Clinton Whistleblower Linda Tripp Dead At 70

Updated ·2 min read

Linda Tripp, whose recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998, has died at age 70.

Tripp’s former lawyer Joseph Murtha confirmed her death to The New York Times. Details regarding her cause of death weren’t immediately available but family members confirmed it was not related to the coronavirus.

“My mommy is leaving this earth. I don’t know myself if I can survive this heartache,” Tripp’s daughter, Allison Tripp Foley, wrote on Facebook Tuesday. “Please pray for a painless process for the strongest woman I will ever know in my entire lifetime, Linda Rausch.”

In 1998, Tripp, then a mid-level federal civil servant, provided recordings of conversations she’d had with Monica Lewinsky regarding Lewinsky’s affair with Clinton to Independent Counsel Ken Starr. Tripp’s recordings directly contradicted sworn testimony from Clinton in which he denied having had an inappropriate relationship.

After hearing news of Tripp’s illness Wednesday, Lewinsky said she was hoping for her recovery:

After years of keeping a low profile, Tripp spoke out in 2018, defending whistleblowers as an essential check on “perjury and obstruction of justice” in a speech on Capitol Hill.

“To those out there who say I did this for personal gain, I say, standing here 20 years later, what did I stand to gain then or now?” Tripp asked. “I stood to lose everything, and in fact, I did.”

“And yet, if I had to do it all over again, I would.”

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