--- title: Why the Women Accusing Brett Kavanaugh Give Me Hope description: Monica Lewinsky was my intern. This is what Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's, Deborah Ramriez's and Julie Swetnick's allegations mean for women canonical: https://time.com/5406825/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-monica-lewinsky-anita-hill/ author: Jennifer Palmieri article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-26T16:53:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:00:42.025Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Monica Lewinsky Was My Intern. Here’s Why the Women Making Accusations Against Brett Kavanaugh Give Me Hope og:description: Even when the future can seem bleak og:url: https://time.com/5406825/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-monica-lewinsky-anita-hill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb7aa2b2f2690152/69893b1f86f68e314b6ea404/kavanaugh-protest-christine-ford-supreme-court-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: kavanaugh-protest-christine-ford-supreme-court-women og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Monica Lewinsky Was My Intern. Here’s Why the Women Making Accusations Against Brett Kavanaugh Give Me Hope twitter:description: Even when the future can seem bleak twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb7aa2b2f2690152/69893b1f86f68e314b6ea404/kavanaugh-protest-christine-ford-supreme-court-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Monica Lewinsky Was My Intern. Here’s Why the Women Making Accusations Against Brett Kavanaugh Give Me Hope > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c9321b1a-adfd-4ae2-b43a-eb637c8bc55c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal [Watch (HLS stream): A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HPrA9SSS.m3u8) (4:55)  _Published 2018-05-04. In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. In the 20 years since, those feelings have only grown more complicated._ by [Jennifer Palmieri](https://time.com/author/jennifer-palmieri/) ## Jennifer Palmieri Sep 26, 2018 4:53 PM UTC by [Jennifer Palmieri](https://time.com/author/jennifer-palmieri/) ## Jennifer Palmieri Sep 26, 2018 4:53 PM UTC For reasons I have yet to fully comprehend, I have found myself in the middle of some of the most tumultuous confrontations between politics, sex and power over the last 20 or so years. Early in my career, Monica Lewinsky was my intern in the Clinton White House. I testified in front of independent counsel Ken Starr’s grand jury and fought against Clinton’s impeachment as a deputy press secretary for the White House. I also worked for former presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, and helped them both manage the press around his extramarital affair. Most recently, I was Hillary Clinton’s communications director in the 2016 presidential campaign. Between Donald Trump’s bragging that he assaulted women on the [_Access Hollywood_ tape](http://time.com/5047223/donald-trump-access-hollywood-tape-billy-bush/) from 2005, the accusations from [more than a dozen women](http://time.com/4541780/donald-trump-threatens-lawsuit-against-accusers/) that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them and Trump’s own false attacks of Clinton as a “[mean enabler](https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-enabler-bill-clinton/index.html)” of her husband’s misconduct, the campaign often felt more like a primal battle between the sexes than a political contest. And the women’s side lost. Judging from the Trump White House’s and Congressional Republicans’ efforts to intimidate the women who have accused [Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh](http://time.com/5404577/brett-kavanaugh-deborah-ramirez-hearing/) of sexual assault, it feels like the women are losing again. In their refusal to have the FBI investigate the charge that Kavanaugh assaulted [Dr. Christine Blasey Ford](http://time.com/5406765/christine-blasey-ford-statements-brett-kavanaugh/) in high school (which Kavanaugh denies), Republicans are treating Dr. Ford with even less deference than they did with Anita Hill 27 years ago. Their reaction to the new sworn declaration by [Julie Swetnick](http://time.com/5406994/kavanaugh-accuser-swetnick-sexual-attacks/), and the demand from her lawyer for an FBI investigation, will be similarly revealing. For those of us concerned that Kavanaugh could be the vote that undoes [_Roe v. Wade_](http://time.com/5336630/kavanaugh-roe-v-wade/), the Republicans’ actions are particularly galling: Railroading a woman for the purposes of putting a man on the Supreme Court to control her body. It’s easy for women to believe that the picture looks bleak; the patriarchy, strong. But viewing today’s turmoil through the lens of my own complicated experiences, I see a slightly brighter picture coming into focus. **I don’t think** I could have articulated it this clearly at the time, but with the benefit of 20 years of reflection, I see that [Monica Lewinsky](http://time.com/5358549/monica-lewinsky-testimony-clinton-trump-metoo/) was