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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cody andre who wrote (37197)	3/7/1999 9:17:00 PM
From: JBL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

REUTERS: Unrepentant Tripp Strikes Back At Lewinsky Reuters 2.10 p.m. ET (1911 GMT) March 7, 1999 WASHINGTON — Monica Lewinsky's story of her relationship with President Clinton was "fiction, fable, fantasy, farce and fairy tale,'' Linda Tripp, the woman who befriended and betrayed the ex-White House intern, said Sunday. In her first interview since Lewinsky's televised appearances and book release last week, the Pentagon public affairs specialist also attacked first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton "was complicit in the time that I was there in virtually every scandal,'' Tripp said on the ABC program "This Week,'' adding that if the first lady ran for the Senate from New York "many things would be a problem once they surfaced.'' Tripp set off a massive scandal when she secretly taped Lewinsky's conversations about her affair with the president and turned the tapes over to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. After working in the White House for the Bush and Clinton administrations, Tripp was transferred to the Pentagon in 1994. She met Lewinsky when the intern was also transferred there. Lewinsky has been scathing in her criticism of Tripp, saying she felt her former confidant betrayed her. Sunday, Andrew Morton, author of Lewinsky's version of events "Monica's Story,'' said on NBC's "Meet the Press'' that the former intern viewed Tripp as "the devil incarnate.'' Tripp dismissed the book as the "romanticizing of a tawdry, abusive relationship.'' Tripp appeared unrepentant during the ABC interview, saying that she began taping only because Lewinsky was trying to convince her to file a false affidavit in the Paula Jones lawsuit. "It was only when I was being threatened and asked to commit a crime that I took what I considered to be proactive steps to arm myself with records,'' Tripp said. Tripp also denied Lewinsky's version of events when FBI agents working for Starr swooped down on the pair on Jan. 16, 1998 and questioned Lewinsky in a room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. "What I think is important to address is these ... allegations that the independent counsel in the form of prosecutors and FBI agents treated Monica in a horrible way,'' Tripp said, recalling events which she said she witnessed. ''That is so completely false.'' Lewinsky has said she felt abused and considered suicide during the confrontation. The Justice Department is investigating whether the conduct of Starr's office during the interview violated federal ethics rules for prosecutors. Tripp herself is under investigation for alleged improper wiretapping for making more than 20 tapes of her telephone conversations with Lewinsky. Taping without the other party's consent is illegal in Maryland, where Tripp lives. Lewinsky, in an interview with Time magazine, said that she hoped Morton's book about her did well. "I'm going to be criticized for saying this,'' Lewinsky told Time in its latest edition due out Monday "(but) I want my book to do well.'' Time estimated her legal bills at between $1.5 and $2 million and said the book could bring in $3 million. "I need to have the means to take care of myself for the next few years. Therapy is not cheap,'' Lewinsky added. A Time/CNN poll after Barbara Walters' television tell-all with Lewinsky Wednesday showed that 57 percent of those surveyed were less sympathetic to Lewinsky, while 23 percent were more sympathetic. And 70 percent found that she was more foolish than they had previously thought while 51 percent thought that she didn't mean her apology to the first lady and Chelsea Clinton. Fully 69 percent viewed her as an opportunist, according to the poll of 1,071 adults on March 4. The poll had a margin of error of three percent. In the interview with Time, Lewinsky seemed ambivalent about her affair with Clinton although the magazine reported that she had studied the autobiography of another of Clinton's lovers, Gennifer Flowers, to learn how to seduce him. "I feel horrible about what has happened,'' Lewinsky told the magazine. "There are some days that I regret ever having had this relationship begin, and there are some days that I just regret telling Linda Tripp,'' she said. And, she said, love affairs were likely out of the question for a while, at least. "It's going to take a very special, very strong person to step up to the plate, and I don't know if the things that I want in a man and in a relationship could be balanced by someone who could do that. But I hope so.''