Bill Clinton controversy

Gennifer Flowers came forward during Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential election campaign, stating that she had had a 12-year relationship with him.

After Bill Clinton denied having a relationship with Flowers on 60 Minutes, she held a press conference in which she played tape recordings she had secretly made of phone calls with Clinton. Clinton subsequently apologized publicly to Mario Cuomo for remarks he made about the then-Governor of New York on the tapes. During the press conference, Flowers was famously asked several questions by "Stuttering John" Melendez of the Howard Stern Show if she was planning to sleep with any other candidates before the election, along with if Clinton used a condom and if there ever was a threesome. She responded by laughing at Stuttering John's prank whereas her advisor wanted to ignore him by trying to answer other questions. News reports at the time speculated that the taped phone conversations between Flowers and Clinton could have been doctored; Flowers had sold the original tapes to Star and they were never lab-tested. Clinton aides James Carville and George Stephanopoulos backed this claim as well. Stephanopoulos later claimed in a 2000 interview with journalist Tim Russert that "Oh, it was absolutely his voice, but they were selectively edited in a way to - to create some - some impression."

In December 1996, Gennifer Flowers talked about her sexual relationship with Bill Clinton on The Richard Bey Show. The show was canceled the following day. Richard Bey later attributed a direct connection between the two consecutive events.

In his presidential deposition in January 1998, while denying Kathleen Willey's sexual accusations against him, Bill Clinton admitted that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers. In 1998, Flowers admitted that she had made a total net profit of $500,000 by publicizing her alleged affair with Clinton to Penthouse, Star Magazine and other news sources. In his 2004 autobiography My Life, Clinton acknowledged testifying under oath that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers. He stated it was only on one occasion in 1977.

Flowers sued George Stephanopoulos, James Carville and others in 1999 for defamation (later amending the suit in 2000 to include Hillary Clinton as a defendant), claiming that they orchestrated a campaign to discredit her. Judicial Watch represented her in her defamation lawsuit against Hillary's former aides, Stephanopoulos and Carville. In her case, Flowers argued that the defendants ignored obvious warning signs that the television news reports did not conclusively determine that someone had interfered with the tapes. Summary judgment dismissing the case was given by a US district court in 2004. The dismissal was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2006.

Post-controversy years

Gennifer Flowers published her memoir Gennifer Flowers: Passion and Betrayal in 1995. In it, she claimed she had experienced a sexual naïveté at the time of her alleged relationship with Clinton.

After acting in an Australian film in 1987, she played in another independent Australian film in 1992 and in the same year guest starred in the adult-themed television comedy Dream On. She then played herself in Play It to the Bone and various TV shows.

Until Hurricane Katrina, she ran a cabaret called the Kelsto Club in a former bordello in New Orleans' French Quarter. Gennifer made her NY theatre debut in 2004, briefly as a replacement in the Off-Broadway hit Boobs! The Musical.

As of 2007, she lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she occasionally writes a column.

In 2008, she put what she claimed were the answering machine tapes of her conversations with Bill Clinton up for auction.

In November 2012, Flowers claimed that Clinton contacted her as recently as 2005. During an interview with Susan Roesgen, Flowers claimed that, during her prior sojourn in New Orleans, President Clinton, while visiting the city, telephoned Flowers and asked for a meeting, which Flowers declined.

Filmography

• Frenchman's Farm (1987), Mrs. Grenville
• Redheads (aka Desperate Prey) (1992), Carolyn
• The War Room (1993), herself
• Play It to the Bone (1999), herself
• Definitely, Maybe (2008), herself

Television appearances

• The Howard Stern Show, herself - in "Episode dated 1 February 1992" (1992)
• Dream On (TV series) - in the episode "And Bimbo Was His Name-O" (1992)
• The Richard Bey Show, herself - in the episode "Clinton Scandals" (1996). The show was cancelled the following day and Richard Bey later attributed a direct connection between the two consecutive events
• WrestleMania XIV (1998), herself
• The Frank Skinner Show, herself - in episode #2.7 (1998)
• Where Are They Now? (VH1 TV series), herself - in the episode "Notorious & Newsworthy" (2000)
• Weakest Link (US), herself - in the episode "Newsmakers Edition" (2001)
• News with a Twist on WGNO (November 20, 2012)
• Oprah: Where Are They Now? on OWN Network, herself- (March 16, 2013)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]