Key Dates In Scandal Sagas

Here's a chronology of scandal-related events during Clinton's presidency:

1978: Whitewater Development Corp. is formed by the Clintons with James McDougal and his wife, Susan.

1989: Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas is seized by the government and closed at a cost to taxpayers of up to $65 million.

1992: At the start of Mr. Clinton's presidential campaign, The New York Times reports on ties between the Clintons and McDougals and possible improprieties in their Whitewater and Madison dealings.

July 1993: White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster, who had been handling matters relating to the Clintons' Whitewater dealings, commits suicide, raising new questions about Whitewater and calls for an investigation.

December 1993: The Justice Department's investigation into Foster's death seeks a Whitewater file that was taken from his office. The White House acknowledges for the first time that files were removed from Foster's office.

Jan. 12: Under public pressure, President Clinton asks that a special prosecutor be named to investigate his Whitewater land dealings.

Jan. 20: Attorney General Janet Reno selects Robert B. Fiske, Jr. as special prosecutor.

May 6: Paula Jones files a lawsuit alleging Mr. Clinton sexually harassed her in a Little Rock, Ark., hotel room three years earlier while she was a state clerk and he was governor.

Aug. 5: After Congress reauthorizes the defunct Independent Counsel Act - and Mr. Clinton signs it - a panel of three federal appeals court judges appoints former Bush administration Solicitor General Kenneth Starr to take over Fiske's investigation.

Aug. 17: The Clintons' former business partners, Jim and Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker are indicted by the Whitewater grand jury on fraud and conspiracy charges.

Jan. 4: Carolyn Huber, a longtime Clinton aide, finds billing records from Mrs. Clinton's law firm, which handled some Whitewater-related affairs.

Jan. 27: Mrs. Clinton makes a four-hour appearance before a Whitewater grand jury.

March 22: Starr begins investigation into whether a presidential aide lied about Hillary Rodham Clinton's role in the firings of seven employees in the White House travel office.

April 28: President Clinton gives videotaped testimony for the Tucker-McDougals trial.

May 28: Tucker and the McDougals are convicted. Mrs. McDougal refuses to cooperate with Starr's investigation and later serves 18 months for contempt of court, then begins serving part of her two-year prison term for fraud.

June 21: Starr starts investigating the Clinton White House's gathering of hundreds of FBI background files of appointees from past Republican administrations.

Nov. 5: Mr. Clinton re-elected.

May 27: The U.S. Supreme Court rules Mrs. Jones can pursue her lawsuit while Mr. Clinton is in office.

Dec. 19: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky served with subpoena to appear at a deposition for the Jones suit and to turn over gifts from Mr. Clinton.

Jan. 7: Ms. Lewinsky signs affidavit for Jones case saying she had no sexual relationship with Clinton.

Jan. 12: A confidante of Ms. Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, gives Starr's office tapes she made of conversations between herself and Ms. Lewinsky.

Jan. 16: Court panel gives Starr authority to investigate Lewinsky matters.

Jan. 17: Mr. Clinton testifies in Mrs. Jones' lawsuit and denies a sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.

Jan. 26: Mr. Clinton declares publicly, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman. ... I never told anybody to lie."

April 1: In Arkansas, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright dismisses Mrs. Jones' lawsuit.

April 30: Webster Hubbell, who pleaded guilty in 1994 to defrauding the Arkansas law firm where he worked with Mrs. Clinton, is charged with evading taxes on income he received from Clinton friends who sought to assist him after he resigned as associate attorney general.

Aug. 6: Under immunity from prosecution, Ms. Lewinsky testifies to the Starr grand jury.

Aug. 17: Mr. Clinton undergoes more than four hours of questioning before the grand jury. He then says in a televised speech, "I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate."

Sept. 9: Starr delivers his report on the Lewinsky matter to Congress, telling House leaders he has found "substantial and credible information ... that may constitute grounds for impeachment."

Nov. 13: Mr. Clinton agrees to pay Mrs. Jones $850,000 to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit, with no apology or admission of guilt. Presidential friend Hubbell indicted again, this time charged with 15 felony counts accusing him of fraud, perjury and "corruptly impeding" federal banking regulators' investigation of many of the original Whitewater allegations.

Nov. 20: Starr's ethics adviser, Sam Dash, resigns, objecting to Starr's testifying before Congress in support of impeachment report.
Dec. 11: House Judiciary Committee approves impeachment articles that accuse the president of perjury in the Jones deposition, perjury in his grand jury testimony and obstruction of justice in the Jones case. A fourth article approved Dec. 12 charges perjury in Mr. Clinton's responses to the committee's questions.

Dec. 19: Mr. Clinton impeached by the House on two articles of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Jan. 7: Impeachment trial begins in Senate.

Feb. 6: Clips from the videotaped testimony of Ms. Lewinsky, presidential friend Vernon Jordan and White House ide Sidney Blumenthal, as well as videotaped testimony from Clinton, are played publicly at Senate trial.

Feb. 12: Senate acquits Mr. Clinton.

April 12: Wright, the Little Rock judge who oversaw the Jones case, finds Clinton in contempt for his "intentionally false" testimony about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. She later orders him to pay $90,000 in penalties.

June 30: On the last day before the independent counsel statute expires, Hubbell pleads guilty to a felony and a misdemeanor.

Oct. 18: Starr steps aside. The three-judge panel names one of his assistants, Robert Ray, to finish the investigation.

March 16: Ray concludes FBI files investigation, saying there was no credible evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton or senior White House officials were involved in seeking the FBI background files of Republicans.

March 19: Ray says in television interview that filing criminal charges against President Clinton in the Lewinsky case is still an option.

June 22: Ray wraps up investigation of White House travel office firings, saying there would be no indictments but that he found "substantial evidence" that Mrs. Clinton played a role in the dismissals.

Aug. 17: Public learns that Ray has assembled a new grand jury to determine whether Mr. Clinton should be indicted after he leaves office for his conduct in the Lewinsky scandal.

Sept. 20: Ray announces the completion of the original Whitewater investigation, saying there was "insufficient" or "inconclusive" evidence to warrant any charges against the Clintons.