Linda Tripp
Encyclopedia
Linda Rose Tripp was a central figure in the Lewinsky scandal
of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of U.S. President Bill Clinton
.
. She graduated in 1968 from Hanover Park High School
in East Hanover, New Jersey
.
Tripp was an Army Intelligence
secretary at Fort Meade before being transferred to the Pentagon
in 1987. Two years later she became an assistant for Delta Force
.
Tripp was a White House
employee in the George H. W. Bush
administration, and kept her job when Bill Clinton
took over in 1993. During the summer of 1994, senior White House aides wanted Tripp out, so they arranged a job for her in the public affairs office in the Pentagon
which gave her a raise of $20,000 per year.
, while they both worked in the Pentagon's public affairs office. According to Tripp, who is about 24 years older than Lewinsky, they knew one another for a year and a half before the scandal began to reach its critical stage. After Lewinsky revealed to Tripp that she had been in a physical relationship with President Clinton, Tripp, acting on the advice of Lucianne Goldberg
, began to secretly record phone conversations with Lewinsky while encouraging Lewinsky to document details of her relationship with the president.
In August 1997, Newsweek
s Michael Isikoff
reported that Tripp said she had encountered Kathleen Willey
coming out of the Oval Office "disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off." Willey alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton's lawyer, Robert S. Bennett
said in the Newsweek article that "Linda Tripp is not to be believed."
In January 1998, Tripp gave the surreptitiously recorded tapes to then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Tripp disclosed to Starr that she was aware of the relationship between Lewinsky and President Clinton, that Lewinsky had executed a false affidavit denying the relationship that was submitted to the federal court in Arkansas in the Jones v. Clinton lawsuit, and that Lewinsky had attempted to suborn Tripp's perjury in the Jones v. Clinton suit to conceal the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship as well as Tripp's claim regarding Kathleen Willey from the federal court. As Tripp explained, she was being solicited to commit a crime to conceal evidence in the Jones civil rights case. Tripp also informed Starr of the existence of a navy blue dress that Lewinsky owned that was soiled with Clinton's semen
. During their friendship, Lewinsky had shown the dress to Tripp and said she intended to have it dry-cleaned
; Tripp convinced her not to.
Based on Tripp's tapes, Starr obtained approval from Attorney General
Janet Reno
and the special court overseeing the Independent Counsel to expand Starr's investigation into the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship, looking for potential incidents of perjury
, to investigate Lewinsky for perjury and suborning perjury as a witness in the lawsuit Paula Jones
had brought against Clinton.
While Tripp maintains she acted out of "patriotic duty," some Americans believe that she betrayed Lewinsky in the hopes of using her knowledge of the relationship to obtain a possible book or movie deal, neither of which has occurred to date. Tripp has claimed that she taped Lewinsky out of self-defense, as she feared retaliation from the Clinton Administration, also claiming Lewinsky had assured President Clinton that she had only told Tripp about their affair (which was untrue), thus making her a target as she refused to go along with perjuring herself to protect Lewinsky and the President.
Eventually both Clinton and Lewinsky had to appear before a Washington, D.C. grand jury
to answer questions, although Clinton appeared via closed circuit television. After the round of interrogation, the jurors offered Lewinsky the chance to offer any last words. "I hate Linda Tripp," she said.
Tripp was portrayed by John Goodman
in recurring Saturday Night Live
sketches. Tripp liked most of Goodman's impersonations of her, except for one, which hurt her feelings, in which he portrayed her as a man.
at the time she made her surreptitious recordings of the conversations with Lewinsky, and 49 Democrats in the Maryland Legislature signed a letter to the state prosecutor demanding that Tripp be prosecuted under Maryland's wiretap
law. Prior to trial, the state court ruled that, due to the immunity agreements which the Independent Counsel's office entered into with Tripp, Lewinsky, and others, a substantial amount of the evidence which the prosecution intended to use was inadmissible. At a pre-trial hearing the prosecution called Lewinsky as a witness to try to establish that her testimony against Tripp was untainted by the Independent Counsel investigation. However, the Maryland state court ruled that Lewinsky, who "admitted that she lied under oath in a federal proceeding and has stated that lying has been a part of her life," was not credible and Lewinsky's proposed testimony against Tripp was "bathed in impermissible taint." As a result, all charges against Tripp were dismissed on May 26, 2000 when the prosecution decided not to proceed with the trial of the case.
in 1969 on charges of stealing
$263 in cash as well as a wristwatch worth about $600. The charges were eventually dismissed before coming to trial. Although never convicted in 1969, years later Tripp answered "no" to the question "Have you ever been either charged or arrested for a crime?" on the Department of Defense
security clearance form.
