Tripp’s Been In Limelight Before Motivation For Taping Conversations Unclear

At the center of the latest morality allegations tarring President Clinton is Linda R. Tripp, a woman oddly connected to many of the president’s most personal nightmares.

She was the last person known to have seen Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster alive in 1993. Last summer, she alleged publicly that Clinton had kissed and groped a female visitor to the Oval Office.

And now she says she made secret tape recordings of more than 10 conversations she had with Monica Lewinsky in which Lewinsky discussed her alleged love affair with Clinton.

Based on those tapes, independent counsel Kenneth Starr has expanded his investigation of Clinton to include inquiries into whether the president lied under oath and obstructed justice by encouraging Lewinsky to commit perjury by denying their affair in legal inquiries.

Clinton denies the allegations.

Tripp’s motivation for secretly taping her talks with Lewinsky, a friend and Pentagon colleague whom she mentored at work, remains enigmatic, as does much else about her. Tripp did not return calls seeking explanations. Neither did her Washington lawyer, James Moody.

What is known about Tripp’s past opens more questions than answers.

She worked in clerical jobs at the White House under Presidents Bush and Clinton, earning $47,920 a year. And she now earns $88,373 a year in a Pentagon public relations job, a position she got at the direction of the Clinton White House.

Marlin Fitzwater, who was Bush’s press secretary, said Tripp was a career government employee, one of a pool who routinely perform clerical duties in every White House where needed. She was not a former Bush campaign worker, he said.

“I think motivation is not political here,” Fitzwater said of Tripp’s role in giving tapes to Starr. “Bennett called her a liar. That sounds like motivation to me.”

That reference was to a quotation from President Clinton’s personal attorney, Robert Bennett. Last August, he told Newsweek that Tripp “is not to be believed” concerning her statements then to the magazine.

Tripp told Newsweek that on Nov. 29, 1993, she saw White House volunteer Kathleen Willey, 51, leaving the Oval Office “disheveled. Her face was red and her lipstick was off.” Tripp said Willey told her Clinton had kissed and groped her, and that Willey had not objected.

At that time Tripp was executive assistant to White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, who did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. As Nussbaum’s secretary, Tripp brought Foster his lunch from the White House cafeteria on July 20, 1993.

About 1 p.m. that day, Foster came out of his office, told Tripp to help herself to some M&Ms on his lunch tray, and said, “I’ll be back.” Five hours later, his body was found at Fort Marcy Park beside the Potomac River. Several investigations all concluded he committed suicide with a gunshot to the brain.

In August 1995, Tripp testified before the Senate Whitewater committee about the belated discovery of a torn-up suicide note in Foster’s briefcase. She said she had exchanged e-mail with Foster’s secretary, Deborah Gorham, wondering why Nussbaum and other lawyers had not examined the note’s fragments until six days after Foster’s suicide. In one message, Tripp referred to Nussbaum and his aides as “the Three Stooges.”

Tripp began working at the Pentagon on Aug. 21, 1994, as a “political” employee at the direction of the White House. Neither the White House press office nor counsel’s office would comment about Tripp Wednesday.

Her job is to cultivate support for the military among community leaders around the country. She often takes as many as 60 at a time on extensive tours of military bases. Co-workers described Tripp as serious and disciplined.

Tripp became a mentor to Lewinsky after the young woman became personal assistant to Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon.

Lewinsky sought out Tripp’s career advice, and the two often talked during smoke breaks. “She was just asking for advice, kind of like motherly advice,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Scott Campbell said of Lewinsky. Campbell worked with Tripp until last August.

Two congressional staffers who asked not to be named said Tripp had provided information to the Senate committee that investigated Democratic fund-raising practices last year, and described her as “strange” and “eccentric.”