Linda Tripp is a former White House secretary who came to epitomize the self-righteous tattle-tale, threw herself into the middle of the Clinton investigation by secretly taping revealing conversations with one-time friend Monica Lewinsky. With school-girl breathiness, Lewinsky confided the details of her affair with President Clinton, providing Tripp with 20 hours of recorded evidence. The legality of and motives behind Tripp’s actions became new material for investigation.
Linda Tripp has reinvented herself—literally. Her $30,000 makeover (financed by an anonymous “philanthropist”) included a face- and eye-lift, a nose and chin job, and neck liposuction, all performed by Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Keyes.
She also sought the services of celebrity stylist Yuki Sharoni, who sheared her long, tacky locks and transformed them into a conservative layered bob.
In May, Maryland state prosecutors dropped illegal wiretap charges against Tripp. She was indicted for recording a December 22, 1997, phone call with Lewinsky and for illegally revealing its contents to the magazine Newsweek in January 1998. Maryland law forbids recording phone conversations without the permission of both parties. Under the state law, an individual can only be prosecuted for wiretapping if they are aware of the law.
She has returned to her post in Arlington, Virginia, as a public-affair specialist at the Defense Manpower Center.
She reportedly battled breast cancer and is to wed her “childhood sweetheart” in spring 2004.
Reader Mimi Adams updates us that in late 2003 she was settled a lawsuit against the US Defense Department and the US Goverment in which she claimed various privacy violations. She will receive $595K USD courtesy of the American taxpayer.