treated as collateral damage in a fight that was all about men and power. Three years after welcoming her as my intern, I watched her become the most famous and ridiculed woman in America. She and her family endured appalling treatment by the federal investigators and prosecutors working for Starr — scooping Lewinsky up in a sting operation and interrogating her for hours without a lawyer and subjecting her mother to similar treatment — all in an effort to hurt President Clinton. I struggled to make sense of what I saw happen to her. I knew the relationship President Clinton pursued with her was not just inappropriate because he was married, but represented an abuse of the power dynamic. He was President of the United States, and she was a young intern. But while I didn’t then, and do not now, think President Clinton should have been impeached, the Republican men who pursued his removal from office clearly didn’t care about Monica. She was merely a means of taking down their opponent, no matter the costs to any of the lives involved. Her life has never fully recovered. That dynamic has been played time and again, as political opponents use sex scandals to wound men: The controversies are all about how the man’s behavior reflects on him, not whether the woman involved is hurt. In the [#MeToo era](http://time.com/5055359/the-choice-2017/), though, that’s changed. In the cases of Republican Senate candidate [Roy Moore](http://time.com/5090659/roy-moore-accuser-tina-johnson-home-fire/), former Trump staffer [Rob Porter](http://time.com/5149213/president-trump-promised-to-hire-the-best-people-rob-porter-is-just-the-latest-red-flag/), former Democratic Senator [Al Franken](http://time.com/5081738/al-franken-statement-sexual-harassment-allegations/) and other members of Congress forced to resign in the last year, the charges were brought forward not by competing male politicos, but instead attested to by the women who had been harmed. This is a significant difference. Dr. Ford, [Deborah Ramirez](https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/deborah-ramirezs-allegation-against-brett-kavanaugh-raises-classic-questions-of-campus-assault-cases) and Swetnick are courageously asserting their power and demanding they be heard. I see progress since the days of Bill Clinton’s impeachment. In the 1990s, Republican men used women as pawns in political fights for power with other men. Today, these men are reduced to using intimidation and shame as a last-ditch method of retaining their power over women — to banking that the woman they seek to control will have the shame they lack and will simply go away. It will not work. Some have speculated that Republicans’ treatment of Dr. Ford proved they learned nothing from their poor treatment of Anita Hill. But I think their behavior shows they gained an important lesson: When a woman confronts a man’s attempts to intimidate her, she reclaims the power he is attempting to steal. The Republicans may have gotten the confirmation they sought in 1991\. [Clarence Thomas](http://time.com/5400112/clarence-thomas-brett-kavanaugh-confirmation/) made it to the Supreme Court. But the image of Hill, dignified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in the face of questions meant to humiliate her, haunts the Senators who interrogated her to this day and helped ignite a wave of enthusiasm that brought [a new class of women Senators](http://time.com/5402936/anita-hill-elections-effect/) to Congress. It is not a result they would relish repeating. And yet despite the Republicans’ refusal to have the FBI investigate the alleged assault, the President’s intimidating tweets and death threats to her and her family, it appears Dr. Ford, and now perhaps Ramirez and Swetnick, will testify. While I know it would be a difficult time for those women, I hope they leave knowing they stared down those who sought to bully and silence them and see it as the victory it is for all women, whether or not Kavanaugh is confirmed. **I admit to** having felt shame and confusion in my own career — in being expected to answer for the behavior of men for whom I worked, wondering if it was possible to feel sympathy for all Monica endured without being disloyal to President Clinton and his family, who I thought were also treated unfairly and endured tremendous pain. Twenty years ago, this confusion and shame manifested itself in a dream I would have where I ran into Monica and not know what to say to her. I would try to speak, and no words would come out. Last year, that dream came to life when, by chance, I ran into her at an event. I was relieved that 20 years on, I knew what to say to her. I told her that I was sorry. Sorry that she had endured so much trauma. Sorry that simply because she was associated with President Clinton his political enemies allowed her life to become collateral damage in a fight against him. A path forward for women is clearer to me now than it was decades ago: Refuse to be shamed or held accountable for actions taken by men. Shame is one of