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The new FX limited series Impeachment: American Crime Story the third in a true-crime anthology that started with The People v. O.J. Simpson and continued with The Assassination of Gianni Versace covers the events leading up to Bill Clintons impeachment in December 1998, with a heavy emphasis on the fallout from his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Fans of the brilliant Slate podcast Slow Burn will surely remember many details from its Leon Neyfakhhosted second season three years ago, which included among its eight episodes bonus interviews with major players like Ken Starr, the special prosecutor and author of the infamous Starr report, and Linda Tripp, who had befriended Lewinsky at the Pentagon and helped reveal her secret affair to the independent counsels office.

For all ten episodes of Impeachment, weve asked Madeline Kaplan, the researcher for the Clinton-Lewinsky season of Slow Burn, to fact-check the shows major events and minute details against her own understanding of the events. (Kaplan and Neyfakhs eight-book reading list can be found here and doesnt include the Starr report and its eyebrow-raising appendices.) Kaplan followed Neyfakh (and co-creator Andrew Parsons) to Prologue Projects, where she serves as a producer on Neyfakhs Fiasco and other podcasts.

As it happens, the sixth episode, Man Handled, covers the dramatic day that unfolded in the first episode of Slow Burn: January 16, 1998. On the eve of President Clintons deposition in the Paula Jones civil case, Ken Starrs team arranges to have Linda Tripp set a meeting with Monica Lewinsky at the food court in Pentagon City Mall. Once the trap was sprung, FBI agents working with the OIC (Office of Independent Counsel) escort Lewinsky to Room 1012 of the nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel, where shes interrogated by all male prosecutors, chiefly Mike Emmick (Colin Hanks) and Jackie Bennett (Darren Goldstein). A sliver of the episode is also given over to Ann Coulter (Cobie Smulders) and George Conway (George Salazar), who have copies of the Tripp-Lewinsky tapes and treat themselves to a listening party.

After watching Man Handled, Kaplan talked about Lewinskys long, traumatic, and, at times, surreal day with her interrogators, Tripps uncomfortable role in the sting operation, and the questionable strategy used to persuade Lewinsky to cooperate.

The major plot and character beats that shape Impeachments narrative.

Tripps feelings going into the dayShe definitely said that she felt bad about [the sting operation], but she also said she believed it was absolutely the right thing to do at the time. In this episode they seem to show a lot of her maybe wavering on whether doing this was the right thing or whether she should show up and go through with it at all. But in her recollections, it seems that she felt guilty about it and was stressed and scared during this period, but she was also convinced that this was the right thing for Monica.

Tripp actually being present at the hotelThis is often described as the result of poor planning or confusion. And I think the intensity of Monicas immediate reaction kind of threw [Starrs team]. They were set up in these adjoining hotel rooms and when they got up there, Monica remembers saying, Make her stay and watch. I want that treacherous bitch to see what shes done to me, which they used at the very beginning of the first episode. And then theyre like, Okay get Tripp out of here. And they put her in the other room, where they apparently interviewed her for a few hours before letting her go. Obviously it was very distracting that she was there at all. And Im sure it didnt help their chances at getting Monica to cooperate that she associated them so strongly with her friends betrayal.

Mike Emmicks roleOne of the people we interviewed for Slow Burn was Bruce Udolf, who worked in the independent counsels office and is not in these episodes. He was one of the more suspicious people about this [operation], he said he was concerned about how it might go. He asked something like, Could we have a woman come? Or Why arent there any women? And he was told that none were available that day to do this.

The absence of any women is a very striking detail. Also that they felt the best good cop that they had to try to convince her was Mike Emmick. Every single thing written about him, like the very first clause after his name, is that hes a charmer, that hes a charming guy, a ladies man. He was someone who was thought to be better to make this first approach than someone like Jackie Bennett.

Obviously theyre throwing this together pretty last-minute, but it was surprising the extent to which they were unprepared for her reaction. They thought that this would potentially go down very quickly and she would agree to cooperate.

Lewinskys deflected requests for a lawyerThis whole episode draws very heavily on Lewinskys recollections. Obviously, shes the person this is happening to. And so a lot of this is described in her authorized biography, these repeated attempts to ask for a lawyer. Being rebuffed in different ways. Not being told no explicitly, but being told its very time-sensitive or we dont want too many people involved here.

