The affair, though, turned out to be a good meat for George W. Bush, who made character an issue in the 2000 presidential race and attacked Vice President Al Gore's association with Clinton.

Clinton had to face an impeachment motion for perjury, which he however, won. He became the second president ever to face such a motion from the senate.

The allegations against Clinton involved lying under oath about having a sexual relationship with a White House aide, Monica Lewinsky and then telling her to deny the relationship. This constituted perjury, a federal crime, as well as obstruction of justice.

After the allegation of Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky unfolded, Monica on January 7, 1998 filed a sworn affidavit in federal court denying she had a sexual relationship with the president. She allegedly also asked her friend Linda Tripp to lie.

Tripp reportedly informed Lewinsky that she would be testifying about their conversations regarding Lewinsky's alleged trysts with Clinton.

Linda Tripp contacted Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office, providing him with the 20 hours of taped conversations with Lewinsky in which Monica had confessed of her relationship with Clinton.

Then began, the grand probe into Monica Lewinsky's allegations by Kenneth Starr's grand jury in Washington, D.C.

Soon after, The New York Times reported Lewinsky met with Clinton at the White House, two weeks after she was subpoenaed to provide information for the Paula Jones case.

On July 27, 1998 the prosecutors issued a historic subpoena ordering Clinton to testify in theinvestigation.

Later on Aug 17, President Clinton told a grand jury and the nation that he had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky and apologised for his affair with Monica Lewinsky for the first time.