of the president's desk or to the left, which goes down a hallway, which leads to a private bathroom and a private study area. >> monica and betty currie, the president's secretary, were very creative. betty really worked to facilitate monica's entrances and meetings with the president in a very discreet way. >> while the time spent certainly was long, there was no romance. it was monica calling betty currie hundreds of times a week to get betty currie to

clear her in to see the president. >> it seemed amazing this was all happening in the oval office, the recklessness o. it almost seemed like a kind j extent. >> betty knew what she was doing, and i think there's a special place in hell for her. this could not have happened without the complicity of betty currie. >> it was a different world, in terms of the way that you could be anonymous. and i think, frankly, neither of them thought that the repercussions would be an investigation by the independent counsel. >> whoo! >> with bill clinton's second term in full swing, issues related to arkansas holdovers were supposed to be in the rear-view mirror. but some problems just wouldn't go away. >> webb hubbell was a very prominent and distinguished arkansas lawyer. >> a law partner of hillary clinton's at the

rose law firm. and he later became the number-three person at the justice department. it became known that he had engaged in billing fraud while he was at the rose law firm. >> he was the first casualty of the investigation. >> but to the independent counsel's office, his guilty plea had been seen as an opportunity. >> he was required to provide any information he had relating to any criminal or other activity, and that included any information that he had about the president and mrs. clinton. >> if he knew anything incriminating about the clintons, it was clear he wasn't gog to say it. >> we were not getting subsntial cooperation. >> so he was sent off to a federal minimum-security prison camp for 18 months, and everyone thought the saga of webb hubbell was over. it wasn't. >> after webb hubbell resigned in disgrace, he earned close to $700,000 in consulting fees that was coordinated with the knowledge of the white house.

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>> in june of 1996, the united states supreme court had agreed to consider whether the paula jones lawsuit could proceed while president clinton was still in office. paula's two lawyers were now in a whole new legal realm.

but they were more prepared than anyone could have imagined. >> i was in a greenroom with ann coulter, who was quite knowledgeable about the legal strategy of the jones legal team, and she blurts out to me, "oh, there's a lot of little elves in santa's workshop." ♪ >> a very conservative group of lawyers were working behind the scenes to assist the legal team of paula jones. >> from the beginning, this group of top-shelf attorneys nicknamed "the elves" had been working anonymously and unpaid on behalf of the jones team, conducting research and writing legal briefs for her case against the president. >> a partner at a law firm could not lend his talents to work pro bono for this powerless woman taking on the most powerful man in the world without risking losing their

jobs. that's why there was so much secrecy around it. i had nothing to lose. >> in addition to ann coulter, the group was made up of a handful of lawyers from major law firms across the country. >> one of them was george conway, now husband of kellyanne conway. another was a fellow by the name of jerome marcus, in philadelphia. another lawyer named porter in chicago. >> they were doing work behind the scenes that i knew nothing about, paula knew nothing about, the lawyers knew nothing about. >> it's not clear they were doing anything unethical, but, clearly, they had a political agenda. >> the elves had been secretly helping for years, but it wasn't until the case was argued before the supreme court that their work started to show. >> we went to the supreme court hearing on it. [ laughs ] and nobody knew -- well, except the five of us, i guess, who had written the actual brief. >> bob bennett, the president's

lawyer, was surprised at how polished and well-crafted these briefs being filed by the paula jones lawyers were. >> i'm sure they're very good attorneys. they're not appellate or supreme court attorneys. after the case was argued, we're out in the hallway. all of the supreme court reporters are saying, "those guys did not write that brief." [ laughs ] >> little did they know that, behind the scenes, there were these elves, who could be very damaging to the president. >> paula jones needed the elves because no one who was at a good law firm would ever take a case against bill clinton. accuse a republican, you will be treated as joan of arc. accuse a democrat, and your name will be dragged through the mud. >> the secret work of the elves paid off. ♪ on may 27, 1997, while the

president and first lady were en route to paris, the ruling came down. >> the court has ruled unanimously that the constitution does not protect mr. clinton -- or any other president -- from lawsuits that are unrelated to his official duties. been jimmy's longest.

