Salon Newsreal | Stalking the president

A L S O+T O D A Y

The tide turns -- again
By Joshua Micah Marshall
A week into the impeachment trial, Senate Republicans may be looking for a way out that doesn't embarrass their colleagues in the House

Reactions to the president's speech
Experts discuss Clinton's performance and what effects his proposals would have on the actual problems he identified as priorities

T A B L E+T A L K
What medicines do you take? Discuss the meaning of your medicine chest in the Science and Health area of Table Talk
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Visit barnesandnoble.com for politics books on both sides of the aisle
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R E C E N T L Y
The war against sprawl, I
By Rob Gurwitt
Think Al Gore's "smart growth" plan is a no-brainer? Think again
(01/21/99)
The war against sprawl, II
By Susan Zakin
It's owls against developers in Arizona's Oro Valley
(01/21/99)
We interrupt this impeachment ...
By Joshua Micah Marshall
Two years in a row, Clinton's State of the Union address proves he won't follow the Presidential Tragedy script
(01/20/99)
Dear Henry
By Sean Wilentz, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and C. Vann Woodward
Historians talk back to House impeachment managers
(01/20/99)
What might have been
By Joan Walsh
It's hard to watch this president perform so well, knowing that he has already undermined his -- and our -- hopes for any real legislative success
(01/20/99)
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STALKING THE PRESIDENT | PAGE 1, 2
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Tripp wasn't the only person to whom Willey gave a happy description of her meeting with Clinton. The Boston Globe reports that Willey, in a cell-phone call the same day, also told fellow Social Office volunteer Harolyn Cardozo that she was "pleased and anxious to see the president as much as she could," and was "actively plotting over the phone about how she could find ways to see him, including ways of obtaining Mrs. Clinton's schedule in order to learn when she would be away from Washington." Cardozo quoted Willey as saying "that if she played her cards right, she could be the Judith Campbell Exner of the 1990s," a JFK-era reference.
Tripp and Willey continued to have frequent phone conversations following the suicide, and "Willey continued to verbalize the desire" to have a relationship with Clinton, "almost obsessively," testified Tripp, as well as to discuss her financial status and her late husband's will. In December, Tripp helped Willey get a job in the White House counsel's office that lasted until October 1994. When Tripp moved to the Pentagon in August 1994, their friendship ended.
Three years later, in March 1997, Newsweek's Isikoff tracked Tripp down at her job in the Pentagon and asked about Willey's encounter with Clinton. Tripp told Isikoff "that whatever happened was not sexual harassment." When she called Willey to protest that Willey had Isikoff call her, Willey told her, according to Tripp, that she "had a faulty memory and that the incident with the president was clearly sexual harassment." Tripp phoned Clinton lawyer Bruce Lindsey about the Newsweek encounter and told him that Willey had "aggressively" pushed for an affair with the president, and that she and Willey had continued to discuss locations for a possible rendezvous spot. Lindsey and Isikoff believe Willey was mentally unstable, testified Tripp, and she said she described Willey to Lindsey as "used, abused and penniless."
In a "60 Minutes" interview in March 1998, Willey grimly went public with her charges against Clinton. The White House countered with the release of numerous warm, laudatory and respectful notes Willey sent to Clinton both before and after the alleged groping, her only meeting with Clinton.