Shortly before Tripp was scheduled to appear before the grand jury in the Lewinsky investigation, in March 1998, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Kenneth Bacon
, and his deputy, Clifford Bernath, leaked to reporter Jane Mayer of New Yorker magazine Tripp's answer to the arrest question on her security clearance form. Following the Bacon-Bernath leak to Mayer, the Department of Defense leaked to the news media other confidential information from Tripp's personnel and security files. The Department of Defense Inspector General investigated the leak of Tripp's security clearance form information and found that Bacon and Bernath violated the Privacy Act, and the DoD IG concluded that Bacon and Bernath should have known that the release of information from Tripp's security file was improper.
and the Justice Department for releasing information from her security file and employment file to the news media in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974
. On November 3, 2003, Tripp reached a settlement with the federal government. The settlement included a one-time payment of more than $595,000, a retroactive promotion, and retroactive pay at the highest salary for 1998, 1999 and 2000. She also received a pension and was cleared to work for the federal government again. Her rights to remain part of a class action lawsuit against the government were also preserved.
and a staffer named Jennifer Fitzgerald. It has also been speculated that this may explain why she was not rehired to her old White House position despite calls from many conservatives
to Bush's son, former President George W. Bush
, to do so; however, Tripp has publicly denied this allegation as "ludicrous" and "a complete fabrication."
shop, called the Christmas Sleigh, in Middleburg, Virginia
.
In a December 1, 2003 appearance with Larry King
on Larry King Live
, Tripp told of her suffering breast cancer
. On the subject of her successful invasion of privacy lawsuit against the federal government, Tripp claimed that she actually came out behind financially, due to attorneys' fees and the derailment of her government career. She also claimed that the Clinton Administration's violations of her privacy were not equivalent to her violations of Monica Lewinsky
's privacy as the Clinton Administration's leaking of her employment history was illegal, not addressing the fact that she herself was alleged to have violated the Maryland wiretap laws. Furthermore, Lewinsky had asked her to lie under oath in the Paula Jones lawsuit against Bill Clinton
, something she had refused to do. She told King that she only began taping her conversations with Lewinsky, whom she had known for 18 months, a mere eight weeks before she was scheduled to be deposed in the Jones lawsuit. Tripp had earlier said she taped the conversations to prevent the Clinton Administration from retaliating against her, since she had decided not to lie under oath.
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of U.S. President Bill Clinton
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, 1998, but acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of...
.
Early life and government employment
Tripp was born in Jersey City, New JerseyJersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. She graduated in 1968 from Hanover Park High School
Hanover Park High School
Hanover Park High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from East Hanover Township and Florham Park, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Hanover Park Regional High School District...
in East Hanover, New Jersey
East Hanover, New Jersey
East Hanover Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 11,393. The town was incorporated in 1928. The headquarters of the Nabisco company and the pharmaceutical company Novartis are located in East...
.
Tripp was an Army Intelligence
Army Intelligence
Army Intelligence may refer to:* The intelligence component of a given nation's army.* In the United States, Army Intelligence is usually referred to as Military Intelligence .-Further reading:...
secretary at Fort Meade before being transferred to the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
in 1987. Two years later she became an assistant for Delta Force
Delta Force
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...
.
Tripp was a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
employee in the George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
administration, and kept her job when Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
took over in 1993. During the summer of 1994, senior White House aides wanted Tripp out, so they arranged a job for her in the public affairs office in the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
which gave her a raise of $20,000 per year.
Tripp's involvement in the Lewinsky scandal
Tripp became a close confidante of another former White House employee, Monica LewinskyMonica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
, while they both worked in the Pentagon's public affairs office. According to Tripp, who is about 24 years older than Lewinsky, they knew one another for a year and a half before the scandal began to reach its critical stage. After Lewinsky revealed to Tripp that she had been in a physical relationship with President Clinton, Tripp, acting on the advice of Lucianne Goldberg
Lucianne Goldberg
Lucianne S. Goldberg née Lucianne Steinberger, also known as Lucianne Cummings is an American literary agent, author and the publisher of the website Lucianne.com. An avowed critic of U.S...
