The people who manned Monicagate

For the first time since her involvement in US President Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment drama, former White house intern Monica Lewinsky has penned a six-page essay for Vanity Fair about the effect it had on her life.

While she regrets her affair with Clinton, Lewinsky dismisses the popular view that the president pressured her into it. “Sure, my boss took advantage of me,” she writes, “but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position.” Lewinsky’s return to the spotlight puts Clinton’s sex scandal back in the news. Here’s a look at the major players in the infamous controversy.

Monica Lewinsky

Not long after the scandal, the diet company Jenny Craig hired the full-figured Lewinsky as a “celebrity” spokesperson. She then moved to Manhattan in search of a second act, becoming a socialite who designed purses.

Later, she decamped for London, where she earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. In 2012, it was reported she was working on a sexy tell-all memoir. However, this week, Vanity Fair will publish her candid essay on how she dealt with the aftermath of Monicagate.

Plato Cacheris

Since representing Lewinsky, he has worked on high-profile whist le-blower cases. Edward Snowden had obtained his counsel last year to try to get him to come back to the US.

Kenneth W. Starr

The lawyer is currently the president of Baylor University, based in Texas. Before joining Baylor in 2010, Starr worked on some noteworthy political cases. Speaking about the Lewinsky affair in 2010, Starr said, “Who is not sorrowful for the entire chapter in American history?”

Paula Jones

Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, filed the case that arguably precipitated Cl i nt on’s impeachment be -cause Lewinsky deposed in that lawsuit . Whi le Jones settled that case for $850,000, she told CNN in 2000 that most of that money went to pay her lawyers. She ended up posing nude for Penthouse later.

Henry John Hyde

Hyde was the Congressman who chaired the House Judiciary Committee and led Clinton’s impeachment trial. Just a few months before that trial, it was revealed that Hyde had an extramarital affair. He died in 2007 at the age of 83.

Cheryl Mills

Mills was deputy White House counsel under Clinton and defended him during his impeachment trial. Mills will probably play a key role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential run in 2016.

—Businessinsider.in