Lewinsky later told Starr's investigators that Tripp, appearing not to know that Lewinsky had had a relationship with the President, urged her to try to get back to the White House and told her ``an affair with the President would be a neat thing to tell the grandkids.''
According to memos kept by Starr's investigators of their interrogation of Lewinsky, sometime in November 1996 ``Tripp kept hounding Lewinsky until Lewinsky finally said, `Look, I've already had an affair with him and it's over.' ''
In September 1997, Tripp phoned Goldberg and said, ``I have this extraordinary story.'' For 2 1/2 hours, Goldberg recorded it. (Asked this week if Tripp was aware she was being taped, Goldberg replied: ``She is now.'' Such taping is legal in New York.)
Tripp was in a jam, she told Goldberg. She had already irritated Clinton's lawyer, Robert Bennett, by confirming for Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff in August 1997 that a White House colleague, Kathleen Willey, had once emerged disheveled from the Oval Office in ways that suggested a sexual encounter. ``Linda Tripp is not to be believed,'' Bennett responded.
Now, Tripp told Goldberg, she expected to be subpoenaed in Paula Jones' sexual-harassment civil suit against Clinton. Lewinsky and Clinton had devised cover stories to hide their liaisons, Tripp told Goldberg, and she wanted to tell the truth without jeopardizing her $88,000-a-year political appointment at the Pentagon.
Goldberg advised Tripp to prepare to go public and to secretly record her conversations to prove her allegations. Although Lewinsky told Starr's investigators that Tripp had threatened to write a ``tell-all book'' if forced out of her job, Goldberg said she and Tripp never discussed one after their first try failed.
