Linda Tripp

Linda Tripp (born Linda Rose Carotenuto on November 24, 1949 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American woman who was a central figure in the Lewinsky scandal of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton.

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Despite their age difference of 24 years, Tripp became Monica Lewinsky's close confidante at the government office in Washington, D.C. where they both worked. After Lewinsky revealed to Tripp that she had had a physical relationship with President Clinton, Tripp began to secretly record her phone conversations with Lewinsky while encouraging Lewinsky to document details of the relationship.

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Tripp then gave these tapes to then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, who launched an investigation into the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship, looking for potential incidents of perjury based on Clinton's testimony in the lawsuit Paula Jones had brought against Clinton.

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While Tripp maintains she acted out of "patriotic duty," many 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 up to this time. At the time of the Lewinsky scandal, Tripp lived in Columbia, Maryland. She has since moved to Northern Virginia, had extensive plastic surgery, married German architect Dieter Rausch (a longtime sweetheart) in 2004, and with her husband opened a year-round Christmas shop, called the Christmas Sleigh, in Middleburg, Virginia. She is also a breast cancer survivor. She won a large amount of money in court from the U.S. Government for releasing her personnel records to the media during the Monica Lewinsky controversy, in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.

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Tripp was portrayed by John Goodman in recurring Saturday Night Live sketches.

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Linda Tripp was also previously involved in leaking information about an affair between former President George H. W. Bush (41) and a staffer named Jennifer Fitzgerald. It is claimed that this is why she was not rehired to her old White House position despite calls from many conservatives for Bush's son, President George W. Bush, to do so.

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November 24: November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar....

1949: 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday....

Jersey City, New Jersey: Jersey City is a city located in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 240,055, making it New Jersey's second-largest city. It is the county seat of Hudson County....

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