The Scandal's End: Inside Bill's Last Deal

On his final day, Clinton makes a bargain to avoid prosecution. Here's how the secret talks went

The meeting was as secret as any that Bill Clinton had ever held. Just after the new year, he sat down with his nemesis, independent counsel Robert W. Ray, for Ray's first visit to the White House since taking over from Ken Starr--and Clinton's first meeting with prosecutors since the videotaped deposition in which he admitted to an affair with Monica Lewinsky. In the Map Room, where Franklin Roosevelt plotted World War II, they discussed the broad outlines of an agreement that would avoid the first indictment of a man who had been President. On Friday, the last full day of...

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