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♪ >> the supreme court, in a unanimous opinion, felt that it should go forward, and this case will now proceed. >> settlement offers bounced back and forth, including one demand by paula jones for $2 million. clinton rejected it. >> it's most unlikely that this case is going to be settled. the president adamantly denies the allegations. >> robert bennett made what i regard as the most serious legal blunder of the 20th century, and that is allowing his client to testify under oath about his sex life, instead of settling the case. >> paula introduced susan carpenter-mcmillan, a

conservative feminist, as r new adviser. >> bill clinton has everybody out there defending him, saying that my friend's not telling the truth. and nobody's speaking on behalf of her. >> the fact that paula was surrounded by conservatives who disliked the president, including carpenter-mcmillan, led to criticism that the battle seemed more political than legal. >> i'm sure there are political overtones, but when somebody gives you a gift, you open it. we certainly didn't make the president pull his pants down and expose himself to paula jones. >> i would have took anyone's help -- any liberal, any democrat help. nobody wanted to help. >> paula's lawyers, gil davis and joe cammarata, were finally able to get the president to agree to a settlement. paula jones would get everything that her original lawsuit asked for -- $700,000. but paula's new advisers convinced her not to accept it. >> there were people talking in paula's ear. one was her husband, steve,

and the other was susan carpenter-mcmillan. she was against settling the case. >> i said, "you should really hold out for a lot more money." steve said, "no. you should really hold out for an apology." >> on national television. >> if he said it publicly, on national tv, i mean, that would be one thing, but if he just said it privately, that's like a chicken, you know, trying to hide and then do it after the fact. no, i wouldn't accept it. >> her attorneys were frustrated by the fact that paula would not accept a settlement that included everything her lawsuit had originally asked for. >>if you win, would you write her a letter of apology while you're at it?" that doesn't happen. you get money. so, we had all the money she asked for, plus an apology. >> they said, at that time, "if you don't take the deal, then we are not going to represent you anymore." >> there were people that wanted us to mount a cause to negatively impact the

president of the united states. we're lawyers. we handle cases. we don't handle causes. >> they asked judge susan webber wright to remove them from the case and step down. new attorneys quickly swooped in. >> we have put together what we feel is an outstanding legal team. you cannot go into arkansas with a new york, brooklyn, accent and relate to a jury. i needed someone who spoke southern. >> paula's new lawyers issued subpoenas to several women from the president's past, attempting to make a case that he was a womanizer. on october 12, 1997, paula corbin jones gave sworn testimony behind closed doors in little rock, arkansas. she was questioned under oath for 13 hours over 2 days by the president's lawyers. with no settlement, a new jones legal team, and a trial date set for may 1998, things were moving towards a videotaped deposition of the president of the united states.

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to her in the white house. that struck me as quite a bombshell. >> isikoff eventually figured out that the mystery woman was kathleen willey, a former volunteer on the clinton campaign. >> she was much more polished than paula jones. she had been active in democratic fundraising circles, so she certainly didn't seem to be a part of any plot by bill clinton's enemies. >> he tracked her down and asked if anyone could verify her story. >> and she mentioned to me, "yeah, there was this woman who used to work in the white house named linda tripp." >> so isikoff headed to the pentagon and convinced linda tripp to talk. >> he caught me completely off guard. and he was writing a story about kathleen willey. >> linda tripp didn't think that kathleen willey was sexually harassed. she thought that kathleen willey

wanted to have a sexual relationship with bill clinton. >> i may have misread kathleen's reactions. in fact, i believe i did. >> but as they stood in the pentagon courtyard, she gave isikoff another tantalizing clue to investigate. >> it was ongoin that time with monica, and i wanted that information out. but i was nervous to expose her name and i wasn't sure whether the credibility would be there to prove it. >> "you should know there's a story here, but it's not the one you think it is. you may be barking up the wrong tree." >> the world had not yet heard the name monica lewinsky, but isikoff soon would. >> as i became more fond of this mixed-up kid, i began to resent him so strenuously and so severely, tarring and feathering

wouldn't have been good enough. and i believed every mom and dad in this country would be outraged. >> it's very clear that linda tripp was partly motivated by anger at the clinton administration. and what might have changed history if we had known it is that linda tripp was working closely with a woman by the name of lucy goldberg, who was extremely ideologically hostile to president clinton. >> lucianne goldberg was a conservative new york literary agent to whom tripp had previously pitched a book. >> my mutual friend said, "you remember that girl, linda tripp?" and i said, "yeah. you know, what's she doing now? a chicken cookbook or something? i'm not interested." and he said, "no, no. she's really got the goods this time." >> i thought a book would be the only way for a civil servant to go forward. you can't call a press conference. it's not as though you have the media at your feet.

