Hillary Rodham Clinton

Linda Tripp - coerce, intimidate, deny - Bob Bennett calls her a liar, release her job application, transfer her.

Linda Tripp - death threats, Pentagon information to New Yorker

In a 6/29/98 Washington Weekly exclusive by Wesley Phelan: "Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch on Friday, June 26, deposed J. Lowe Davis, to whom New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer attributed information about a 1969 arrest of Linda Tripp. J. Lowe Davis admits telling Mayer that her former husband and Linda Tripp's father, Albert Caretenuto, had once bailed Linda Tripp out of jail. But Davis claims not to be the source of other quotes attributed to her by Mayer. " Also in the interview, Klayman said that the documents obtained from Carville (Education and Information Project) indicate that the information comes from many sources and that if the information sent to him from the White House comes from identifiable files of the White House, it may constitute a violation of the Privacy Act which may have both civil and criminal remedies. Klayman also said that the smear campaign used a Washington Post editor William Hamilton who is the husband of Jane Mayer who is a former colleague of Sidney Blumenthal. In deposition, Ms Davis remembered little more than her former husband and Tripp's father once bailed Linda out of jail. Many of the quotes in Mayer's second article did not come from Davis. And, the Tony Snow article raised the question of whether the source of the form: Pentagon or White House.

7/6/98 Washington Weekly Marvin Lee "Terry Good, head of the White House Office of Records Management last week admitted that he had been ordered by the White House Counsel to pull the file of Linda Tripp after the Lewinsky story broke in January. The admission was made under oath during a deposition by Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch. "There appears to be a concerted effort by the Clinton administration to use government files to harm and intimidate perceived grand jury witnesses," stated Larry Klayman. The files of Kathleen Willey and Monica Lewinsky were pulled as well."

7/7/98 Landmark Legal Foundation president, Mark R. Levin: ".The point is, if Maryland courts are not willing to recognize a violation of this law in a civil case without a showing of actual intent, they certainly won't recognize it in a criminal case where the standard is far more stringent. Levin added, "This raises serious questions about the timing and motives behind Mr. Montanarelli's actions - on the same day Tripp is testifying before a federal grand jury. Federal investigators need to determine if Mr. Montanarelli's announcement today is intended to influence or intimidate Tripp. "

7/8/98 The Dodge County News Ken Carroll "Jane Mayer's story on Linda Tripp has fallen apart. The timing was far too convenient and it was never well-constructed anyway. .So, how did Ms. Mayer get the scoop on this long forgotten incident? Good question. In fact, it's such a good question, there are two answers! Ms. Mayer's original statement was that Tripp's former step-mother contacted her with the information. Mayer claims she then checked it out and used it in her story. Ah, but not so, says Tripp's former step-mother, a liberal newspaper columnist based in Pensacola, Florida. She says Mayer called her up and asked her comment on the arrest story. Mayer also claimed to have gotten other information in her story from Tripp's personnel records Yet the language in one doesn't square in the other. So, there are two important questions here if we think for ourselves: 1) Where DID the story idea come from, and 2) Why did Mayer lie about the origin of her information? .it seems the information may have come straight out of Bill Clinton's Office of the White House Counsel. .in another story, reported in The Washington Weekly.Terry Good, the head of the White House Office of Records Management has admitted under oath that he complied with orders from the office of the White House counsel and pulled Linda Tripp's personnel file.Larry Klayman, of Judicial Watch, was quoted by The Washington Weekly as stating, "There appears to be a concerted effort by the Clinton Administration to use government files to harm and intimidate perceived grand jury witnesses." Files on Monica Lewinski and Kathleen Willey were also pulled. ."

Maryland State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli opened a grand jury probe into whether Tripp broke Maryland law barring taped phone calls unless both parties consent. But his job description is to root out corruption by public officials. Tripp is not a Maryland public official.