Willey herself originally fought to stay out of the Paula Jones case, but she was subpoenaed, she testified and she's now cooperating with Starr in his investigation of Clinton. Starr has given her limited immunity from prosecution, which may allow her to continue protecting her late husband's assets from seizure by his creditors, including more than $500,000 in tax liens.
U.S. News and World Report revealed last March that Ed Willey had admitted to his wife and two grown children that the Virginia Bar was investigating him just before committing suicide in November 1993. Kathleen Willey's lawyer then used complicated legal moves to put most of her assets into her two children's names, including, according to U.S. News, "the bulk of a $1 million life insurance policy settlement on Ed Willey." The magazine reported that Willey's children send her monthly support checks of up to $4,500, and she works occasionally at a bakery and as receptionist in a hair salon.
During last month's House impeachment hearings, there were reports that Starr would add the Willey charges of sexual harassment to his referral against Clinton. Steele's lawyer, Nancy Luque, says that "Starr was squeezing Julie mercilessly during that time, threatening to indict her if she wouldn't change her story to conform with Willey's. And Julie would not. That's why Republicans were unable to make those charges at that time." If tried and convicted, Steele could be imprisoned for 35 years and fined $1 million.
For what it's worth, Tripp backs Steele's denial that Willey ever told her about harassment by Clinton. Tripp passionately attacked Willey's story, including her attempt to use Steele to corroborate it, in a taped conversation with Lewinsky on Oct. 19, 1997 . "I fought [Isikoff] on that tooth and nail and said, '[Willey's] lying. You'd better be careful what you print because she's lying.'" Isikoff asked Tripp if Willey was lying about Steele's corroboration, and she replied: 'If [Willey] said it happened that night, and that this story was given to [Steele] that night, I promise you that's a lie. Her version has been she went home to Richmond and immediately either went to see or called [Steele] ... and she didn't."
Whatever her motives, Tripp has found a way to be at the center of every major Clinton White House scandal, though usually she is making charges that are harmful to the administration. Her taped recordings of her young "friend" Lewinsky led directly to Starr's charges of impeachable offenses against Clinton. She was the only Clinton employee to testify that Maggie Williams removed files from Vincent Foster's office the night he committed suicide. She has alleged wrongdoing by Clinton employees in the FBI "filegate" controversy. A former Bush employee who was urged by the incoming Clinton people to stay on, Tripp has repeatedly acted more as a Republican mole. Her best friends in the Bush administration were Tony Snow, now a conservative journalist and Clinton detractor, and Gary Aldrich, a former White House Secret Service agent who wrote a tell-all book about the Clinton White House that has been discredited. Snow introduced Tripp to Lucianne Goldberg earlier in the administration because Tripp was thinking about writing a book even then.
Democrats say that if Republicans insist on calling witnesses in the Senate trial, they will call Tripp, Starr and others whom Republicans would rather the country not hear from again. Of course, Tripp could also be a witness in Starr's prosecution of Julie Hiatt Steele -- for the defense. Says Nancy Luque: "My star witness on Julie's behalf in this case may be Linda Tripp, of all people!"
SALON | Jan. 22, 1999
Mollie Dickenson is a frequent contributor to Salon magazine and has written for the Miami Herald, New York Times, Washington Post and Worth magazine. She is the author of the biography of White House Press Secretary Jim Brady, "Thumbs Up."

