| As the debate over whether House Democrats should try to impeach President Trump before 2020 heats up in Washington, CNN fact checker Holmes Lybrand looked at the most recent presidential impeachment -- and just how long it took, exclusively for The Point: To get a glimpse on just how an impeachment effort might play out in 2019, let's look at the impeachment proceedings around President Bill Clinton for lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair to get our bearings.
Special investigator Ken Starr released his $52 million report to Congress on September 9, 1998. A month later, the House voted to start an impeachment inquiry. Two months and a week after that, the House voted to impeach Clinton.
A few weeks later, on January 7, 1999, the Senate -- which basically acts as the court during impeachment proceedings -- began Clinton's trial. A little over a month later, Clinton was acquitted of both impeachment charges. In total, we're talking about a five-month process.
Unlike then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, Nancy Pelosi is taking the cautious path on a process that would likely end the same way it did in 1999. But trying to herd freshly elected Democrats in the House who smell blood in the water (not to mix metaphors) is already proving a difficult, perhaps impossible task. Have something you want Holmes to fact check in The Point? Let us know! Lauren.dezenski@cnn.com. | 
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