7/11/98 Washington Post Bill Miller "A federal judge yesterday ordered the Defense Department to seize and examine the computer of a Pentagon official who has admitted releasing sensitive information contained on Linda R. Tripp's security clearance form. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said he acted because the official, Clifford Bernath, deleted numerous documents from his computer

7/17/98 Washington Times Bill Sammon "White House officials searched their files for "anything and everything" on Linda R. Tripp after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, but President Clinton refused to reveal that search to Congress, The Washington Times has learned. Thursday, the chairman of the House Rules Committee referred "this potential obstruction of a Congressional investigation" to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon suspects the White House, after searching its files on Mrs. Tripp, tipped off the New Yorker magazine to damaging information in Mrs. Tripp's personnel file at the Pentagon. "In the Linda Tripp matter, we may be previewing the extent of damage the president's political team is capable of, and apparently intent upon, inflicting," Mr. Solomon wrote to Mr. Starr, adding that it amounted to "intimidation of a federal witness." Days after the New Yorker published sensitive information from Mrs. Tripp's security clearance form in March, Mr. Solomon -- in an attempt to determine if the Tripp leak violated federal law -- asked Mr. Clinton in a letter whether anyone had pulled Mrs. Tripp's White House file, which he said would have contained her security clearance information.. "Because of the seriousness of this unfortunate and illegal occurrence, I look forward to the courtesy of a rapid response," the New York Republican wrote in the letter, dated March 18. According to a Solomon spokesman, Mr. Clinton did not respond. But the answer was revealed June 30 by Terry W. Good, director of White House records management. In a deposition to Judicial Watch.

8/1/98 The New York Post Brian Blomquist and Marilyn Rauber "Linda Tripp has testified a top Clinton aide threatened to "destroy" her and that Monica Lewinsky passed along veiled threats from the president himself, a source close to Tripp said yesterday. Tripp also told the Sexgate grand jury Lewinsky ominously warned her the president "was aware" of Tripp after she surfaced in last summer's bombshell Newsweek article on Willey, the source said."

7/30/98 US Information Agency - Washington File Pentagon Briefing 7/30/98 Deputy Defense Department Spokesman Captain Mike Doubleday briefed. Following is the Pentagon transcript: Q: Do you have a response of Linda Tripp's statement that she's been demoted and cast aside by the Pentagon? A: I have just a few things that I can pass along to you on that subject. First of all, she has not been demoted. Linda Tripp continues as an employee of the department. At her request, we made special arrangements for her to work at home, and those arrangements will be reviewed at some appropriate time. Q: Can you say how many hours a week she puts in at her job? And does the pay scale reflect... A: No, what I've just gone through for you right now is the extent of what I can give you today. Yes. Q: Can you go a little deeper into some appropriate time? My recollection is that this arrangement allowed her to prepare for her testimony, which is over. So is there going to be a review very shortly to find some other arrangement? A: I can't forecast for you any kind of a time table. As soon as I have any information, I'll be glad to pass it along. Q: During all this time has she produced some work product?A: I think I've indicated what I've given you here is the extent of what I can provide for you. Q: Is Ken Bacon the one who has to make the decisions on her future or is it someone else? A: I can't answer that question for you. But when I can I'll certainly do so. ."

Wall Street Journal 9/2/98 Op Ed "The vast power prosecutors wield--from Kenneth Starr on down--indeed merits scrutiny, so how is it that Stephen Montanarelli, the Maryland state prosecutor who seems bent on indicting Linda Tripp, has been virtually ignored? Mr. Montanarelli runs an independent office charged with prosecuting public officials, a role similar to Judge Starr's. It's his job to see if Linda Tripp violated Maryland's law against taping without consent.Mr. Montanarelli denies that he's under political pressure, but acknowledges his timing on calling a grand jury was inappropriate. GOP State Rep. Robert Flanigan says the move "certainly created the impression he was trying to intimidate her." Mr. Flanigan says there has been a "comprehensive effort" to urge a prosecution, including a January letter signed by 49 Democratic members of the Maryland House.Obviously Mr. Montanarelli must follow the law. But his track record doesn't inspire confidence. In 1995, he refused to prosecute a county election commissioner for nepotism because he ruled the person wasn't a "public official." Somehow, Ms. Tripp, a Pentagon employee, qualifies as one. Should Mr. Montanarelli proceed with a dubious prosecution, his own clear standing as a public official should qualify him, as it does Judge Starr, for a measure of scrutiny."