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A L S O+T O D A Y The tide turns -- again By Joshua Micah Marshall A week into the impeachment trial, Senate Republicans may be looking for a way out that doesn't embarrass their colleagues in the House Reactions to the president's speech Experts discuss Clinton's performance and what effects his proposals would have on the actual problems he identified as priorities T A B L E+T A L K What medicines do you take? Discuss the meaning of your medicine chest in the Science and Health area of Table Talk ___________________ Visit barnesandnoble.com for politics books on both sides of the aisle ___________________ R E C E N T L Y The war against sprawl, I By Rob Gurwitt Think Al Gore's "smart growth" plan is a no-brainer? Think again (01/21/99) The war against sprawl, II By Susan Zakin It's owls against developers in Arizona's Oro Valley (01/21/99) We interrupt this impeachment ... By Joshua Micah Marshall Two years in a row, Clinton's State of the Union address proves he won't follow the Presidential Tragedy script (01/20/99) Dear Henry By Sean Wilentz, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and C. Vann Woodward Historians talk back to House impeachment managers (01/20/99) What might have been By Joan Walsh It's hard to watch this president perform so well, knowing that he has already undermined his -- and our -- hopes for any real legislative success (01/20/99) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		STALKING THE PRESIDENT \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - Tripp wasn't the only person to whom Willey gave a happy description of her meeting with Clinton. The Boston Globe reports that Willey, in a cell-phone call the same day, also told fellow Social Office volunteer Harolyn Cardozo that she was "pleased and anxious to see the president as much as she could," and was "actively plotting over the phone about how she could find ways to see him, including ways of obtaining Mrs. Clinton's schedule in order to learn when she would be away from Washington." Cardozo quoted Willey as saying "that if she played her cards right, she could be the Judith Campbell Exner of the 1990s," a JFK-era reference. Tripp and Willey continued to have frequent phone conversations following the suicide, and "Willey continued to verbalize the desire" to have a relationship with Clinton, "almost obsessively," testified Tripp, as well as to discuss her financial status and her late husband's will. In December, Tripp helped Willey get a job in the White House counsel's office that lasted until October 1994. When Tripp moved to the Pentagon in August 1994, their friendship ended. Three years later, in March 1997, Newsweek's Isikoff tracked Tripp down at her job in the Pentagon and asked about Willey's encounter with Clinton. Tripp told Isikoff "that whatever happened was not sexual harassment." When she called Willey to protest that Willey had Isikoff call her, Willey told her, according to Tripp, that she "had a faulty memory and that the incident with the president was clearly sexual harassment." Tripp phoned Clinton lawyer Bruce Lindsey about the Newsweek encounter and told him that Willey had "aggressively" pushed for an affair with the president, and that she and Willey had continued to discuss locations for a possible rendezvous spot. Lindsey and Isikoff believe Willey was mentally unstable, testified Tripp, and she said she described Willey to Lindsey as "used, abused and penniless." In a "60 Minutes" interview in March 1998, Willey grimly went public with her charges against Clinton. The White House countered with the release of numerous warm, laudatory and respectful notes Willey sent to Clinton both before and after the alleged groping, her only meeting with Clinton. Willey herself originally fought to stay out of the Paula Jones case, but she was subpoenaed, she testified and she's now cooperating with Starr in his investigation of Clinton. Starr has given her limited immunity from prosecution, which may allow her to continue protecting her late husband's assets from seizure by his creditors, including more than $500,000 in tax liens. U.S. News and World Report revealed last March that Ed Willey had admitted to his wife and two grown children that the Virginia Bar was investigating him just before committing suicide in November 1993. Kathleen Willey's lawyer then used complicated legal moves to put most of her assets into her two children's names, including, according to U.S. News, "the bulk of a $1 million life insurance policy settlement on Ed Willey." The magazine reported that Willey's children send her monthly support checks of up to $4,500, and she works occasionally at a bakery and as receptionist in a hair salon. During last month's House impeachment hearings, there were reports that Starr would add the Willey charges of sexual harassment to his referral against Clinton. Steele's lawyer, Nancy Luque, says that "Starr was squeezing Julie mercilessly during that time, threatening to indict her if she wouldn't change her story to conform with Willey's. And Julie would not. That's why Republicans were unable to make those charges at that time." If tried and convicted, Steele could be imprisoned for 35 years and fined $1 million. For what it's worth, Tripp backs Steele's denial that Willey ever told her about harassment by Clinton. Tripp passionately attacked Willey's story, including her attempt to use Steele to corroborate it, in a taped conversation with Lewinsky on Oct. 19, 1997 . "I fought [Isikoff] on that tooth and nail and said, '[Willey's] lying. You'd better be careful what you print because she's lying.'" Isikoff asked Tripp if Willey was lying about Steele's corroboration, and she replied: 'If [Willey] said it happened that night, and that this story was given to [Steele] that night, I promise you that's a lie. Her version has been she went home to Richmond and immediately either went to see or called [Steele] ... and she didn't." Whatever her motives, Tripp has found a way to be at the center of every major Clinton White House scandal, though usually she is making charges that are harmful to the administration. Her taped recordings of her young "friend" Lewinsky led directly to Starr's charges of impeachable offenses against Clinton. She was the only Clinton employee to testify that Maggie Williams removed files from Vincent Foster's office the night he committed suicide. She has alleged wrongdoing by Clinton employees in the FBI "filegate" controversy. A former Bush employee who was urged by the incoming Clinton people to stay on, Tripp has repeatedly acted more as a Republican mole. Her best friends in the Bush administration were Tony Snow, now a conservative journalist and Clinton detractor, and Gary Aldrich, a former White House Secret Service agent who wrote a tell-all book about the Clinton White House that has been discredited. Snow introduced Tripp to Lucianne Goldberg earlier in the administration because Tripp was thinking about writing a book even then. Democrats say that if Republicans insist on calling witnesses in the Senate trial, they will call Tripp, Starr and others whom Republicans would rather the country not hear from again. Of course, Tripp could also be a witness in Starr's prosecution of Julie Hiatt Steele -- for the defense. Says Nancy Luque: "My star witness on Julie's behalf in this case may be Linda Tripp, of all people!" SALON \| Jan. 22, 1999 Mollie Dickenson is a frequent contributor to Salon magazine and has written for the Miami Herald, New York Times, Washington Post and Worth magazine. She is the author of the biography of White House Press Secretary Jim Brady, "Thumbs Up." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.