the last weapons of the fading patriarchy. But unlike the other means that have been used to keep women down, this one is entirely within our control to defeat. ## Transcript In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. Here's a guide to how it happened. In 1994, former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment, arguing that he propositioned her when he was governor. A legal group working on the case in 1998 received an anonymous tip that the president had a relationship with the Lewinsky and intern first chief of staff that piqued their interest, since it could be used to argue this was a pattern of behavior. On January 7th, 1998, the Lewinsky filed a sworn affidavit in the Jones lawsuit saying she had never had a relationship with Clinton, but she did not know that a close friend, Linda Tripp, had been keeping conversations with her about the affair. Five days after the affidavit was filed, Tripp gave independent counsel Kenneth Starr, 20 hours of taped phone calls. Starr had been investigating the Clintons of a real estate venture known as Whitewater, but the recordings allowed him to get permission on January 16th to investigate whether Lewinsky had lied under oath in a deposition in the Jones suit the next day. Clinton denied the affair as well. This turned out to be a key moment of his presidency. That same day, online news outlet The Drudge Report published a story claiming that Newsweek was sitting on a story about Clinton's affair with an intern. It later published another story that Lewinsky had a blue cocktail dress with Clinton's bodily fluids on it. Clinton again denied the affair, this time on nationally broadcast television, saying, I. Did not have sexual relations with that woman. Ms.. Lewinsky. On January 27th, Hillary Clinton echoed the denial, arguing in an interview on the Today Show that the charges came from a vast. Right wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. As the month drew to a close, a federal judge ruled that the Jones lawyers could not look into the Lewinsky claim as part of their lawsuit. But the Starr investigation continued on a separate path. In early February, Lewinsky's mother appeared before a grand jury. She had been suspected of encouraging her daughter to lie to Jones's lawyers. After three days of questioning, Starr granted her immunity in exchange for handing over the blue dress. As the summer began, the July issue of Vanity Fair appeared on newsstands featuring glamor shots of Lewinsky, a PR decision that was harshly criticized. On July 27, Lewinsky met with Starr's prosecutors in New York City, and they announced an immunity deal for her the next day. Clinton then agreed to testify before the grand jury voluntarily. In August, the president provided a blood sample to compare his DNA to the stains in the blue dress. That night, Lewinsky and Clinton testified to the grand jury with the president's testimony taken by closed circuit TV. He admitted to inappropriate intimate contact, but also said that he had given accurate testimony previously. Famously quibbling over the definition of is. Later that evening, he spoke to the nation in a televised address. In a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate. I did not volunteer their information. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact. It was wrong. The next month, Congress received two copies of Stars 445 page report on the investigation and supporting evidence. The Star Report, along with transcripts of Lewinsky trips, were later released to the public. On October eight, the House of Representatives voted to begin an impeachment inquiry. Despite the controversy and the impeachment, President Clinton remained popular in polls and Hillary Clinton saw her poll numbers rise as well. During the midterm elections in November, Democrats did unusually drop in mid-November. Clinton settled the sexual harassment lawsuit with Jones, which he kickstarted the scandal, paying her $850,000 and admitting nothing. During the lame duck session of Congress in the summer 19th, the House voted to impeach Clinton and to charges that he committed perjury in his August 17 federal grand jury testimony and that he prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice. As 1999 open, the Senate began its constitutionally mandated impeachment trial with the Supreme Court's chief justice presiding for February 1213 months after the scandal began. The Senate voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The respondent, William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, is not guilty as charged. Later that day. Clinton apologized to the American public in an address from the White House. I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5406825/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-monica-lewinsky-anita-hill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5406825/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-monica-lewinsky-anita-hill/"},"headline":"Monica Lewinsky Was My Intern. 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