Investor's Business Daily 10/2/98 Editorial "Just the phrase ''secret police'' calls up images of the Gestapo or KGB. Now, says President Clinton's former adviser, Dick Morris, it turns out White House allies have used private detectives to threaten women who dallied with the president. Buried in the next document dump from Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation is testimony from Morris before the grand jury that friends of Bill had mounted a ''secret police operation to go around and intimidate women.''… Also buried in the document dump, according to sources who have seen it, is a tape-recorded statement from Lewinsky to Tripp: ''I wouldn't cross these people for fear of my life.''."

Pittsburg Tribune-Review 1/28/99 Bill Sammon (Washington Times) Freeper Cincinatus ".Linda Tripp says she was warned by President Clinton's closest confidant, Bruce Lindsey, that she would "be destroyed" for raising questions about scandals she witnessed in the White House. "He said: `Talk like that will get you destroyed,'" Tripp said last Friday in a deposition to Judicial Watch, a legal watchdog group. "`You will be destroyed.' He said it with a smile." Lindsey, deputy White House counsel, did not return phone calls seeking comment. James Kennedy, spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, declined to comment. Tripp said the conversation took place around December 1993 when she was executive assistant to White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum. She said she shared with Lindsey her concerns about a variety of sensitive subjects, including Filegate, Travelgate, White House volunteer Kathleen Willey and the handling of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster Jr.'s suicide.."I didn't think Bruce Lindsey was going to come at me with an Uzi," she said. "I felt that my professional future was at stake and that I would most likely lose in any protracted battle. I would be the loser. "I also felt, frankly, that perhaps an accident would befall me and - and I'm not overdramatizing." ."

Washington Weekly Carl Limbacher 8/3/98 on Linda Tripp who said "."As a result of trying to earn a living, I became aware between 1993 and 1997 of actions by high government officials that may have been against the law. For that period of nearly five years, the things I witnessed concerning several different subjects made me increasingly fearful that this information was dangerous, very dangerous, to possess." Just what kind of danger was Ms. Tripp talking about? As a political appointee, no doubt her honest testimony about "several different subjects" could be hazardous to her career. But Tripp had other reasons to be concerned - as the press has known for months. Still, journalists have refused to report on the subject in any way that might cause appropriate alarm. During a May 26 appearance on Larry King Live, Tripp's lawyer, Anthony Zaccagnini, was asked why Tripp was sequestered in an FBI "safe house" early on in the Lewinsky investigation. Zaccagnini replied: "Linda Tripp was the subject of a lot of press scrutiny and there were some threats made against her life." For that reason, he said, the FBI in conjunction with Starr's office "decided to move her to a secure location." Later on in the King interview, Zaccagnini said that Tripp feared losing her job and felt threatened by another "danger" that he was not at liberty to discuss. The day after Tripp's attorney revealed the stunning news that Ken Starr's key cooperating witness had been the target of death threats, not a single American news outlet dared report the story. Only the British wire service Reuters carried the news. Their headline, "Linda Tripp faced death threats, lawyer says" made it hard to miss this bombshell, but somehow our media managed the trick. What's worse, this wasn't the first indication that Tripp may have been the target of a White House campaign to intimidate her through threats of physical violence. In their March 23 issue, Newsweek buried."

NewsMax.com 10/8/98 Christopher Ruddy "Linda Tripp told Starr's grand jury this summer that she had significant reasons to question official claims about former White House Vincent Foster's July, 1993 "suicide." Tripp, one of Foster's secretaries, and among the last people known to have seen Foster alive, told the grand jury she knows that top White House officials committed perjury in their accounts of Foster's death. Tripp indicated to the grand jury Foster's death was only one reason she feared for her life as she gained knowledge of Monica Lewinsky's affair with President Clinton."

Freeper aka 12/15/98 on FoxNews ".Hannity and Combs with Larry Klayman. Tripp says she recieved letter from Monica with list of deaths connected to Clinton! They got the list! This is a list which Monica provided to Linda Tripp with the comment that it was interesting or something to think about. I don't quite remember but it is there at the Judicial Watch website for your consideration. It is in the TRIPP deposition for Judicial Watch which was released today. The implication is that Monica was warning Linda that she had better play ball. The list was not in MONICA'S handwriting. There is no way that this was released by the whitehouse that early or with any deep game being played. It would be sheer intimidation of a witness..."

