- Lewinsky scandal – In 1995, President Bill Clinton started an affair with 22-year-old Monica Lewinsky, who at the time began an unpaid internship in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. After the internship finished, she earned a paid position in the White House the following December. In April 1996, Monica Lewinsky was moved to the Pentagon, as she raised major concerns that she was spending too much time with the president. While she was there, she trusted her coworker Linda Tripp and confided about the affair in phone calls that were secretly recorded. Tripp decided to send the recordings to Kenneth Star, who was investigating at that time Clinton’s alleged sexual harassment of Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. During the prosecution of the Jones case, Clinton and Lewinsky denied having an affair, which was later considered for grounds of charges against the president.
- Iran contra affair – In the early 80s, Iran and Iraq were in the middle of a war, and Iran desperately needed weapons. But due to Iran’s hostage crisis in 1979, the U.S. maintained an arms embargo on Iran. So, in 1985, President Ronald Reagan had to face a hostage situation of his own. To defy its own embargo, the U.S. sold missiles to Iran, which led to the freeing of the hostages by the Iran-linked group. When the deal was officially made public in 1986, Reagan admitted to selling weapons but denied any sort of “arms-for-hostages” deal. The thing is, Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that some proceeds from the selling of missiles were missing. The discovery was made as he was investigating the deal. The whole situation escalated, as a number of discoveries had been made, and it led to fourteen Reagan administration figures being charged in the scandal’s aftermath. Although all the congressional investigations didn’t find direct evidence that Reagan was involved, in 1987 the president admitted to selling arms for hostages.
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