When the President Testified: People in the Room Recall Clinton’s 1998 Interrogation

The president of the United States was accused of criminal wrongdoing and the time had come to be interviewed by prosecutors. It was a showdown like none other in American history — or so it seemed at the time.

As President Trump and Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, negotiate about a possible interview in the Russia investigation, all sides can turn back to the only real precedent: the time that President Bill Clinton was interrogated by prosecutors before a grand jury watching over closed circuit television.

The date was Aug. 17, 1998. Mr. Clinton was defending himself against allegations that he had lied under oath and obstructed justice during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state worker, to cover up an unseemly affair with a former White House intern named Monica S. Lewinsky. While Ronald Reagan and George Bush had been interviewed during the Iran-contra investigation, never before had a sitting president given testimony in a case in which he was so clearly a potential target of prosecution or impeachment.