Linda Tripp, whose secretly recorded conversations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died Wednesday at age 70.
Her death was confirmed by attorney Joseph Murtha. He provided no further details.
Tripp was working in the Pentagon when she befriended Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was having an affair with the president.
She made 22 hours of surreptitious recordings of Lewinsky in 1997, where Lewinsky spoke about the affair.
Then she handed them over the tapes to special prosecutor Ken Starr.
To Clinton’s supporters, Linda Tripp became one of the primary villains of the impeachment episode — a false friend who had betrayed Lewinsky’s confidence out of partisan motives.
Linda Tripp, however, remained unapologetic about her role in the scandal.
Lewinsky recalled to Barbara Walters her feeling when she realized that Tripp had taped her: “Gutted and violated and betrayed. And scared.”
“I have never been so afraid in my entire life,” she said. “I wanted to die.”
Clinton denied the affair when it was exposed in January 1998 — saying he “did not have sex with that woman.”
He also denied the affair in a sworn deposition, leading to his impeachment on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.
After a 21-day trial in 1999, he was acquitted in the Senate.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
