It was exactly 25 years ago tomorrow, February 12, 1999, the U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton at his impeachment trial. Two months earlier, the House had approved two articles of impeachment: one charging that Clinton had “willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony” to a federal grand jury; the other said he had “willfully corrupted and manipulated the judicial process of the United States for his personal gain and exoneration, impeding the administration of justice.”

In spite of his acquittal, Clinton eventually admitted that he had made false statements under oath, as part of a plea arrangement to avoid criminal indictment. So at least that element of the case against him is beyond dispute.

But unlike the two subsequent Trump impeachments, which the media had championed since before the Republican President had even taken office, journalists sneered that the trial of William Jefferson Clinton was a pointless waste of the Senate’s valuable time.