This became a real point of contention afterwards about whether there was any misconduct and whether they kept her there against her will or whether they actually told her she could leave. She said later she felt like she couldnt leave, even if they didnt say that explicitly. The independent counsels office was very clear afterward: We never told her she couldnt speak to a lawyer. Theres a lot of legalistic distinctions here. I dont think this is too far outside the norm of how a brace like this would go, in terms of how they approach the witness and try to get their cooperation. Its not that far outside the norm for them not to go out of their way to encourage her to leave and contact an attorney.

From their perspective, too, Vernon Jordan got her that lawyer. So whos to say that the lawyers not also implicated here? Im not a lawyer, but I dont think its the craziest thing in the world to say, Part of what were investigating here is whether [Jordan] got her a job to keep her quiet. And then this guy also got her a lawyer to file this false affidavit? Thats part of what their thinking was about.

These misconduct accusations ended up coming before a federal judge, and the judge ruled that the Starr team didnt do anything wrong here. Basically, because she hadnt been charged with a crime and was free to go if she wanted, she didnt have a right to an attorney in that moment that could be violated. But the judge also criticized the prosecutors for talking to Lewinsky about a possible immunity deal without a lawyer present. So that was a contentious issue here too.

Lewinsky seeing the news clip about Clinton getting deposed the next dayThat felt like it was for the audiences benefit. In the biography, she remembers that when she asked for a lawyer and was told, This is very time-sensitive, she immediately understood that it was time-sensitive because Clinton was being deposed the next day. I mean, anyone who followed the news even a little would have known about his deposition, let alone someone who was thinking and worrying about him constantly.

Lewinskys growing awareness of what was happeningHer immediate reactions were panic and despair, and the prosecutors werent really prepared for how intense her reaction would be. She definitely worried very quickly about feeling like her life was over. That exchange where she wonders what would happen if she were to jump out the window is something she remembers from that day.

Another really key element here is they literally tell her, You could be facing 27 years in prison for what youve done. So not only will her entire reputation be ruined when this becomes public and everyone knows about it, she could also spend more than her lifetime to that point in prison. She doesnt know that theyre probably not going to prosecute her. Its super rare to prosecute perjury in a civil case, especially when youre not the one being sued. But shes not a lawyer. She doesnt know how ridiculous it was to suggest this kind of time for what she did. Which, of course, does not help in the panic department at all. I think they expected that a young woman panicking about spending decades in prison would be relatively easy to convince, but she was much more forceful in her own instincts about what to do than they thought she would be.

Lewinskys encounters with Tripp on the dayIm not sure about the specific line, Linda, what did you do? Im just purely speculating here, but I think because [the show] used that line where she calls Linda a treacherous bitch in the first episode, they wanted that moment of anger again here, of her realizing what Linda did and being very angry. Monica did confront her very angrily when they were both taken up to those rooms. And she realized what was happening, and that Linda is responsible for this happening to her.

That scene later on when Monica is walking through the mall and sees Linda carrying shopping bags, thats an actual moment she remembers from that day. And apparently Linda again said to her during that run-in, They did the same thing to me. So they actually had an exchange then, too.

Jackie Bennetts interrogation styleHes definitely described as the bad cop coming in. Monica said later, It completely changed the tenor of the room as soon as he entered. He took a much more upfront and aggressive approach, totally different personality and style. I think they were probably just thinking like, This is taking so long. Lets try a different approach. Which also ends up not working.

Lewinsky and Emmicks shopping tripThey did go to Crate & Barrel first. They apparently just made a lot of small talk, maybe about a decanter, I dont know. Then she saw an opening to go to a payphone in the Macys and try to call Betty Currie, which is also shown here. Monica felt like, for obvious reasons, Betty Currie would be a person you could call in this scenario. She thought that if [Currie] picked up, she could say something kind of cryptic to her and she would know something was going on.

Then they did get dinner at Mozzarellas American Grill, where they have the conversation pretty much as depicted. She asked, Okay, can you walk me through? Where are you getting the number of years in prison from? And What are the charges youre talking about here? She apparently paid for her own dinner because she did not want to owe them anything.

