San Francisco Chronicle

Crucial figure in impeachmen­t of Bill Clinton

- By Anita Gates Anita Gates is a New York Times writer.

Linda Tripp, the former White House and Pentagon employee whose secret audiotapes of Monica Lewinsky led to the 1998 impeachmen­t of President Bill Clinton, died Wednesday. She was 70.

Joseph Murtha, a former lawyer for Tripp, confirmed her death.

When Lewinsky completed her testimony about the scandal, she was asked if she had any final comments. According to CNN, she answered, “I hate Linda Tripp.”

Tripp contended that she had revealed Lewinsky’s private confession of a sexual relationsh­ip with Clinton out of “patriotic duty.” Tripp had worked in the White House under President George H.W. Bush and worked briefly in the Clinton administra­tion. She was transferre­d to the Pentagon and its public affairs office.

Lewinsky, who had been a White House intern, was transferre­d there, too, and the women, despite a 24year age difference, became friends.

When Lewinsky confided in Tripp that she had a physical relationsh­ip with the president, Tripp got in touch with Lucianne Goldberg, a literary agent who had reached out to her for informatio­n on Vincent Foster, the White House lawyer who committed suicide in 1993.

More recently, Tripp had been working on a book proposal tentativel­y titled “Behind Closed Doors: What I Saw Inside the Clinton White House.” Now she had a hook.

Goldberg suggested, among other things, that Tripp tape her telephone conversati­ons with Lewinsky. That was legal in the District of Columbia and in 39 states, but not in Maryland, where Tripp was living.

More than 20 hours of audiotapes were turned over to Kenneth Starr, the independen­t prosecutor handling the Clinton investigat­ion.

After four years and $30 million, Starr’s investigat­ion had stalled, lost in stale allegation­s involving the Whitewater land deal in which the Clintons had lost money. Tripp’s tapes provided a fresh, rich avenue for exploratio­n, galvanizin­g the investigat­ion almost overnight as they carried the potential to bring down the president.

The tapes revealed a complicate­d relationsh­ip between Tripp and Lewinsky. Lewinsky seemed grateful to be able to confide in the older woman, all while Tripp was milking her for incriminat­ing informatio­n against Clinton.

Tripp later was given immunity from wiretappin­g charges in exchange for her testimony.

She graduated from high school in East Hanover, N.J., and went to work as a secretary in Army Intelligen­ce in Fort Meade, Md. In 1971, she married Bruce Tripp, a military officer. The couple divorced in 1990.

Tripp married Dieter Rausch, a German architect, in 2004. In later years, she worked with him in his family’s retail store, the Christmas Sleigh, in Middleburg, Va.

In addition to Rausch, her survivors include a son, Ryan Tripp, and a daughter, Allison Tripp Foley.

 ?? Khue Bui / Associated Press 1998 ?? Linda Tripp meets with reporters outside federal court in July 1998. She secretly taped conversati­ons with Monica Lewinsky.
Khue Bui / Associated Press 1998 Linda Tripp meets with reporters outside federal court in July 1998. She secretly taped conversati­ons with Monica Lewinsky.

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