Linda Tripp

Whistleblower

Born: November 24, 1949; Died: April 8, 2020

LINDA TRIPP, who has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70, was a key player in an American political scandal that almost derailed the presidency of Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Tripp had clandestinely taperecorded many hours of conversations with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and a much younger woman, whom she had befriended. In the conversations, an unwitting Lewinsky spoke candidly of the affair she had been conducing with Clinton.

Tripp, who had been looking to write a book about her experiences as a White House secretary in the George HW Bush and Clinton administrations, sent the tapes to

Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who had spent a few years looking into the Clintons’ failed Whitewater real-estate venture. In exchange for the recordings, Tripp was granted immunity from illegal wiretapping charges.

Starr also got Tripp to wear a wire so that a conversation at a hotel with the unsuspecting Lewinsky could be recorded.

Starr wanted to expand his investigation into the president’s alleged extra-marital affair. It was also due to Tripp that a key piece of evidence, a blue dress Lewinsky had worn during one assignation with Clinton in the White House, came to light.

Clinton had already denied any affair with the former intern, saying “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, but the emergence of the stained blue dress undermined his insistence.

The president later underwent the first Senate impeachment trial in more than 130 years, on allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice resulting from a sexual harassment lawsuit. He was eventually acquitted.

After completing her Grand Jury testimony about the scandal Lewinsky reportedly said, “I hate Linda Tripp.” Last week, on learning of Tripp’s illness, she tweeted, “no matter the past, upon hearing that Linda Tripp is very seriously ill, I hope for her recovery. I can’t imagine how difficult this is for her family”.

In the wake of her actions, Tripp became a hero to many on the right, but a figure of ridicule to Clinton supporters and many others. The actor John Goodman donned drag to play her on the popular US show, Saturday Night Live.

In 1999, Tripp appeared on the Larry King Live show on CNN, and insisted she had had “no choice” but to tape her conversations with Lewinsky. “How would I prove I was telling the truth?” she said. “All I can say is Monica made choices, the president made choices, and I was forced to make choices.”

Of Lewinsky she said: “She’s clever. She’s bright. She’s warm, big heart -- misguided, in my opinion; different moral compass than mine. But I liked her, yes”.

Linda Rose Carotenuto was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. After high school she became a secretary in Army Intelligence. In 1971 she married Bruce Tripp, a military officer. They divorced in 1990. After her time in the White House, she was switched to the Pentagon’s public affairs office. It was during her time in the Pentagon she befriended Lewinsky. In January 2001, she was dismissed by the Pentagon.

Two years ago, Tripp told the Slow Burn podcast: “Central casting couldn’t have cast a better villain. The entire country had decided who I was, and it was evil incarnate.”