Donald Trump will go down in history as the first US President to be indicted on criminal charges but he is far from alone in the pantheon of presidential predecessors whose tenures have been marred by scandals and controversies.
A grand jury in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon voted to indict the real estate tycoon, former reality TV host and America’s Commander-in-Chief in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, making Trump the first former US President to face criminal charges. But Trump, the 45th US president, does not stand alone among current or former US Presidents when it comes to controversy plaguing the White House occupants.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States and sat in the Oval Office from 1993 to 2001. In December 1998, Clinton was impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton had become only the second US President in history, after Andrew Johnson, to be impeached.
In the impeachment, Clinton was accused of perjury for misleading a grand jury about the nature of his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He was also charged with obstruction of justice, in connection with his role of leading others to lie and conceal his affair with Lewinsky.