, began to secretly record phone conversations with Lewinsky while encouraging Lewinsky to document details of her relationship with the president.
In August 1997, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
s Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an investigative journalist for NBC News, formerly with the United States magazine Newsweek. He joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in June, 1994, and has written extensively on the U.S...
reported that Tripp said she had encountered Kathleen Willey
Kathleen Willey
Kathleen Willey was a White House volunteer aide who, on March 15, 1998, alleged on the TV news program 60 Minutes that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her on November 29, 1993, during his first term as President...
coming out of the Oval Office "disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off." Willey alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton's lawyer, Robert S. Bennett
Robert S. Bennett
Robert S. Bennett is an American attorney best known for representing President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. Bennett is also famous for representing Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame CIA leak grand jury investigation case, Caspar Weinberger, the U.S...
said in the Newsweek article that "Linda Tripp is not to be believed."
In January 1998, Tripp gave the surreptitiously recorded tapes to then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Tripp disclosed to Starr that she was aware of the relationship between Lewinsky and President Clinton, that Lewinsky had executed a false affidavit denying the relationship that was submitted to the federal court in Arkansas in the Jones v. Clinton lawsuit, and that Lewinsky had attempted to suborn Tripp's perjury in the Jones v. Clinton suit to conceal the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship as well as Tripp's claim regarding Kathleen Willey from the federal court. As Tripp explained, she was being solicited to commit a crime to conceal evidence in the Jones civil rights case. Tripp also informed Starr of the existence of a navy blue dress that Lewinsky owned that was soiled with Clinton's semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
. During their friendship, Lewinsky had shown the dress to Tripp and said she intended to have it dry-cleaned
Dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a chemical solvent other than water. The solvent used is typically tetrachloroethylene , abbreviated "perc" in the industry and "dry-cleaning fluid" by the public...
; Tripp convinced her not to.
Based on Tripp's tapes, Starr obtained approval from Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
and the special court overseeing the Independent Counsel to expand Starr's investigation into the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship, looking for potential incidents of perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
, to investigate Lewinsky for perjury and suborning perjury as a witness in the lawsuit Paula Jones
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed before trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
had brought against Clinton.
While Tripp maintains she acted out of "patriotic duty," some Americans believe that she betrayed Lewinsky in the hopes of using her knowledge of the relationship to obtain a possible book or movie deal, neither of which has occurred to date. Tripp has claimed that she taped Lewinsky out of self-defense, as she feared retaliation from the Clinton Administration, also claiming Lewinsky had assured President Clinton that she had only told Tripp about their affair (which was untrue), thus making her a target as she refused to go along with perjuring herself to protect Lewinsky and the President.
Eventually both Clinton and Lewinsky had to appear before a Washington, D.C. grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
to answer questions, although Clinton appeared via closed circuit television. After the round of interrogation, the jurors offered Lewinsky the chance to offer any last words. "I hate Linda Tripp," she said.
Tripp was portrayed by John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
in recurring Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
sketches. Tripp liked most of Goodman's impersonations of her, except for one, which hurt her feelings, in which he portrayed her as a man.
Indictment by the State of Maryland
Tripp was a resident of Columbia, MarylandColumbia, Maryland
Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...
at the time she made her surreptitious recordings of the conversations with Lewinsky, and 49 Democrats in the Maryland Legislature signed a letter to the state prosecutor demanding that Tripp be prosecuted under Maryland's wiretap
Telephone tapping
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line...
law. Prior to trial, the state court ruled that, due to the immunity agreements which the Independent Counsel's office entered into with Tripp, Lewinsky, and others, a substantial amount of the evidence which the prosecution intended to use was inadmissible. At a pre-trial hearing the prosecution called Lewinsky as a witness to try to establish that her testimony against Tripp was untainted by the Independent Counsel investigation. However, the Maryland state court ruled that Lewinsky, who "admitted that she lied under oath in a federal proceeding and has stated that lying has been a part of her life," was not credible and Lewinsky's proposed testimony against Tripp was "bathed in impermissible taint." As a result, all charges against Tripp were dismissed on May 26, 2000 when the prosecution decided not to proceed with the trial of the case.
