Powers of the President of the United States Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed audio tapes to a special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in "United States v. Nixon" that privilege was not absolute. The Court reasoned that the judiciary’s interest in the “fair administration of criminal justice” outweighed President Nixon’s interest in keeping the evidence secret. Later President Bill Clinton lost in federal court when he tried to assert privilege in the Lewinsky affair. The Supreme Court affirmed this in "Clinton v. Jones", which denied the use of privilege in cases of civil suits.
Timeline of the presidency of Bill Clinton Timeline of the presidency of Bill Clinton The presidency of Bill Clinton began on January 20, 1993, at noon Eastern Standard Time, when Bill Clinton was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat, took office after defeating Republican incumbent President George H. W. Bush and Independent businessman Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential election. Four years later, he defeated Republican Bob Dole and Ross Perot (this time running on the Reform Party ticket) to win a second term of office. During both elections, Clinton ran as a New Democrat, and many