Linda Tripp

Birth Data

Biography

American news figure, caught up in the presidential scandal of 1998 in which Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, was quoted as saying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton. Few public figures have drawn more scabrous press coverage than the Pentagon official, but then few have so richly deserved it. She betrayed her friend in pursuit of political payback and book-deal riches and then claimed that it was really patriotism and self-preservation that led her to putting a recording device on her body.  She was arrested for grand larceny in 1969 and accused Bush of having an affair during his administration.

In April 1998, she was age 48 with one son, Ryan, 22, and a daughter, Allison, 19. She had divorced husband Bruce Tripp several years ago. She was world traveled with her husband, a Lt. Colonel in the military, and was fluent in German. She did clerical work, holding a classified job with the Army's elite Delta Force. She was known as a hard lady except not much of a lady, often with a chip on her shoulder.

Employed in secretarial jobs in the White House, she rubbed shoulders with the movers and shakers. Picking up a lunch order, she was the last person to see Vince Foster alive before his mysterious suicide. She liked the gossip and being "in the know." However she was indiscrete and officious, not trusted or well liked among her co-workers. In 1993, she told reporters at Newsweek about the alleged Oval Office grope session.

Tripp made friends with the younger intern, Monica Lewinsky and they became confidants. When she told attorney James Moody what she knew about Monica's alleged affair with the President, he set up Tripp's first meeting with special prosecutor Ken Starr's people on January 12, 1998. On the following day she was "wired" with a tape recorder strapped to her body in order to record what her friend said about her sex life. The story broke about January 20th. It was the girl-talk captured on those tapes that led to the impeachment ugliness that obsessed the nation during most of 1998.

On late 7/30/1999, a grand jury in Maryland's Howard County indicted Tripp on two felony counts related to illegal wiretapping. Jury selection for her trial was scheduled for summer 2000.

Deeply offended and hurt at her bad press and the jokes about her appearance, Tripp went in for $28,000 of cosmetic surgery on 10/14/1999, funded by an anonymous benefactor. In seven hours of surgery, Dr. Geoffrey Keyes removed the bags from under her eyes, cut away the fat from her neck and tightened her chin, softened and shortened her nose and provided a chin implant. Tripp did her part by cutting back on smoking and losing 40 pounds. She topped off her new look with four hours in the beauty parlor for a new hair color and style at a $400 stylist fee, for which she left no tip.

In late 2000, Tripp bought a home in posh Middleburg, VA

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