Monica Lewinsky wishes her own case could have gotten the Mueller treatment.
The woman caught in the center of Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings took to the internet this week to lament that information about her own scandal was not hidden the way the Russia investigation has been. Lewinsky’s affair with President Clinton was a centerpiece of the report put together by special counsel Kenneth Starr — one that eventually led to Clinton’s impeachment. The report itself was released to members of Congress and to the media, as well.
The report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that Russia colluded with Trump’s campaign, by contrast, has not seen the light of day. Attorney General William Barr has delivered a summary of the report to lawmakers, and it is not clear when — or if — it could ever become public.
As Newsweek noted, Monica Lewinsky seemed dismayed at the difference as regards the treatment of the two reports. She took to Twitter to post a reaction to an observation from law professor Orin Kerr about the difference in the two reports.
“Imagine if the Starr Report had been provided only to President Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, who then read it privately and published a 4-page letter based on her private reading stating her conclusion that President Clinton committed no crimes,” Kerr wrote.
“If. F******. Only.” Lewinsky responded.
Monica Lewinsky has been open about her role in the scandal that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and the effect it had on her life for decades afterward. She recently appeared on a segment of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight , and said that she experienced an “avalanche of pain and humiliation” afterward. The incident reportedly had a huge impact on her self-esteem.
Lewinsky said she endured “one of the worst internet-fueled public shamings of all time” as she became the punchline to a scandal that actually led to higher approval ratings for Bill Clinton. As The Daily Mail noted, the affair took a huge toll on Lewinsky’s mental health.
“Part of my vanity now comes from the wounds of having been made fun of for my weight, people saying I was unattractive,” she shared.
“It was terrifying not only because I was watching myself, or this version of myself, running away from me, but my identity — my identity was stolen in a different way,” Monica Lewinsky added.
Monica Lewinsky ‘wins the internet’ with fierce 3-word take on Mueller’s report https://t.co/U9n1Vh6JQU
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) March 27, 2019
Monica Lewinsky told Oliver that she did some “stupid things” as a 22-year-old intern, but said she did not deserve the backlash she faced. Lewinsky said it was difficult to get a job for many years afterward, and even today she remains in the spotlight for her role in the scandal.
