Linda Tripp, the woman who taped conversations with a young White House intern and almost brought down an entire American presidency, is dead at age 70 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tripp's death was reported by The Daily Mail on Wednesday afternoon.
Tripp’s recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky during Bill Clinton’s second term became the basis on which Clinton became only the second American president to be impeached.
Lewinsky herself sent out a social media message earlier Wednesday:
According to the New York Post, Allison Tripp Foley posted a now-unavailable social media message late Tuesday, that her mother was near death.
Tripp's recorded conversations, which she turned over to then-independent Counsel Ken Starr, exposed Clinton's sexual relationship with Lewinsky, who was a White House intern at the time. In exchange for the tapes, Tripp received immunity from illegal-wiretapping charges.
Tripp also told Starr about a key piece of evidence, a semen-stained navy blue dress Lewinsky said she wore during a sex act. Lewinsky had shown Tripp the dress and she encouraged her to keep it and not have it dry cleaned.
Clinton's denial of the affair led to a perjury charge when the House impeached him in 1998. The Senate acquitted Clinton of all charges in 1999.
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