Lewinskys mother, Marcia Lewis, pushing for cooperationOne of the other prosecutors who was there that day, Steve Binhak, who was also interviewed for Slow Burn, said that he overheard them talking in the hall when Marcia Lewis arrived. And she basically said, Tell them everything. Put this behind you. We have to be thinking about you here and your future. Then Lewinsky responded by saying, Im not going to be the one to bring down the president of the United States.

The quick end to the interrogationYes, it ended pretty quickly once Bill Ginsburg got on the phone with Mike Emmick. And the tenor of the conversation was basically the same as on the show. Ginsburg swore a lot and called Emmick names and was very skeptical of everything he was telling him. The big sticking point was whether they could give Lewinsky an offer of transactional immunity on the spot, so that she would be completely protected in exchange for talking to them. They have this whole back and forth about, like, Can you get this in writing? and Why cant you? Ginsberg calling their bluff about not having access to a fax machine. He apparently asked whether they could handwrite the immunity deal instead, which was not a suggestion they accepted. There was also some disagreement about whether they could actually give her transactional immunity in that moment at all. So Ginsburg eventually tells Lewinsky something like, All right, Im pulling the plug. Dont tell them anything. Go home. This isnt happening. And then its finally over.

Ann Coulter and friends getting the tapesSo theres something the show skips over here, probably because its so complicated. When Tripp has that meeting in a previous episode with her lawyer and she says like, I have all these tapes that Ive made and he says, Why do you have those? This is a two-party consent state. So thats a crime, she really didnt like that lawyer. She thought that he was not looking out for her interests. Because his reaction was, We should take this to the Clinton attorneys and they will want to settle the case. And thats the best thing for you because then these tapes dont become relevant. You wont be charged. Which is good legal advice.

But she didnt like that advice. She was thinking, Okay. So my lawyer is telling me that we should go to the Clintons and resolve this that way, which is not what I want. So she gets a new lawyer. And as part of this chain between her and Lucianne Goldberg and then the elves working on the Paula Jones case, Ann Coulter suggests this guy, Jim Moody, whos a friend of hers, to be Tripps new lawyer. And its through him that [Coulter] gets the tapes.

The way that Coulter remembers this is different than the way they show it here. She said in the middle of the night, at 3:00 a.m., she gets a call from Jim Moody and George Conway, and theyre like, We just got Linda Tripps tapes. We got to listen to these. Can we come over? Because Ann Coulter is a huge Deadhead and had an amazing speaker system. Apparently the way it went down was that they showed up at her place in the middle of the night and listened to some of the tapes.

The tapes being boringThere are certain incriminating things that are on the tapes. But its a really mammoth task to listen through all these hours of tape to find those little bits. Plus theyre mostly interested in whether she incriminated Clinton, not whether she incriminated herself. It makes sense to me that you would listen to a bunch and be like, I just heard a lot about a lot of stuff and Ive no idea whats going on. And a lot of its really mundane.

The details and embellishments that may or may not be rooted in the historical record but reflect Impeachments stylistic approach.

The TV shows they watched during downtime at the Ritz-CarltonApparently they were looking for something to watch on TV. NYPD Blue was on, and it felt like as they were flipping through, it was just cop shows. [Prosecutors] really didnt want that because obviously thats just going to make her think more about what shes doing there. And what if there are like, plotlines about witnesses or cops acting in bad faith or something? So they changed the channel until they found an Ethel Merman movie. And thats what they watched together. Because that felt, I guess, like that wasnt going to interfere with their investigation.

A Pentagon City Mall detail not in the episodeTheres something that they could have included, but I think that if they included it, as an audience member, youd be like, Theres no way that actually happened. Apparently on the same day at the Pentagon City Mall that Monica Lewinsky is being braced by prosecutors and the FBI, Susan Carpenter-McMillan was at that same mall shopping for an outfit for Paula Jones to wear the next day to Clintons deposition. So she couldve had a cameo in this episode.

Read more here:
Fact-checking Impeachments Dramatic Sting Operation - Vulture