Arrest record controversy
On March 14, 1998, it was revealed that Linda Tripp was arrested when she was 19 years old in Greenwood Lake, New YorkGreenwood Lake, New York
Greenwood Lake is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the village population was 3,411. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New...
in 1969 on charges of stealing
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
$263 in cash as well as a wristwatch worth about $600. The charges were eventually dismissed before coming to trial. Although never convicted in 1969, years later Tripp answered "no" to the question "Have you ever been either charged or arrested for a crime?" on the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
security clearance form.
Shortly before Tripp was scheduled to appear before the grand jury in the Lewinsky investigation, in March 1998, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Kenneth Bacon
Kenneth Bacon
Kenneth Hogate Bacon was an American journalist who served as a spokesman for the Department of Defense during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, and later as president of Refugees International, an organization dedicated to advocating for assistance and protection for displaced persons and promoting...
, and his deputy, Clifford Bernath, leaked to reporter Jane Mayer of New Yorker magazine Tripp's answer to the arrest question on her security clearance form. Following the Bacon-Bernath leak to Mayer, the Department of Defense leaked to the news media other confidential information from Tripp's personnel and security files. The Department of Defense Inspector General investigated the leak of Tripp's security clearance form information and found that Bacon and Bernath violated the Privacy Act, and the DoD IG concluded that Bacon and Bernath should have known that the release of information from Tripp's security file was improper.
Termination from government employment
On January 19, 2001, the last full day of the Clinton Administration, Linda Tripp was fired from her job in the Pentagon. Tripp claimed that the firing was vindictive, but the Clinton administration countered that all political appointees like Tripp are normally asked to submit their resignation upon a new administration taking over, and those who refuse are fired.Lawsuit and settlement
Tripp sued the Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
and the Justice Department for releasing information from her security file and employment file to the news media in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974
Privacy Act of 1974
The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, Public Law No. 93-579, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies...
. On November 3, 2003, Tripp reached a settlement with the federal government. The settlement included a one-time payment of more than $595,000, a retroactive promotion, and retroactive pay at the highest salary for 1998, 1999 and 2000. She also received a pension and was cleared to work for the federal government again. Her rights to remain part of a class action lawsuit against the government were also preserved.
George H. W. Bush affair controversy
It has been alleged that Linda Tripp was involved in leaking information about an alleged affair between former President George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and a staffer named Jennifer Fitzgerald. It has also been speculated that this may explain why she was not rehired to her old White House position despite calls from many conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
to Bush's son, former President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, to do so; however, Tripp has publicly denied this allegation as "ludicrous" and "a complete fabrication."
Life since the Lewinsky scandal
Since the Lewinsky scandal Tripp has moved to Northern Virginia, married German architect Dieter Rausch in 2004 and opened with her new husband a year-round ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
shop, called the Christmas Sleigh, in Middleburg, Virginia
Middleburg, Virginia
Middleburg is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States with a population of approximately 976 as of July 2010.-History:The town was established in 1787 by American Revolutionary War Lieutenant Colonel and Virginia statesman, Levin Powell. He purchased the land for Middleburg at $2.50 per...
.
In a December 1, 2003 appearance with Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
, Tripp told of her suffering breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. On the subject of her successful invasion of privacy lawsuit against the federal government, Tripp claimed that she actually came out behind financially, due to attorneys' fees and the derailment of her government career. She also claimed that the Clinton Administration's violations of her privacy were not equivalent to her violations of Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
's privacy as the Clinton Administration's leaking of her employment history was illegal, not addressing the fact that she herself was alleged to have violated the Maryland wiretap laws. Furthermore, Lewinsky had asked her to lie under oath in the Paula Jones lawsuit against Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, something she had refused to do. She told King that she only began taping her conversations with Lewinsky, whom she had known for 18 months, a mere eight weeks before she was scheduled to be deposed in the Jones lawsuit. Tripp had earlier said she taped the conversations to prevent the Clinton Administration from retaliating against her, since she had decided not to lie under oath.