>> she called up lucianne goldberg, and they began to plot how they could use linda tripp's information to get a book deal. >> i knew i wanted this behavior exposed no matter what the cost. so, at this point, i've decided, "i'll throw my career away. i'll use my pension. but he is not going to do this again." lucianne goldberg said, "no one's going to believe you." >> i said, "well, you better have proof. i mean, i'm not gonna touch this if you can't absolutely nail this." >> on the advice of goldberg, linda tripp began tape-recording her conversations with monica lewinsky. >> i did the right thing in the wrong way. it was manipulative, because i was forcing this young girl to re-create instances that could be documented. i needed that proof. >> lucianne goldberg invited me

to meet with her and linda tripp, and that's when linda tripp first reveals to me the identity of monica lewinsky. and she tells me she had been taping her phone calls. >> when i listened to that documentation, it's horrifying and it's horrible that i had to do that. i thought it was the right thing, and i don't regret it. i just wish i had do it in a better way. >> washington, d.c., is a city that loves a scandal, and i think, for linda tripp, it may have been exciting to think about embroiling or documenting something that could be news. >> there had been so many corrupt activities at the white house that, for me, monica lewinsky became nothing more than the straw that ultimately broke the camel's back. >> lucianne goldberg and michael isikoff would not be the only ones to learn of the secret

white house rendezvous. >> linda tripp's the one who told the jones lawyers, "there's this woman, monica lewinsky. you'd better subpoena her." >> before the independent counsel's office ever knew about the story or the tapes, they made their way to the elves, working behind the scenes on the paula jones case. >> it was well after midnight. i think it was like 2:00 a.m. and i get a call saying we got to come over. we got to play the linda tripp tapes. >> the paula jones case -- they were going to have to prove that she was truthful. so one of the ways is -- you show that the president has done the same thing with other people. >> with new information on monica lewinsky, the paula jones attorneys compiled a witness list of other women who had worked alongside the president at the white house. on november 24, 1997, tripp was subpoenaed as a witness in the paula jones case. two weeks later, the jones lawyers added lewinsky to their potential witness list. >> they wanted to bolster their claim with paula jones while using monica lewinsky's experience. >> president clinton was then

ordered by the jones attorneys to produce documents related to him and monica lewinsky. at 2:00 a.m. on december 17th, monica lewinsky's phone rang. it was the president of the united states. >> when that relationship began, i don't think she had any idea that she would become embroiled in the paula jones lawsuit. >> this call marked the beginning of a plan by both the president and monica lewinsky to cover up their relationship at all costs, a decision that would come back to haunt them. (vo) make her day with just one touch. with fancy feast creamy delights, she can have just the right touch of real milk. easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrées even more delightful. fancy feast creamy delights. love is in the details.

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♪ >> vernon jordan was a power broker in washington and one of president clinton's closest friends and golfing buddies. he had previously come to the attention of the independent counsel's office after helping webb hubbell come into an influx of cash and consulting contracts just after hubbell resigned from his government job. with president clinton's blessing, jordan arranged for lewinsky to meet with francis carter, a d.c. attorney, on december 22, 1997.

carter and lewinsky drafted an affidavit denying an improper relationship with the president. >> monica lewinsky told linda tripp that the president was gonna deny there was a relationship and that monica lewinsky was gonna deny the relationship. and, therefore, the only person that would say anything would be linda tripp, and, therefore, she should say nothing. according to linda tripp, monica lewinsky told her that the president said, "if there are two people in a room and both people deny what happened there, then nothing happened." >> on january 7, 1998, lewinsky signed the affidavit following vernon jordan's approval of the draft. the president's deposition was scheduled for january 17, 1998.

>> president clinton knew he was gonna be asked about monica lewinsky. that's the whole reason he had her do an affidavit. so that was not a surprise to him, contrary to what people think. >> but what he didn't know was that the jones lawyers had a lot of information. on the next episode of "scandalous"... >> come hell or high water, i was sharing this information. >> we assumed that nothing would come of it. we were wrong. >> he was the most powerful person on the planet, and she was an intn. >> i get a phone call from a source. "you're nna nogolieve what's going on." >> michael isikoff was threatening to run the story. >> monica, look over here! monica! >> monica is approached by two fbi agents. >> you could hear a wailing from down the hall. >> watch it, watch it. >> i just started pushing people. "move. move. move." >> i never had sexual relations with monica lewinsky. >> prominent politicians don't survive things like this. >> i was, you know, horrified.

>> monica's like, "i'm not gonna go to the press if he brings down the president of the united states." ♪ ... . steve: breaking tonight, president trump feeling the heat from democrats fighting for their own memo release as the fbi faces tough questions from the trump supporter. welcome to "the next revolution." and this is the home of positive populism. tonight, kimberly gillman is here to break down the state of the union along with our fantastic panel. also swamp watch takes on the deep state, does it exist and is president trump its main target. and the most important social issue affecting america, the author of an important new book is here with a message you don't want to miss. plus, this happened