Washington Times Inside Politics 4/12/99 Greg Pierce "..."Thanks to a suspicious federal judge and a conservative watchdog group, Bacon and others have to provide documents explaining their roles in releasing sensitive information on Tripp's security clearance form -- a potential violation of the Privacy Act. The info led to a news report about Tripp's arrest as a teen and furthered her reputation as Monica Lewinsky's betrayer," Mr. Bedard observed. "Judge Royce Lamberth, agreeing with Judicial Watch Inc.'s demands for more documents, says in a ruling that there's something fishy about efforts by the Pentagon to hide political appointee Bacon's role in getting the information out. 'The issue becomes whether the inference should be drawn that the motivation for this cover-up was not only to protect this particular political appointee but rather the Clinton administration itself,' says Lamberth." ...."

Capitol Hill Blue 6/9/99 "...She says that Bruce Lindsey told her she would be destroyed if she disclosed Clinton's misconduct..... Monica Lewinsky warned her it was dangerous to talk to reporters and reminded her she had two children to think about. And the Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon attempted to damage her credibility by improperly authorizing the release of information from her personnel record...... Defense Secretary Cohen, who had earlier said that such conduct should be a firing offense, laid the blame during a TV interview on a career employee. In a deposition in a Judicial Watch lawsuit, Bacon said he had confessed to Cohen that he had ordered the improper disclosure, contrary to privacy laws. Cohen has not corrected the record. The career employee has since been promoted and no action was taken against Bacon, who absolved the White House of any role in the disclosure. Tripp has become the prime target for vilification, although her chief "crime" was reporting wrongdoing in the upper reaches of government. She has testified to seeing stacks of raw FBI personnel files improperly kept in the White House, the first lady's alleged hand in the firing of the White House travel staff, as well as the Monica Lewinsky affair. She has also testified that she found on her office chair a list of dead persons connected to the Clinton administration and a hand written, anonymous note saying: "Linda, Just thought you might find this of interest!" VULNERABILITY: Tripp was a single mother of two who depended on her job for their livelihood...."

www.judicialwatch.org 7/29/99 98-1991 (WBB) Browning v Clinton Motion "...Plaintiffs seek to question Ms. Tripp about the threats she stated she received from the White House via Monica Lewinsky just prior to her testimony in the Jones case, and via Bruce Lindsey after she raised concerns with him about certain activities in the White House Counsel's Office. Ms. Tripp was an employee in the White House Counsel's Office before being removed by the Clinton Administration to the Pentagon. Ms. Tripp told NBC's Today Show's Jamie Gangel that her fear of Clinton stems from a meeting she heard Clinton had about her in July 1997. She also said that Clinton called Lewinsky the night of July 14, 1997 to ensure that Tripp had become "a team player," and would lie for him in the Jones case. Tripp stated that she was afraid for her livelihood, and because of threats that had been made to her life and the lives of her children. Gangel asked if she believed Clinton was threatening her life, and Tripp replied: I believe that that was the message I was supposed to receive. Be a team player or else. . . . If you don't lie, you are being set up for perjury and jail. And who will believe you? You will lose your job and worse. That's what I was facing." Further, Ms. Tripp recently testified in a proceeding before this Court that Monica Lewinsky twice left on her office chair a list of people around Clinton who had died mysteriously. She stated under oath that both times she believed it was an attempt by Clinton to influence her testimony with regard to Kathleen Willey, and she took it as a serious threat. Importantly, Tripp also testified about a threat she received directly from Lindsey when she told him of her concern "that enemies [of the Clinton Administration], real or perceived, were in danger of information coming out [on them] in one way or another by the [A]dministration. Tripp testified that at the end of the conversation Lindsey said to her "talk like that will get you destroyed. You will be destroyed. He said it with a smile." Tripp stated that this scared her and she feared that "perhaps an accident would befall [her]."..."